Culture - Has MDMA been done an injustice by its association with the rave movement?

[PingoTango]

I was just now watching an interesting documentary about the origins of the rave scene, and the combined socio-cultural factors in the UK at the time that gave rise to this movement. It's very interesting and hosted on YouTube, and can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmCwiqa3Tro&feature=related

Anyway, as mentioned in said documentary, one of these factors was, undoubtedly, this relatively new substance which had landed on the shores of the UK from the US: 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine, called Ecstasy by those who truly know her. It is certain that, without this wonderful molecule and feelings of openness, empathy and unconditional love and acceptance it imparted upon the millions of ravers happy to experiment with it each weekend, the rave scene would never have reached the scale it did whilst retaining it's trouble-free vibe and going largely un-noticed by the authorities.

Until, that is, the press caught on...

MDMA became public enemy no.1 overnight, and Ecstasy became a household name - forever associated in the minds of the general public with this rave "nuiscance". Most uninformed people now view ecstacy as nothing more than a party drug, turning little Timmy and Jane from Sunday school's finest into sweaty, gurning, oversexed monsters, and killing the occasional straight A student for good measure, and are completely unaware of it's safety when taken in reasonable doses, and it's myriad of medical uses.

(this, as we all know, is largely down to public misinformation RE safety precautions to be taken whilst taking MDMA - see Leah Betts, and the lack of proper controls over the manufacture of this drug).

My question is this - has Ecstasy's relatively recent surge in popularity done it a disservice? If it had never caught on the way it did with the ravers of the late 80s/early 90s, and to a lesser extent, the disco heads and club kids of the 70s/80s, and had remained within the obscure realms of the academic and the psychonaut, would it now be taken more seriously as a drug with genuine therapeutic/medicinal/"non-recreational" (hate that term) uses? Would we now be seeing MDMA-containing anti anxiety meds available to the public?

Or am I just putting a little too much faith in human nature?

I dunno, it's late and my typist has run out of weed. Maybe we should both just hit the hay.

[tryptamaster]

I see wat you are saying, its a shame true medicines such as lsd, mushrooms, and mdma have been made illegal when they can do so much good. I think it is more the law makers fault than anytign because drugs like oxycontin, xanax, morphine, and amphetamines have all seen extenive abuse but still retain their status as medicines.

[RaverHippie]

reading that brought two thoughts: I wondered if one could say the same thing even more so with LSD and the counter cultural movements which enjoyed the use of that tryptamine oh so frequently (at least that's what I've been told).

Secondly, I doubt that MDMA would have ever reached that sort of public acceptance even if all negative publicity from its rave association had never existed. Especially after examining some of the societal moods and trends of the time, it seems like welcoming a new therapeutic way to cure things instead of welcoming a new corporate-driven treament to undergo constantly seems unlikely in that sort of atmosphere.

[Jatelka]

Please upload video to the archive PingoTango (if it's not there already)

[Panthers007]

Wow! This is the mother-load of speculation! But a valuable question not withstanding.

I sincerely doubt that, once this Genie was out of the bottle, MDMA could have remained obscure from public knowledge. It would have been nice if it had been shown around in ways other than some money-grubbing Texas bar-owner out to make a million dollars. It would have been nice if a press-conference was called and people were told the truth about what this is and what it does/can do. That people would be given an opportunity to try same under more controlled settings than what we now know as a "Rave."

In a perfect world this would have been possible. And it's effects on the culture be anticipated and welcomed. Like the landing of a flying-saucer with friendly aliens aboard bearing the cure for cancer. But if we take the two major elements involved - human greed and blind stupidity - the results we have today are about what we had coming. I'm not being anti-MDMA in saying this. Not at all. I'm being realistic. No one knows better than Bongo Research, Ltd. the mixture of heartbreak and utter anger that rippled through the serious research movement when MDMA was lumped into Schedule I in the Untied Snakes. Ripple is hardly the word. More like a wave from an asteroid crashing into the Atlantic and Pacific simultaneously. But this field of workers knew it was a matter of time before it happened. Several good years were gained to work with this molecule before "the fear" came down. Something that could cure post-traumatic stress disorder and put back together estranged family members would now get you five years in jail. But of course.

So could things have gone better if the Rave Scene wasn't seen? Maybe. But it's a moot point at best. This stuff is bad for the military-industrial complex. It could stop wars before they begin. Could allow mortal ideological enemies to see beyond their petty differences and work out resolutions that people could, quite literally, live with. Could have made eight years of a Bush presidency no more than an anxiety-attack one could have had. The Rave Scene was, and is, a minor player in the grand scheme of things. The very nature of the material precluded it's legality for very long.

[enquirewithin]

The Rave Scene was, and is, a minor player in the grand scheme of things. The very nature of the material precluded it's legality for very long.

Is not the same true of the 'Psychedelic Movement' (a more more major player) in the '60s and LSD?

[Panthers007]

Which aspect of the "Psychedelic Movement?" Someone taking LSD25 and looking into design flaws in new mental hospitals? Or a grandstanding egotistical hack-psychologist admonishing an entire generation to "Turn on. Tune in. Drop out?"

The psychedelic's used in the 1960's are rather hard to separate from all the social changes that occurred - in the minds of those who, to this day, hated the 1960's. Unfortunately these people are currently in power. That psychedelics made a profound impact during that decade alone, there wasn't really anything to compare to the Rave Scene. Except one major blowout called Woodstock.

[PingoTango]

I think it is worth remembering that the rave scene was a genuine cultural tidal wave in the UK, much moreso than in the US - it almost hard to believe now, just 20 years after it began to kick off, that illegal, ad-hoc parties being held in aircraft hangars and disused warehouses would attract upwards of 10,000 people - ten thousand, at an illegal free party!
The Castlemorton Common Free Festival was the peak of this - 40,000 ravers descending on Castlemorton Common for a week-long free party, which, for a good while, the authorities were powerless to control.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castlemorton_Common_Festival

This, obviously, attracted massive press coverage, all of it negative. In fact, the impact of this event was so huge it caused the UK government to introduce new laws (The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994), which gave police the right, amongst other things, to order anyone they suspected of heading to a rave to turn and head in the other direction immediately or face arrest, and gave them many, many more powers relating to unsupervised "intimate searches".

The problem is, ecstasy had been unheard of in the UK until it surfed this cultural tidal wave into all of the newspapers, TV shows and other press outlets - and we know how impartial the mainstream press can be when it comes to recreational drug use.

The more and more I think about this though, I suppose parallels can be drawn with the psychedelic movement in the US during the 1960s - the rave scene just seems so much more culturally significant to the UK than the hippie movement. I suppose you could say that the Castlemorton Common festival was the raver's Woodstock.

It just angers me to think that such a useful, life-changing, even life-saving chemical, has had it's name irreperably tarnished by a generation of naive drug users and a nation of well-meaning but clueless sheep, whose sole source of information on such matters is a media which, for a myriad of reasons, continues to bury it's head in the sand as to the real issues and risks associated with the recreational and non-recreational use of drugs, and prefers to concentrate on factually dubious sensationalism and scare-mongering. I suppose it all boils to down to newspaper sales.

Jatelka - will upload the documentary when I get a couple of spare minutes. Possibly later tonight.

Reputation Comments on this post:

good shit man