Ecstasy statistics

The primary source of information and statistics on teen Ecstasy use is the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Each year, the department conducts three major surveys and uses that statistical data to aid in setting U.S. national drug policy and also in determining how best to devote financial resources in order to target areas of greatest need. The first. Monitoring the Future (MTF) Survey, is conducted by the University of... 

Indeed, although high school teens did report higher rates of past month Ecstasy use in 2001 versus 2000, those rates were not as steep increases as in the preceding two years and the increases were not statistically significant. MDMA... 

In terms of the origin of ecstasy seizures reported ( mentioned ) by Member States, more than a third of the reporting countries (35%) continue to mention the Netherlands as the main source country (2003-05 period), followed by Belgium (9%). Europe as a whole accounts for 81 per cent of such mentions. There may be a statistical bias, however, as 60 per cent of the coun-... 

Initiation of ecstasy use has been rising since 1993, when there were 168,000 new users. There were 1.9 million initiates in 2000 and 1.8 million in 2001 (not a statistically significant decline). 

The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA), which is conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMH-SA), provides statistical data on illegal drug use in the United States. For the purpose of the survey, hallucinogenic drugs were defined to include lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), phencyclidine (PCP), psilocybin, peyote, and ecstasy. 

The vast majority of ecstasy consumed domestically is produced in Europe. It costs as little as 25 to 50 cents to manufacture an ecstasy tablet in Europe, but the street value of that same ecstasy tablet can be as high as 40, with a tablet typically selling for between 20 and 30. A limited number of ecstasy laboratories operate in the United States. Law enforcement seized 17 clandestine ecstasy laboratories in the United States in 2001 compared to 7 seized in 2000. United States Customs Service statistics show a dramatic increase in seiznres of MDMA tablets. In fiscal year 1997, approximately 400,000 MDMA tablets were seized, compared to approximately 7.2 milhon tablets seized in fiscal year 2001. On Inly 22,2000, approximately 2.1 milhon tablets worth an estimated 40 million were seized in Los Angeles. To date this is the largest seiznre of MDMA tablets in the United States. ... 

A study in 9 healthy subjects found that alcohol 0.8 g/kg increased the maximum plasma levels of a single 100-mg dose of ecstasy by 13%, with no change in AUC. The AUC and maximum plasma levels of alcohol were reduced by 9% and 15%, respectively, after ecstasy use. Another singledose study in 18 recreational users of ecstasy found a similar decrease in mean blood-alcohol levels and a small increase in ecstasy levels when the two drugs were given together, but the results were not statistically significant. ... 

The problem is that the nature of the condition - what actually happened - is not a matter of just how many Mods wrecked how many deck-chairs with what cost, nor how many 14-year-old girls became ill after taking which number of ecstasy tablets in what night club. Questions of symbolism, emotion and representation cannot be translated into comparable sets of statistics. Qualitative terms like appropriateness convey the nuances of moral judgement more accurately than the (implied) quantitative measure of disproportionate - but the more they do so, the more obviously they are socially constructed. 

Palhol, E, Lamoureux, C., Chabrillat, M., Naulet, N. (2004) N/ N isotopic ratio and statistical analysis an efficient way of linking seized Ecstasy tablets. Anal. Chim. Acta, 510,1-8. 

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