Ecstasy Use Among Adolescents

Drugs have always been a huge social problem throughout history, in most recent years the increase of MDMA or Ecstasy, which is also known as “club drugs”, has hit an all time high. MDMA is known to the Drug Enforcement Agency as a Schedule I controlled substance, with the issue of MDMA growing almost faster than any other drug on the market the Drug Enforcement Agency has to find new ways of being able to contain it. The number of teens who end up in the emergency room because of MDMA has tripled in the last couple of years. According to Health Day reporter Dennis Thompson, emergency room visits related to MDMA have increased 129 percent between 2005 and 2012 among people that are younger than 21 (Lee, 2014).
According to Meyer, MDMA can effects can include arousal, enhanced moon, heightened perceptions and euphoria but there are some major drawbacks to these so-called positive effects. Taking this drug can also cause major health issues including neurological problems, anxiety, depression, sleep problems, paranoia and confusion. It can affect a persons brain cells that use the chemical serotonin. Other affects that Meyer pointed out was the affects that this drug has on your body, which can include jaw clenching, heart rate, blood pressure, tremors, muscle cramps, nausea, chills and blurred vision. In the second article I found, Grob explained that the highest cause of death among MDMA users is malignant hyperthermia, the core body temperatures rises so high that you blood literally begins to boil which will cause your organs and central nervous system to fail. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), ecstasy use has risen to an all time high especially among middle and high school adolescents. In 2011, 7.3% of high school seniors have reported using ecstasy at least one and 6.5% of 10th graders and 3.4% of 8th graders. In 2008, over 760,000 Americans over the age of 12 have reported using ecstasy (Meyer, 2013). People of all ages are using this drug and it is causing more deaths than any other drug out there, the chemical properties are always changing to make it a safe drug but it is causing more harm than good. A survey done by NIDA, they found that almost 44% of those who have taken MDMA have reported becoming addicted to the drug and have suffered from both psychological cravings and dependency on the drug. There are many myths that surround the effects of MDMA; many adolescents don't recognize the consequences of this drug. According to drugabuse.gov, laboratories have been consistently testing this drug since the 1980’s and have found that MDMA can cause dangerous levels in temperature to the body and can cause kidney failure; it can increase your heart rate, blood pressure, and short/long term memory loss. The theoretical perspective that best fits this social problem would be value conflict. I choose this because societies choose to define what is right and wrong. They define what drugs are bad and what drugs are good. In the article by Fuller and Myers they explain that there are three stages that a social problem must go through to actually become a problem. The first is where groups begin to see that a particular act is becoming a problem, second is what the people choose to define those problems and think of ways to prevent it and third is when the groups succeed in finding a solution to prevent that problem. In this situation, I think that society has come up with the solution that MDMA is bad for society and they have set up options to promote education about this drug to convince people that it is bad but the third step is still the tricky part because we have not yet come up with a full proof solution to prevent MDMA use because the statistics still show that the use of this drug is still rising. Another interesting thing to consider is that this type of drug abuse is not only seen in the US. In Australia, 10.8% od Australians ages 14 and older have