RESEARCH ARTICLE
Club Drugs and Rave Parties: A Pilot Study on Synthetic Drug Consumption Styles in a Sample of Young Italian Ravers
Roberta Biolcati, Giacomo Mancini*
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2018Volume: 11
First Page: 474
Last Page: 484
Publisher ID: TOPHJ-11-474
DOI: 10.2174/1874944501811010474
Article History:
Received Date: 22/6/2018Revision Received Date: 4/10/2018
Acceptance Date: 18/10/2018
Electronic publication date: 14/11/2018
Collection year: 2018

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Introduction:
So-called club drugs, psychoactive substances by definition related to rave and private parties culture, have a strong social impact in terms of health risks, especially for their spread among adolescents and young adults. In addition, polydrug use is a common pattern of consumption in some subcultures, such as the ravers culture. This study explores characteristics, consumption profiles, contexts of use, motives, and levels of satisfaction with life in a sample of synthetic/hallucinogenic substance users.
Methods:
We administered an ad hoc questionnaire to 37 Italian participants (62.2% males) recruited through several rave events in the city of Bologna.
Results/ Conclusions:
The results showed that consumers choose substances belonging to the same “family,” such as methamphetamines (MDMA and speed) and psychedelic substances (ketamine and LSD), for specific and contextual motives. The findings are discussed in light of the target sample’s socioeconomic conditions, consumer profiles, features of the rave context, and dissatisfaction with some areas of life.