220;E” enjoyed a brief spurt of mainstream use in the 1980’s, before the government outlawed it in 1985. Until recently, it remained abundant only on the margins of society- in clubland, in gay America, in lower Manhattan. (Cloud, par. 1) In the past year or so, ecstasy has returned to the heartland, grower more and more popular everyday. Ecstasy remains a “niche” drug according to statistics. The number of people who use it once a month remains so small- less than 1% of the population. Although the numbers are currently small, ecstasy use is growing. Eight percent of U.S. high school seniors say they have tried it at least once, where it was on 5.7% in 1997. Nationwide, customs officers have already seized more ecstasy this fiscal year, more than 5.4 million hits, than in all of last year. (Cloud, par.5)Ecstasy has slowly made its reputation into the rave scene. A rave is a party- often an all night- long party, which contains some form of electronic or techno music and can be as small as 25 people or larger than 25,000. Raves have traditionally been held in venues without permits or permission, giving them an outlaw appeal. Today, however, there are an increasing amount of legal rave parties, in places such as New York and our very own Washington, D.C. Ravers often wear loose, wide-legged jeans that flare out at the bottom and accessories from childhood, such as pacifiers, dolls and suckers. (Farley, par. 9) Even though raves have been around for a decade, the rituals, visuals, and sounds associated with the rave scene have finally started to have a potential influence modern day culture such as pop music, and advertising. Even movies such as “Go,” and the documentaries “Better Living Through Circuitry and Rise,” a study of the rave scene in New Orleans, have had an affect on the exploitation on ecstasy and rave parties. (Cloud, 4) How has this counter-culture entered our ...
