Club drugs are often used at dance clubs, all-night parties (sometimes known as raves and trances), and rock concerts. They give the illusion of providing extra energy, and intoxicating highs. They are most often used by young people who want to feel “deep experiences.” In fact, they are quite dangerous and can cause serious brain damage and even death. When mixed with alcohol, as they often are at these events, they become even more dangerous. Examples of club drugs are MDMA (ecstasy, Adam, XTC), Rohyphnol (rohies, roofies, roach, and rope), GHB (liquid ecstasy, somatomox, scoop, Georgia home boy, and grievous bodily harm), ketamine (special k). Ketamine is a new synthetic drug that causes hallucinations and gives people the sensation of having an out-of-body experience. It has been misused and abused in city bars as a “date rape” drug. So be very careful when you are drinking in public.
Sometimes young people experiment with these drugs or even mix them with alcohol. This can be extremely dangerous and can cause symptoms like depression, confusion, severe anxiety, and paranoia. Physical symptoms include muscle tension, involuntary teeth clenching, blurred vision, and increased heart rate and blood pressure.
Now I will briefly examine some of the club drugs in turn in order to tease out the differences and similarities between them as well as the types of experience that they play a role in creating.
Alcohol
After a very brief and partial displacement in the late 1980s and early 1990s as the drug that fuels people's leisure activities, alcohol has come back into vogue in club land. It has to be said that rumors of its demise were certainly premature and outside of the Ecstasy–fuelled rave scene it was still the drug of choice for the majority of Britain's population.
