Drugs 2001

It's been more than three decades since President Nixon declared a war on drugs, the most destructive domestic policy in recent American history. The result? The effects of drugs on American society are more damaging, not less. We build prisons like mad. We deploy SWAT teams and characterize the crack epidemic with terms such as "self-cleaning oven." What's more, aggressive enforcement has proved to be a weak deterrent against drug use. A 1999 overview by the National Institute on Drug Abuse stated, "Problems of substance abuse remain wide-spread among American young people. Today over half [55 percent] have tried an illicit drug by the time they finish high school." And this report was written before the explosion of ecstasy use in the past 18 months. Recreational drug use is prevalent (concluded on page 207) Drugs 2001(continued from page 153) across the country. In Chicago, bartenders report sweeping up small empty bottles of GHB at the end of the night. In basements out West, home chemists cook up batches of crank. And in the South, the border with Mexico becomes more porous as the increase in commercial traffic fostered by Nafta gives drug cartels more ways to sneak drugs into the country.

The answer to the problem may be right in front of us. The Nineties saw the introduction and regulation of what is truly the first legal drug whose sole purpose is recreational use: Viagra. But Viagra is not risk free. Neither is alcohol. Still, their distribution can be controlled. The reality is, people will fuck, and people will roll at raves. And they should be informed.

About the Playboy Recreational Drug Chart: The last time we did this, cyberspace was patrolled by the Defense Department. Back then we relied on pharmaceutical industry publications such as the Physician's Desk Reference, as well as "drug authorities" (some of whom still work here). But we've come a long way from having to lean on the fed's tendency to err on the side of terror and the PDR's bunkmate relationship with drug-makers. The Internet opened up a vast new store of information and experience--and we don't mean alt-postings from someone called Zombie. In the end, we culled data from about six sources per drug. The National Institute on Drug Abuse has extensive data, though some of it is dusty (street names for heroin are still smack and junk). We consulted DanceSafe, a terrific organization that hands out drug information at raves and will even test, say, ecstasy to determine adulterants. We checked back with the PDR, a tome that still makes the American medicine cabinet pulse with menace. We also used a leading textbook that all sides seem to respect: Drugs, Society and Human Behavior. The Schaffer Library of Drug Policy and the Lycaeum, an online drug resource, were valuable databases that celebrate the educational might of the Internet while offering links such as "cheapestbong" (hint: it involves using your hands). The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies was also a good diving board: MAPS spans the conflict between ongoing scientific study and politicized drug policy. It's primarily interested in the sort of research that expired with the Seventies, such as the healing potential of certain illegal drugs. The greatest factual variations were with pot. Of course, subjectivity taints even hard science. There are limits to what we can know, limits to what we can say with confidence. Experts still don't know how more than 40 percent of marketed drugs operate. No drug is risk free, not even aspirin. But all drugs can be safer if we have information.

Not everyone agrees. The same people who oppose the distribution of condoms to slow the spread of STDs also oppose increasing drug awareness. In its original form, the Ecstasy Anti-Proliferation Act of 2000 (sponsored by Senator Bob Graham of Florida and Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa) would have prohibited certain information concerning ecstasy--thus putting sites such as DanceSafe in danger. Fortunately, cooler heads considered the ban to be unconstitutional.

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In addition to scrupulous research, Playboy commissioned Survey.com, an independent online polling firm, to conduct a survey of drug use among 18- to 35-year-olds. The respondents were predominantly from middle-income households--60 percent fell between $25,000 and $75,000 per year. One third had college degrees, and 77 percent of respondents had some college education.

Of the 1564 people in the survey, half (48 percent) said they had taken drugs for recreational use. Of those, 89 percent had smoked marijuana, with an even distribution between men and women and between occasional (less than twice a month) and frequent users. They spent an average of $85 per month on drugs. The stoned face of America looks like a weekend partier scoring a hit or two from a friend. Surprisingly, 40 percent of respondents had tried combinations of drugs, and occasional users were as likely to do so as frequent users.

Club drugs had a strong presence. Nearly a third of respondents had tried ecstasy, and its effects seem pleasing: Twice as many people listed it as their favorite drug as they did cocaine. Another rave staple, speed, had been tested by a third of respondents. A quarter of respondents had tried nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, which is typically distributed in balloons at underground dance venues. Special K, or ketamine, had been tried by fewer than 10 percent of respondents. Two thirds of the people who listed this New York party staple as their first- or second-favorite drug live in the club-heavy Northeastern states.

Of prescription drugs, codeine, easily available across the borders of Mexico and Canada, had the highest rate of trial. Valium, Percocet, Vicodin and Xanax had been tried by about 15 percent or more of respondents.

As for habits and how they started, three quarters of all users first tried drugs before the end of high school. Virtually no first experiences occurred after the age of 24. The likelihood of being a frequent user dropped as the age of first experience rose.

The relation between drug use and sex is difficult to document with precision. Most of the information from public sources is fear based and repressive. Still, without alcohol--the world's most famous social lubricant--many Americans would still be virgins. One quarter of the respondents to our online survey reported that drugs or alcohol enhanced their sexual experiences, and one third of the people who took Viagra were women. While some illicit drugs have reputations for increasing horniness or sexiness (the power and confidence associated with cocaine; the hug-drug qualities of ecstasy), many of the same drugs are burdened with reps for inhibiting climax or erections.

The related problems of serious drug use are legion: spread of STDs, prostitution, crack babies, etc. Yet the web abounds with testimonials in praise of combining ecstasy and Viagra. Dealers in New York often deliver a Viagra pill with a shipment of coke. Combining Viagra, with its specific warning for heart patients, with stimulants that may tax the heart (such as coke, poppers and ecstasy) is loaded with risk. In combination, poppers and Viagra dangerously lower a person's blood pressure. According to reports, some people suffered strokes when they combined Viagra and e. More commonsense advice: First experiences with a drug should not be combined with sex. First experiences with sex should not be combined with drugs. Messing with a buzzed woman will more often than not lead to misery. Don't do it.

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In the Fifties, marijuana was blamed for leading people to heroin. In the Sixties, it was the stepping-stone to LSD. Pot is currently cited as a gateway to cocaine, despite the fact that for every 100 people who have tried marijuana, only one uses cocaine weekly. Lynn Zimmer and John Morgan, the authors of Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts, say there's no foundation for such claims. Pot is the most popular illegal drug in the U.S., and most users never use any other illegal drug. "For the large majority of people, marijuana is a terminus rather than a gateway drug," say Zimmer and Morgan.

"Our political leaders belong to the equivalent of the Flat Earth Society," says Allan Clear, who heads the Harm Reduction Coalition. "Drug policy in this country is designed to make drug use as unpalatable and as risky as possible. So we get the AIDS epidemic, overdose deaths, horrendous skin infections and the hepatitis C epidemic.

"People are hurting themselves because they don't have the information or resources to avoid it. Whether they stop or not, there are ways to reduce the harm of their drug use."

What's going onIn an online survey done for Playboy, users were asked to rank drugs in order of preference.

1 Marijuana

The clear favorite--37 percent picked pot as number one.

2 Ecstasy

Though fewer people tried e than any other drug in the top five, those who did liked it. A lot.

3 Cocaine

Slightly more coke users had household incomes below $50,000 than above.

4 Mushrooms

Surprisingly, powerful psilocybin was the second-most-tried drug after pot.

5 LSD

Most people who rank acid as their favorite use it less than once a month.

e-business

authorities say the use of ecstasy has skyrocketed. in fact, the rise of mdma resembles a chemical chain reaction

The number of pills confiscated in a single e bust at the Los Angeles International Airport in July 2000: 2.1 million.

Names used for various ecstasy pills: Mitsubishi, Blue Dove, X-Men, Mercedes, Motorola, microdot, Calvin Klein, Ferrari, 007, Sex X, white diamond, Chinese luv, Star of David and Playboy.

Year that a German patent for MDMA was issued to Merck: 1914.

Year the U.S. Army funded a secret University of Michigan study that included toxicity analysis of MDMA: 1953.

Year the first scientific article about the effects of ecstasy on people was published: 1978.

Wholesale price of a hit of ecstasy: 50 cents.

Cost of a hit of e: up to $40.

Cost of an ecstasy testing kit: $25.

Way in which a Dutch police officer described his country to Barry McCaffrey: "Holland is to synthetic drugs what Colombia is to cocaine."

Year ecstasy was banned: 1985.

Cost of the government's forthcoming anti-e campaign: $5 million.

According to the DEA, Holland is the source nation of most U.S. Ecstasy.

Total number of hits of e seized in 1998: 750,000.

Number of doses seized in first half of 2000: 5.4 million

dance safe

When handed his first taste of ecstasy in 1986, Emanuel Sferios of DanceSafe did what his nature dictated: He went to the nearest library to research it. Before taking it. He found three articles, no real cause for concern, swallowed the pill and thought it was great. Even therapeutic. In 1997, he was handed a pill after not having done e for years. He went online and surfed for updates. His conclusion? "It is the most adulterated drug out there. Pure ecstasy is relatively benign." He found a lab willing to do pill screening "because adulteration is the greatest cause of harm. There has yet to be an overdose on ecstasy. It would take 30 to 50 pills." However, lots of tablets contain substances far more dangerous than MDMA, including PCP, ketamine, paramethoxyamphetamine, methamphetamine, dog worm pills and prescription meds like dextromethorphan. In the summer of 1999, most medical emergencies in Oakland, California's rave community were due to DXM. A legal cough suppressant that can prevent sweating, DXM is a common adulterant. "But emergency rooms don't screen for it because it's legal and not considered a drug of abuse," says Sferios. DanceSafe began in February 1999 as the Ecstasy Harm Reduction Project. It brings "fact-based, nonjudgmental safer-use information--there's no such thing as safe--to the rave scene." DanceSafe now has local chapters, a national office in Oakland and a lab analysis program that tests about 40 pills a month. Its website, which posts test results and sells testing kits, is a necessity for ravers. It's also the place to go for news and updates on the scene. "There's an amazing sense of community within the rave and nightclub scenes," says Sferios, who spent his first rave behind a table full of health and safety literature, condoms and earplugs. "I mean, they're like 17 to 25 years old. They have genuine concern for their peers. It's impressive. When I was a teenager in the mohawk scene, it was all about alcohol and fights."

a recent analysis of street ecstasy in the U.S. and europe found that only about 30 percent of the samples contained MDMA, the chemical structure that is ecstasy.

Incarceration & Enforcement

Drug Gulag: More than 75 percent of drug law violation arrests are for possession. From 1987 to 1998, more drug arrests involved cocaine or heroin than any other drug. In 1998, more arrests were for marijuana than for any other drug. According to a 1999 NORML report, more than 43,000 citizens were serving time for pot-related offenses--mostly possession. By 1998, according to Uniform Crime Reports, drug abuse violations accounted for about 30 percent of overall arrests. In fact, more people are sent to prison in the U.S. for nonviolent drug offenses than for crimes of violence. Barry McCaffrey, a retired general who is stepping down from his post as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, says the war on drugs has created a "drug gulag." Drug control policies are the primary reasons that the national prison population has quadrupled since 1980. The U.S. has the highest rate of incarceration among Western democracies.

Whites do more drugs but blacks do more time: African Americans represent 62 percent of drug offenders sent to all state prisons. According to Human Rights Watch, five times as many whites use drugs as blacks. But nationwide, black men are sent to state prisons on drug charges at 13 times the rate of white men. In seven states, blacks constitute between 80 percent and 90 percent of all people sent to prison on drug charges.

Wiretaps: In 1999, state and federal courts authorized 1350 wiretaps. Of them, 72 percent were for drug investigations, 10 percent were for racketeering, 5 percent were related to homicide or assault cases and 4 percent were for gambling.

Ratio of people in the West who have tried crystal meth to those in the Northeast who have: 2 to 1

Of people who list speed as their favorite drug, percentage who are female: 68

Ratio of people who use drugs every day in the Northeast to those in the West: 2 to 1

Of people who spend more than $1000 per month on drugs, percentage who are male: 80

Percentage of recreational drug users who think mood-enhancing drugs are not a good treatment for children with behavior problems: 74

All numbers according to an independent survey conducted online for Playboy by Survey.com.

5 Sudden Death

liver damage addiction and respiratory problems are slow and painful. Unfortunately, there are numerous public examples of quick ways to exit the party

(1) The Len Bias. Top draft pick of the Celtics in 1986, Bias died from a cocaine over dose that interrupted electrical signals between his brain and his heart. [2] The John Belushi. Or, death by speedball--a lethal injection of coke and smack. [3] The Orlando. At least six deaths in Florida were attributed to fake ecstasy pills made of PMA. [4] The Keith Moon. Too many downers. The Who's drummer OD'd on Heminevrin, a sedative prescribed to counter alcoholism. [5] The River Phoenix. An autopsy found heroin, coke, pot and Valium in Phoenix--but, though he died outside a bar, no alcohol.

The demonization of GHB

The government's attitude toward drugs is bipolar. The handling of GHB is a good illustration of the tricky terrain that exists between drugs that are dubbed godsends (Prozac) and drugs of the devil (GHB as the date-raper's little helper). According to Narcolepsy and Sleep Disorders, an international newsletter for physicians and patients, there were few reports of consumer harm or abuse of GHB prior to 1990. It had been "one of the few apparent success stories in the recent history of narcoleptic drug treatments," extensively studied with "good results for over 14 years." Generally accepted in Europe, GHB is a naturally occurring metabolite that falls in the crack between drugs and nutritional supplements. In the U.S., it was popular among bodybuilders because it stimulates the release of growth hormone. Its improper use in a handful of cases during the nutritional supplement craze (GHB can be poisonous in large doses or when mixed with alcohol) led to a ban by the FDA in 1990. In justifying its position, the FDA referred to "the alarming increase in the illicit use of GHB." Such statements thrust GHB into the limelight (one brochure at an FDA-sponsored conference was called by N&SD "a shopping list which in effect, if not intent, encourages potential rapists to try GHB"). The issue was soon sensationalized in the press, leading to even more exposure and misuse. Scant defense was mounted on behalf of GHB, because narcolepsy is rare and GHB was considered an orphan drug--a drug with no profit potential [too much cost to market, too few patients]. Since then, an FDA warning sheet prompted the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists to advise its members to avoid prescriptions for GHB "if they want to stay out of trouble with the FDA."