Dance Music and MDMA: The Drug Panic That Will Not Die

Grab your glowsticks and
pacifier necklaces, kids: It’s time to freak out about Ecstasy and
raves again. Except this time, we’re calling the drug
Molly and the dance parties EDM shows.

The Christian Science Monitor has a nice,
breathless
summary of the new MDMA panic, which looks pretty much exactly
like the
old MDMA panic(s). When it started rearing its head again last
year, it was triggered
by Miley Cyrus. This time the music at the center of the
controversy comes from Swedish DJ Avicii, whom the Monitor
article paints as some sort of electronica-playing Pied Piper for
pillheads.

“More than a hundred people have been hospitalized at concerts
by Swedish DJ Avicii in recent weeks, refocusing the public eye on
the electronic dance music culture,” reads the Monitor
article subhead. Apparently, 36 people were hospitalized after an
Avicii concert in Boston on Wednesday. In May, 400 people were
hospitalized and two died at a music festival in Las Vegas at which
Avicii played.

The hype machine is using this to warn about the dangers of
“Molly,” aka ecstasy, aka MDMA. While Molly generally refers to a
less adulterated form of MDMA than ecstasy, they’re conceptually
similar. Molly is certainly nothing
new, though you would be hard-pressed to glean this from many
media accounts.  

“Signs of illicit drugs, including the popular club drug ‘Molly’
… were apparent, with concertgoers strapped to stretchers, some
still screaming and flailing their arms,” reported a
Boston ABC station. And from CBS Boston: 

“There was one kid, it took four cops to take him down,” one
witness told WBZ-TV. “He was on something, I have no
idea.” 

Yet despite all this Avicii/Molly fear-mongering, there’s
actually little evidence Molly was involved. Authorities in Boston
say many of the concert hospitalizations Wednesday were actually
due to alcohol or some combination of alcohol and other drugs. Some
were simply overheated and dehydrated after dancing for hours in
the packed venue. 

“There may have been some illicit drug involved, but none have
been identified,” said Boston EMS Deputy Superintendent Michael
Bosse. He also noted that those taken to the hospital suffered no
more than minor symptoms. 

Furthermore, not all of those transported to the hospital were
even inside the Avicii concert. “Based on early reports from the
venue it appears the majority of the transports were people outside
the venue who were too impaired to be allowed inside the venue and
access to the concert,” said Jacqueline Peterson, a spokeswoman for
Live Nation, in a statement. “Out of an abundance of caution they
were transported for medical evaluation and assistance.”

Out of an abundance of caution, some drunks teens
hanging outside a concert venue were taken to the hospital and
treated for minor symptoms. Not much of a Molly indictment if you
ask me. But this is one moral panic that just keeps on
giving.