Dancing on drugs: Results from the first large-scale academic survey of the health of clubbers in Britain

Fiona Measham & Judith Aldridge

SPARC, Department of Social Policy & Social Work, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, UK. Phone no: +44 (0)161 275 4777

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Background to the study

These are the key findings from a study of dance drug use in British clubs carried out at the University of Manchester (UK). Only some of the headline figures are included as some data is yet to be analysed. A book with full details of the study, the methodology and also our findings will be out in 2000. The study was funded by the Economical and Social Research Council in Britain, which is funded by the public.

There were two conditions involved in obtaining this funding. The first condition was that the findings were not discussed in public until the end of the study. The second condition was that the word ‘ecstasy’ was removed from the title of the study, so that the media or any other people who might be interested would not be distracted from what the study was actually about. Basically the study is looking into the patterns and prevalence of use, the short and long term health implications of dance drug use and the relationship between so-called recreational drug use and problematic drug use. It also looks at safety management and policing issues in relation to the current British club scene.

Based on early 1990s research in Britain, a pile of knowledge from three sources has been gathered, looking at the late 1980s and early 1990s dance club scene. These sources are academic research studies particularly in the field of addictions and cultural studies, drug agency based research (for example in Britain by Release and Lifeline) and in the late 1990s from a whole shelf-load of retrospectives on the decade of dance 1988 to 1998. One of those sources is Sheryl Garratt’s book, Adventures in Wonderland, alongside which there have been reminiscences on the club scene, music compilation CDs and a whole platter of things on ‘a decade of dance’.

There are some gaps, however, in British drugs research. There are many national and regional school-based surveys that look at teenage drug use, and therefore there is quite a detailed picture of what is happening with people up to the age of 18, but far less is known about adult drug use. Official statistics from the Home Office and police and such like provide enforcement figures. Household-based surveys such as the British Crime Survey show national trends in drug use but miss out significant non-household based groups of adults, so not a lot of detail about young adults in their 20s and 30s is known. A lot is known about the early 1990s club scene but not about the late 1990s, club scene. This was the missing link.

The fieldwork

Three dance clubs were involved in the actual fieldwork. There is a debate about the definition of ‘dance’ clubs and the choice of clubs was a key issue in this research. There is also a debate about the different sub-genres of dance music and how that relates to different individual patterns of dance drug use. Three clubs in the North West of England were chosen, reflecting three different aspects of the dance club scene.

The first club was one of the main dance clubs in the North west of England, included in the national listings for magazines and so on. It has different nights and different dance events staged by different promoters, with nationally renowned DJs. It had quite a mixed crowd from across the North of England, including considerable numbers of students.

The second club was probably closer to the old style ‘hardcore raves’ of the early 1990s. It was a weekly dance event and had been going on for over five years in a leisure centre out of town. It had three large arenas and could hold up to about 6000 people who came from right across the Midlands and the North of England. They also had a slightly younger and more working class customer base than the other two clubs. There was also a paramedic centre on site.

The third club was a city centre four-storey club, which had different dance events and different promotions on different nights. The weekend was predominately gay and lesbian. The club crowd was slightly older than at the other two clubs. All of the club customers were asked about their sexual orientation, which did cause a bit of a stir, and nearly a quarter of the sample were gay, lesbian or bisexual, so quite a good database on sexual orientations, drug use and clubbing was compiled.

The research team consisted of six men, six women, of whom three were lesbian or gay and one was of black African descent. All of them were in their mid-twenties up to early thirties, and all had a previous clubbing history and dressed appropriately for the clubs. They interviewed roughly equal numbers of men and women, and about one in ten black clubbers, just after entering the club. The ideal quota samples of race and gender ratio did not work out as more than half the clubbers were male and more than 9 in 10 were white. A very low level of refusals (about 6%) was received, and the gender and race of these refusals were recorded. It was found that while there was no specific gender difference in refusals when people were approached, there was a significant race difference. Asian clubbers were significantly less likely to take part in the research.

The interviews

The fieldwork was conducted between 1997 and 1999 in three clubs, over 21 fieldwork nights in all. In each of the clubs, sweep interviews were conducted with about 100 people on each club night, that is 2057 in total. These lasted just minutes but they were extensively piloted, and the idea was to get maximum information in minimum time. People were blitzed with one sheet of A4 paper when they came into the club.

From the 2000, about half were regular dance drug users who either planned to or had already taken 1 to 5 dance drugs that day. Further in-depth interviews were conducted with a sub-sample of 317 of those regular dance drug users. About fifteen people were interviewed each night for about half an hour. On the research team was a nurse, and he conducted physical assessments of this sample of 317. These included pulse, temperature, intoxication levels, mood assessments and pupil dilation. There were also 45 comparison interviews with non-drug users.

Urine samples

Urine samples were taken on each night and this was seen as probably the most ambitious (even ludicrous) part of the study, and indeed police, drug agencies and other researchers thought there was no chance of doing this. All credit is given to the research team as they actually had no refusals, and it is quite a challenge to go up to people in clubs with plastic pots asking for urine specimens. Although everyone was willing to take part, a considerable number were unable to participate in this aspect of the study due to infrequent urination in clubs. People were coming back waving empty pots saying they were "still trying" and that they would come back later. Some of the samples were too small for lab analysis and some spilt.

These samples were quite important. Firstly, they are an attempt to validate self-reported drug use with actual consumption, and secondly they actually give some information on the quality and purity (and the contaminants) of street drugs in Britain in 1998.

Demographic characteristics

A further sub-sample of these dance drug users (about two or three on each club night) were asked to go for comprehensive physical medical assessments at the University medical centre a few weeks later, and 54 people turned up for that. The full details from that data will be in the forth-coming book. The aim was to have half men and half women. The sample actually involved 45% female, 94% white, 77% straight, 6 in 10 employed and about 3 in 10 in education (either higher education or further education), about 1 in 10 either employed, disabled or caring for relatives. The average age of the sample of 2057 is 23, with a range of 15 to 57, (an inspiration for us all!).

Headline figures

Lifetime prevalence of using at least one drug is 94%; 84% have taken a drug in the last three months. These numbers are considerably higher than comparable figures from the British Crime Survey, which show lifetime prevalence for under 30s as 49%, and those who reported drug taking during the past year in 1998 – 1999 amounted to 25%. It is clear that a fairly drug involved sample is represented here and they are not a cross-section of the general population in terms of drug use.

The order of popularity of drugs is fairly similar to surveys in the past six or seven years, with a couple of variations. Cocaine is probably higher on the list than expected and a couple of new drugs are included. GHB is a concern for us and others. Medics cite people collapsing and so on. In the third club, it was found that Viagra had made it onto the recreational drug use scene within weeks of the drug being licensed in October 1998, so the interview schedule was amended to include questions about Viagra. It was found that 3% of people had used Viagra recreationally, (that is without a doctor’s prescription). It is a concern that some people were combining Viagra with amyl-nitrate, for which it is contraindicated. When doing this without a doctor’s supervision, information about this would not necessarily be available to them.

On the fieldwork night, 65% were using at least one drug. The most popular, unsurprisingly, was cannabis (for almost half of them), despite the fact that this is not normally considered to be a dance drug. Nevertheless, it is often an integral part of a night out. Sometimes it is used before the club and often after the club for ‘chilling out’. As this is a fairly drug involved sample, this cannabis use may simply be a part of their regular consumption of drugs, rather than an integral key component of their dance drug use per se, even though it may always be combined with dance drug use.

After cannabis, ecstasy and amphetamines were the main drugs used. About a third of the people interviewed in the large 2057 sample were taking that on the fieldwork night. Given the current image of cocaine as the ‘up and coming’ and ‘already here’ clubbing drug, surprisingly it was only taken by 7% of the people interviewed on the field work night. This did vary by club, and the city centre club had considerably higher rates of cocaine use than the other two clubs. Aside from ‘poppers’, other drugs very rarely taken on the fieldwork night were tranquillisers, GHB, crack, heroin and Viagra.

Combinations

Unlike in the early 1990s, most clubbers are mixing alcohol and drugs together. 84% were either already drinking by the time they were interviewed, or were planning to drink on the fieldwork night. About two thirds of them planned to take a drug and from almost two thirds of people who planned to take a drug, more than 8 in 10 of them were also planning to drink alcohol. Interestingly, only 55% of people who were taking drugs on the night said they normally did combine alcohol with their drugs, but more than 8 in 10 were actually planning to when we interviewed them. So that is the biggest source of evidence that we have of combination use and poly-drug use in clubs, certainly in a combination of alcohol and drugs.

Clubbers were asked what their favourite drugs and combination of drugs were for a clubbing night out, and what the ideal amounts were. Basically ecstasy, speed and cocaine are generally taken before or inside the club and less often afterwards. Cannabis is generally taken by the vast majority (85%) after the club as a ‘chill out’ drug to relax and come down. Speed is generally more likely to be taken prior to the club and less likely inside. Ecstasy is more likely to be taken inside, and less often before. Cocaine seems to be taken before the club but inside the club as well.

The amount of drugs that people are having was assessed and coded. This is quite difficult to do. With ecstasy, however, it is fairly easy as the number of tablets a person takes is generally known. It is also relatively easy with speed as people generally tend to know the number of grams that they have. People often report their cannabis and cocaine usage in shared joints and shared lines, so it is a bit more difficult to code that amount. Therefore the amounts can appear quite shocking, but they may not be completely accurate.

Self-reported problems

48% of people reported some sort of problem that they linked to drugs or alcohol. Almost a third linked problems specifically to speed but three times less linked them specifically to ecstasy. Interestingly, when people were asked what they were afraid of in terms of future concerns in relation to their alcohol and drug use, they often mentioned the long-term effect of ecstasy, yet problems were more likely to be linked to speed. 85% of people have cut down or stopped certain drug use; for almost half of them that was for speed.

As researchers interested in looking at the clubbing scene, we have data on hospital admissions rates in terms of drink and drug-related casualties. We lack, however, the ‘casualty rate’ of clubbing itself, that is the number of clubbers who actually come to harm in some way as a result of drink and drug-related problems. People told of the problems and experiences they had encountered which were specifically linked to their drug and/or their alcohol use. This was whether or not they had actually told their GP or health professional that they thought that there was a link.

Based on lifetime prevalence figures, 11% had been seen by a paramedic or first aid staff at a club, 23% (almost a quarter) had consulted a doctor, about 1 in 10 had been admitted to a hospital accident and emergency department and 21% had been admitted to an accident and emergency department for some sort of injury they had sustained at a club.

Conclusions

It is clear that poly-drug use is widespread for a majority of clubbers. There is combination use of alcohol and other illicit drugs, but also the combination use of lots of different drugs, as well the tendency towards experimentation. For example, Viagra was being used by 3% of the people interviewed within weeks of it being licensed, and it was being used in the club scene by both men and women. There is certainly a tendency to experimentation with cocaine and GHB but in spite of all the hype there is the continuing and sustained popularity of ecstasy.

There is a need for further research into the complexities of the dance drug scene. What is a dance club anyway? How have dance clubs changed enormously in the last ten years? There is no longer a direct and easy link between the club and drugs, with the fracturing of the dance scene and the rise of bar culture. Only three clubs in the North West of England have been looked at in this study and there is certainly a need, given the rapidly changing scene, to be doing far more research.

References

Garratt S, (1999) Adventures in Wonderland: A Decade of Club Culture. Headline; London

Aldridge J, Measham F (2000) Dancing on Drugs: Risk, Health and Hedonism in the British Club Scene. Free Association Books. (in press)