PMA and PMMA - Usage Trends

Usage Trends

PMA was first manufactured in Canadian drug labs in the 1970s and resulted in a number of deaths in both Canada and the United States. There was no sign of the drug again until the mid-1990s, when it popped up on the Australian nightclub scene. Since then PMA distributors have targeted "club drug" dealers—those who sell to teenagers or young adults attending raves. Reports from the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) show that club drugs have been increasingly available, and the most widely available club drug is ecstasy. The substance is thought to enhance the rave experience by allowing partygoers to dance longer, while feeling dreamy and entranced by the music and lights. Other frequent places of use are college campuses, private parties, shopping malls, schools, and concerts.

Ecstasy and PMA Tracked Together

Because PMA is disguised as ecstasy—and is mistakenly used by people who think they are taking ecstasy—the trends of PMA abuse mirror the trends of ecstasy abuse. Ecstasy users tend to be between thirteen and thirty years of age. Because the drug is fairly easy to get, younger and younger people are starting to use ecstasy. In fact, in Honolulu, Hawaii, an emerging group of ecstasy users in treatment

Ravers often dance with glow-in-the-dark accessories to enhance their drug-induced visual stimulation. Houston Scott/Corbis SYGMA.
Ravers often dance with glow-in-the-dark accessories to enhance their drug-induced visual stimulation. © Houston Scott/Corbis SYGMA.

are pre-adolescent (approximately nine to twelve years old). Users tend to be male and female middle-class whites living in both central cities and suburbs.

In the twenty-first century, ecstasy use began expanding to nonwhite and Hispanic populations across the United States. The use of ecstasy by those of African American descent has dramatically increased in the Southeast United States. And in places like Houston, Texas, the drug is becoming common among a subculture of young gay men.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), overall levels of availability and abuse of ecstasy are beginning to decrease in the United States after peaking in 2001. The 2005 National Drug Threat Assessment shows that the estimated number of people twelve or older who used ecstasy decreased from 3.2 million in 2002 to 2.1 million in 2003. Young people have begun to understand the risks associated with the drug, likely a result of prevention programs and antidrug campaigns.

Monitoring the Future

In the 2004 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey, high school students reported a 3-percent increase in perceived harmfulness of occasional ecstasy use from 2003 to 2004. The number of ecstasy tablets seized arriving from foreign sources also decreased, from 6.9 millions tablets in 2001 to fewer than a million tablets in 2003. And the number of ecstasy arrests made by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) dropped from 2,105 in 2001 to 1,124 in 2003. It is thought that, overall, there is a decrease in the availability of the drug. This may be due to the discovery and dismantling of several large ecstasy distributors, namely Israeli and Asian groups that were distributing the drug throughout the United States.

Ecstasy in Europe

Europe is one of the world's most important areas for the manufacture of ecstasy. Belgium and the Netherlands are the countries producing the most. For many years there, amphetamines were the second most commonly used drug behind marijuana. The "Annual Report 2004: The State of the Drugs Problem in the European Union and Norway," however, indicates that the use of ecstasy may be exceeding that of amphetamines. About two-thirds of European Union (EU) countries reported recent ecstasy use to be more common than that of amphetamines among young people age fifteen to thirty-four years.

Overall, the increase in use of ecstasy that occurred during the 1990s now appears to have leveled off a bit in Europe, with only a few countries still reporting increasing numbers. At first, like in the United States, the drug was connected to the rave scene. However, in the twenty-first century, it has been increasingly spreading across a broader section of society.