4 months Ago
An hourlong documentary that the museum has produced in partnership with HBO says that while actual use may not be dramatically up, the culture and comfort level around drug taking have changed, especially among younger visitors.
Casual Use, Serious Risks
Every week, Neeltje Klunder of Event Safety, a first aid provider that can be found at major festivals including Defqon and Mysteryland, hears about drug-related complaints.
She notes that among today's festival-going generation, taking pills is seen as cheaper and easier than alcohol or cigarettes. "People — get it from someone else, somebody you trust, they'll take a half, they'll take the other half," the other woman says as she listens to the guy describe the drug.
The symptoms treated by first aid workers range from mild but distressing symptoms — like dizziness, nausea, and a rapid heartbeat — to more extreme issues. Klunder is disappointed that drug testing at festivals is prohibited, pointing out that festival-goers are often unaware of the risks and underestimate them.
Ronald van Litsenburg from another large first aid provider, EMS, also says the number of drug-related cases hasn't spiked, but normalization is on the rise. About 40 in 10,000 festivalgoers visit a first-aid center, and roughly one-third of those — 12 people — have symptoms directly related to drugs.
Damian de Haas, DVS EventCare, also reported the same things and noticed stronger use with a younger crowd in people needing aid.
Data Show Use Leveling Off, but More Risky Behavior
The use of drugs by young people has hardly fluctuated in recent years as a whole, the Trimbos Institute said.
But the 2023 drugs monitor found an increase in the specific cases of serious poisoning at festivals, particularly from XTC (MDMA) and ketamine. Almost half of these were severe cases despite no increase in average MDMA content in pills.
Trimbos' connects this to riskier patterns of use and an increase in the use of substances such as 3-MMC since 2019.
There's also a changing attitude among young people, experts say. Group use, De Haas notes, often means the barrier to experimentation is substantially lower. "Once an entire friendship group is using it, it feels normal, and people are more likely to give it a go," he said.
For those who are considering this, I would advise not doing this, Van Litsenburg cautioned. "People sometimes don't understand the true danger — heart rate or body temperature spiking can kill." You could survive such an episode, but that's not luck you want to bet you won't have to count on."
Debate Over Normalization
Drug use is kept separate in the minds of young people. Research by the addiction care center Novadic-Kentron among young people in Noord-Brabant and Limburg in 2021 revealed that young people have different perspectives on drug use depending on the type and situation.
Careful use of the word " normalization" in media is recommended by Trimbos, as they warn that the term can be used or misused to either inadvertently encourage use or devalue users.
Narrow criteria mean drugs aren't normalized across society — most people who don't use drugs have never used them and disapprove of use in their environs. But XTC is also "quite normalized," especially at festivals, where almost 29 percent of XTC's total use takes place.
Marijuana and XTC users are also less likely to underestimate health risks than people who have never used drugs.
Klunder advocates improved education for children and more open dialogue from parents. "There's no prescription label on many of these pills. When it goes bad, it goes unbad. But parents don't believe. 'Oh, my child wouldn't do that.' "
