SEEING THROUGH THE CLUB-DRUG HAZE

Because of increasing pressure at work, low risk-awareness, peer
pressure and easy access, club drugs are becoming increasingly
popular among Chinese youth.

Xiao Liu, a college freshman studying in Beijing, frequents
nightclubs on weekends. She often sees groups of young people taking
drugs and then dancing frantically in drug-induced crazes. She would
shun them, because she believed they were "dangerous" people.

These drugs, collectively termed "new-type drugs", or "club drugs",
include marijuana, MDMA - a synthetic and psychoactive drug - and
ketamine - a psychoactive known to induce dream-like states and hallucinations.

Trafficking of traditional drugs has decreased thanks to intensified
crackdowns, according to director of National Institute of Drug
Dependence of Peking University Lu Lin. But club drugs are
flourishing in their place, because the ingredients are easily
obtained and the processes for manufacturing them are simple. They
can be easily produced in small, underground workshops.

Statistics from Beijing Public Security Bureau Drug Abstention Center
show that the percentage of club-drug addicts has risen 15 percent in
the past five years.

Du Xinzhong, a medical staffer from Jinhua Drug Abstention Center, in
Zhejiang Province, has also seen the trends change.

Compared to the stable or even slightly decreased number of heroin
addicts, the number of club-drug addicts in his center has increased
several times over.

Because physical addiction to club drugs is less apparent than
physical addiction to hard drugs, such as heroin, few addicts
recognize their addictions.

Lu said that most users are younger Chinese, white-collar workers,
sports stars and entertainers.

He says that scientific research has shown that the use of club drugs
can cause serious health problems that many users are unaware of, and
long-term use of these substances can cause deterioration of memory,
recognition and brain growth.

Du considers club drugs even more harmful than heroin.

According to his clinical observations, the harm caused by long-term
use of club drugs is irreversible and could lead to paranoia,
hallucinations, depression and personality shifts.

Because many of these drugs have aphrodisiac-like effects and make
users feel as if the barriers between people are brought down, some
users become more inclined to participate in unsafe sex, which could
transmit STDs such as HIV.