Thizzin’ – Ecstasy use contexts and emergent social meanings

Abstract

The drug “Ecstasy” has been most commonly associated with raves, or electronic music dance events, and attributed with sexual disinhibition. In an ethnographic investigation of drug use among second-generation Southeast Asian youth in Northern California (2003), respondents described little use of or interest in using Ecstasy; yet in a second study, Ecstasy was the fourth most commonly-used substance. This paper investigates the social contexts for this change in use patterns. Respondents were second-generation Southeast Asian youths and young adults between the ages of 15 and 26 who were currently or recently drug-involved. We compared qualitative data from the two studies and found emerging patterns of meaning and context related to the observed change in use patterns. Ecstasy use among co-resident African American youth within the context of the local “hyphy” hip-hop music subculture had influenced Southeast Asian youths’ uptake of the drug, known as “thizz.” Respondents referred to the effects of the drug as “thizzin’,” described as energizing, disinhibiting, numbing, and emotion enhancing. Reported consequences of “thizzin’” included violence and aggression as well as fun, while sexual disinhibition was rarely mentioned. The meanings assigned to drugs, including the effects ascribed to them, may be relative to the social contexts within which users are exposed to and consume drugs. The findings indicate the susceptibility of youths to local trends in drug use, particularly associated with popular cultural movements and music. Second-generation youths may be particularly susceptible relative to the conditions of their immigration and processes of identity formation unique to them.

An Examination of Sociodemographic Correlates of Ecstasy Use Among High School Seniors in the United States

“…The recent rise in prevalence of ecstasy may also be associated with increasing popularity of electronic dance music (EDM) events in the US. In addition, ecstasy has become associated with hip hop music, and many hip hop, rap, and mainstream music lyrics also refer to Molly use (Boeri, Sterk, & Elifson, 2004; Diamond, Bermudex, & Schensul, 2006; Lee, Battle, Soller, & Brandes, 2011), suggesting a potential recent shift in sociodeomographic characteristics of users.…”

How Do Researchers Categorize Drugs, and How Do Drug Users Categorize Them?

“…Compare this with the national surveys in which the only two categories referring to consumption methods are injecting and inhaling . We have previously noted that even respondents who reported a strong aversion to heroin and cocaine were not adverse to taking pills that they thought very likely to contain these substances (Lee et al, 2011). Pills as a drug type recognizes the flexible nature of drugs that are manufactured compared to the relatively fixed nature of drugs that are “nature-grown” (Lee & Kirkpatrick, 2005).…”

“…The majority of respondents in this exercise sorted these and related terms ( X , E , stunners ) together. In this sense, we may observe that they recognize the term Ecstasy as a common term—once perhaps slang or argot, but later picked up by mainstream society—but not one they use themselves, preferring instead the term thizz (and related terms such as stunner ) as expressing the feeling of taking this drug (thizzing) and participating in the “hyphy” subculture associated with thizz (Lee et al, 2011). The findings may also indicate some of the boundaries of this subculture in relation to other drug-using groups.…”

“…Most of our respondents identified their argot terms thizz and stunners with the common term Ecstasy , and we suspect that if asked to report their use of Ecstasy , they would similarly codeswitch (as indeed we assume they did in responding to our brief survey). However, previous studies have indicated that these youths may consider that the pills they consume contain little or no MDMA, and may instead or additionally contain amounts of a wide range of psychoactive substances, including possibly cocaine and methamphetamines (Lee et al, 2011). As use of meth and cocaine mark subcultural boundaries for these youths, we suspect that very few would describe thizz to be a form of methamphetamine or cocaine, and would not be likely to report use of these drugs on a survey.…”

“…Use of Ecstasy by Bay Area Southeast Asian youths may be an expression of their identification with and participation in a local youth cultural form known as “hyphy.” Hyphy is a subgenre of hip-hop music that was developed in the Bay Area in the 1990s by recording artists including E40 and the late Mac Dre (Lee et al, 2011). Like hip-hop, rap and many other genres of popular music, hyphy is intimately connected with specific youth-oriented subcultural styles.…”