A recent NYU study dug into studying behaviours of partygoers as they attended virtual raves and events in these times of the Covid-19 pandemic.
While in-person concerts are sadly not returning anytime soon, virtual events are where avid enthusiasts are finding their fix of the concert experience and music.
It is a known fact that taking drugs before or at raves and events are prevalent among attendees. And from a recent study, things are no different even during these virtual events. According to a new study by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and the Center for Drug Use and HIV/HCV Research at NYU School of Global Public Health (link – http://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2020/august/virtual-raves.html ), which was published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, showed that many are still using drugs in these socially distanced settings of virtual events as well.
“We explored whether stay-at-home orders changed how people use drugs—and it appears that drug use during virtual gatherings is somewhat prevalent among the party-going population we studied,” said Joseph Palamar, PhD, MPH, an associate professor of population health at NYU Langone, and the study’s lead author.
For the study, the NYU researchers conducted online surveys in April and May 2020 with 128 people who live in New York, attend EDM parties and reported recent drug use.
The study found a correlation between EDM concert goers and the attendees of virtual happy hour events and concerts and further found that “55.5 percent of those surveyed attended virtual raves and 69.5 percent attended virtual happy hours during COVID-19 social distancing. Of those who participated in these virtual events, more than a third reported using illegal drugs during them, including 40.8 percent of virtual rave attendees and 33.7 percent of virtual happy hour attendees.”
The study showed that from those who attended these virtual live streams, approximately 40% reported using illegal drugs and 70% reported drinking alcohol during the virtual events. Second to alcohol, about 30% of participants used marijuana, followed by other drugs like MDMA (8.5%), LSD (7 percent), and cocaine (4.2 percent) were reported, while some virtual happy hour attendees used cocaine (3.4 percent) and ketamine (3.4 percent).
Dr. Palamar also stated, “We explored whether stay-at-home orders changed how people use drugs—and it appears that drug use during virtual gatherings is somewhat prevalent among the party-going population we studied.”
He continued to explain how drug use had fallen, but continued all the same saying “We’ve conducted another study, also on EDM partygoers, and we’re learning that the use of drugs, such as cocaine, ecstasy, and LSD, has been dropping since the COVID-19 lockdown. This shouldn’t be unexpected as many of these drugs are most commonly used in social and party settings, but social distancing measures have certainly changed drug use behaviors.”
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