'The great unmentionable': Exploring the pleasures and benefits of ecstasy from the perspectives of drug users

Although legal and illegal drugs have throughout history given pleasure to those who consume them, research in the drug field has ignored this central and fundamental feature. The absence of any discussion of pleasure is striking when one considers the contemporary literature on ecstasy and the dance scene. Pleasure is still missing within much of this drug discourse. Research has failed to explore a significant and integral feature of drug use, primarily the reasons why people use and the benefits they receive. To adjust this imbalance, the aim of this paper is to explore the ways in which young people experience and talk about the pleasure, enjoyment, and benefits of using ecstasy. Utilizing recent theoretical developments in both sociology and cultural studies, we examine in-depth qualitative interview data from a sample of 276 respondents who use ecstasy and attend dance events in the San Francisco Bay Area. We explore two different but interwoven themes that emerge from their narratives. First, the pleasures experienced from the immediate effects of the drug, and second, the more enduring benefits. The former enabled them to transcend the mundane nature of their everyday activities and interactions, and the latter resulted from the respondents' belief that they could recreate elements of the ecstasy experience in their day-to-day lives.