Anna, a 26-year-old, celebrated her birthday in New York in a normal way.  She and about a dozen friends hung out at a friend’s house.  The electronic music was flowing through the house, Anna and her friends were dancing, and they shared a drug called Molly, reports Reuters.  Anna is a student that is counseling people to be healthy, making her use of the drug even more ironic.  However, she describes the use of the drug as fitting because it was an “electronic music kind of crowd.”

Molly is the street name for a drug that is pushed as the pure powder form of a banned substance known as MDMA, the main chemical in ecstasy. In the last five years, Molly has made its way into popular culture, helped by references to it in songs by entertainers such as Madonna, Miley Cyrus and Kanye West.  The National Institute on Drug Abuse describes MDMA as a synthetic, psychoactive drug with stimulant and hallucinogenic properties.  Ecstasy creates feelings of euphoria, increase in emotional warmth and empathy towards others, and heightened energy levels.  MDMA is a popular combination drug, often being used with methamphetamine, cocaine, and ketamine.

Earlier articles in the National Monitor highlight the recent, high-profile attention about the dangers of Molly with the overdose deaths during Labor Day weekend of a 19-year-old University of Virginia student and two students from Syracuse University and the University of New Hampshire at the Electric Zoo Festival in New York.  These deaths, and two others, have thrust the club drug into the national spotlight.

A report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) estimates emergency department visits related to specific drugs.  In 2011, there were 22,498 emergency department visits with the presence of ecstasy detected.  Since 2004, emergency department visits related to ecstasy doubled.  Of these, 39.6 percent also involved the use of alcohol.

Other concert events are taking additional precautions to prevent use of Molly and subsequent tragedy.  My Fox Boston reports that security at the Boston Calling concert event asked patrons to bring their belongings in a clear plastic bag instead of a backpack.  In Atlanta, this weekend’s TomorrowWorld music festival organizers warned on its website of zero-tolerance for MDMA use.  However, they also assure that patrons that have taken something that causes concern or if anyone needs help, they should contact the staff.  They inform patrons that they would like to help and are not there to judge.