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Brian C. Kelly, MA, MPhil, Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University, 722 W 168th St, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10032, 212 305-6961, bck12@columbia.edu
Club drugs emerged as significant drugs of abuse during the 1990’s. Though many of these drugs have existed for decades many have only recently come into widespread recreational use. In many ways, the public health community is still trying to cultivate initiatives to deal with this emergent wave of club drug use. In an effort to inform the public health community on current issues and research on club drugs, this panel brings together public health professionals currently engaged in club drugs research and intervention. In “Initiation Narratives of Club Drug Using “Bridge and Tunnel” Youth”, Brian Kelly describes the process of initiation into club drug use among suburban youth who socialize at New York City raves and clubs. Stephen Lankenau discusses the potential for HIV infection among injection and non-injection users of Ketamine across a range of geographical locations in “Ketamine Use and HIV Risk: Preliminary Results from New York, New Orleans, and Los Angeles”. The mental health problems associated with ecstasy use are addressed in Russel Falck’s “Prevalence and Predictors of Depressive Symptomatology among Recent Users of MDMA/Ecstasy”. Finally, Jeffrey Parsons highlights some of the ways in which public health professionals can intervene with club drug users in “Harm Reduction Interventions for Gay/Bisexual Men who Use Club Drugs”. As a whole, the panel addresses the variety of substances classified as club drugs across a range of contexts and populations.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Drug Use, Youth
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.