By Alissa Medina > Freshman > Media and Cultural Studies > University of California, Riverside; Photo by AR > Sophomore > Graphic Design > UMBC
Some say it makes them feel alive while others claim it stimulates their libido. Love itself is like a drug, similar to cocaine or other illegal substances that diminish feeling of pain instantaneously. But when cuddling becomes monotonous, some college students are looking towards these drugs to increase their passion.
Ecstasy – Not like your Trojan brand.
Ecstasy, identified as Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), has the ability to increase the intensity of sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing to create a momentum of euphoric joy in the user. More specifically: it increases sex drive and unleashes inhibitions.
University of California, Riverside student Angelina Badalian said she’s witnessed students use the drug, seeking sexual pleasure from strangers at nightclubs and in raves. “No one forces it down your throat,” she said. “But everyone is doing it and you are curious. You hear stories and want to know what it’s like.”
What students don’t usually know – or are scared to comprehend – is that while the drug might make you feel good for a few moments, the long-term effects are dangerous. Ecstasy can increase your feeling of openness and passion can also lead to seizures, intensified worry, hallucinations, and depression.
Blame it on the A-A-A-Alcohol
With the availability of alcohol on and off college campuses, students often release self-consciousness via alcohol. A study by the Journal of American College Health claimed students who drink before a date or party have increased chances of sexual intercourse; those who drink before having sex have a higher increase in “indiscriminate sexual partner choice and absence of talks about potential disease and pregnancy.”
Sure, it may be enthralling to guzzle down a Jack Daniels before a frat party to loosen your flirting skills, but alcohol has the tendency to victimize its consumers to violence: 97,000 students today have been date raped or sexually assaulted during their college career, according to the Journal’s studies.
Last, but not least: Marijuana
Marijuana is also a determining factor in risky sexual behavior. According to a study by Addictive Behaviors, an international public journal about substance abuse, students who smoke marijuana are more likely to have unprotected sex and increased risk for personality dysfunctions if mixed with alcohol. The study claims that “two substances may have additive or synergistic effects on risk taking.”
The study also suggests that students who smoke Marijuana have an urgency of impulsivity that may lead to “premeditation, perseverance, and sensation seeking” which may lead to rash behavior at parties or in relationships.
University of California student Laura Gomez said that is unacceptable when students lose control of themselves to drug addiction for one night of fun. “That's when people start regretting things and harming themselves or others. I've seen people do stupid things and heard them say things they don't mean,” she recalled.
According to research from the Royal Society for Public Health, students who use MDMA, alcohol, marijuana, or cocaine were “examined as potential correlates for STDs.” The research also claimed that that alcohol or marijuana use may affect users' cognitive judgment, promote unplanned or other sexual risk taking, and reduce use of protective behaviors, like condom use.
Before you and your partner commit to substance abuse to dazzle your sex lives, understanding the consequences to your actions is imperative. Those who engage in substance abuse to enhance their libido may resort to the consequences as an everyday means, crumbling their relationships and becoming addicted to the feeling of euphoria.
