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Ecstasy Trends

2009 Ecstasy trends from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) shows that ecstasy and other similar drugs were used in the past thirty days by over one million people over the age of twelve and of those specifically over 700k users of Ecstasy itself. The rate of people who used Ecstasy increased between 2008 and 2009 to over 550K. The current rate of Ecstasy use for young people between the ages of twelve and seventeen decreased for under a half a percent in 2004, but stayed at the same level through 2007, just to increase to half a percent in 2009.

Between 2008 and 2009, this ecstasy trends study also shows that there was a significant increase in the number of past 12 month first-time users of Ecstasy, from 895K to over one million. In 2002, the estimate was just over one million, decreased just over 640K in 2003, and increased drastically from 2005 and 2009. In 2009, Ecstasy and related drugs (hallucinogens) were used in the past month by over one million people over the age of twelve (half a percent), including over 759K who had specifically used Ecstasy. The number of people who used Ecstasy was higher in 2009 than those in 2008. Information gathered over a longer period of time showed in 2002 there were over 675K people who used Ecstasy; the rate declined quite a bit in 2004 to just about 449K, and then went back up in 2009 to over 759K.

Under one percent of young people in 2002 between the age of twelve and seventeen currently use Ecstasy. That number decreased by about 0.2 percent in 2004 and stayed there until about 2007; there was an increase to half a percent in 2009. The drugs and classifications with the highest amount of first-time users for people twelve years or older (in 2009) were marijuana with almost two and a half million, and non-medical use of pain pills, closely behind was non-medical use of downers (just over one million), Ecstasy (just over one million), inhalants (just short of one million), stimulants, and cocaine (over half a million).

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health ecstasy trends reports that for people between ages twelve and forty-nine, the median age of first-time use of inhalants was almost seventeen years old; for marijuana use, it was exactly seventeen years old, for cocaine first-time use average age was twenty years, for Ecstasy just over twenty years old, for pain relievers almost twenty-one years, and for tranquilizers just over twenty-two years. Between 2008 and 2009 there was a distinct rise in the rate of past twelve month first-time users of Ecstasy from under one million to just over one million users. Most (over 65%) of recent first-time Ecstasy users (2009) were eighteen or older when they first tried the drug. The median age at first-time Ecstasy use was slightly over twenty years old, which is same as it was in 2008.