The International journal on drug policy
May 1, 2023
Joseph J Palamar, Austin Le, Charles M Cleland et al.
41 citations
Among people attending electronic dance music parties in New York City nightclubs and festivals, self-reported use of several drugs changed from 2017 to 2022. Past-year and past-month use of psilocybin mushrooms, ketamine, poppers, synthetic cathinones, and novel psychedelics increased, while past-year heroin use and past-month cocaine, novel stimulant, and nonmedical benzodiazepine use decreased. After the COVID-19 pandemic, the odds of using mushrooms, poppers, and 2C series drugs rose, whereas the odds of using cocaine, ecstasy, heroin, methamphetamine, novel stimulants, and prescription opioids nonmedically fell. These trends in a sentinel population can inform public health surveillance.
American Journal on Addictions
September 27, 2018
Joseph J. Palamar, Austin Le
35 citations
Tryptamine use among US young adults ages 18–25 is rare but rose from 0.2% in 2007/08 to 0.7% in 2013/14—a 273% relative increase. Prevalence was substantially higher among people who used other drugs, especially psychedelics: among past-year ecstasy users it rose from 2.1% to 10.0%, and among LSD users from 7.0% to 15.5%. The increase occurred across all demographic groups. The authors suggest that users of other drugs, particularly those with psychedelic effects, can be targeted for safety information.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
August 21, 2023
Caroline Rutherford, Austin Le, Joseph J. Palamar et al.
2 citations
Among nightclub and festival attendees at electronic dance music events in New York City, summer is associated with higher odds of using LSD and psilocybin (shrooms), independent of long-term increases in psilocybin use. Across 15 seasons from summer 2017 through fall 2022, surveys of 3,935 adults found that summer raised the odds of LSD use more than 2.5 times and psilocybin use more than 1.6 times compared to the average across all seasons. Cocaine and ecstasy use decreased over the study period without seasonal variation. The findings suggest summer as a key time for disseminating harm-reduction information for psychedelic users.