Such diverse substances as powder cocaine, methamphetamine, ketamine, rohypnol, GHB, and LSD have all been popular in the club scene over the past decade ( Beck & Rosenbaum, 1994 Measham, Aldridge, & Parker, 2001 Reynolds, 1998 Thornton, 1996). Except for MDMA (ecstasy), which has been a relative constant, the most common “club” or “dance” drugs have tended to vary over time and location. club culture.Īlcohol and illicit drug use would appear to be the norm in the club scene. This concept is represented in such slogans as “What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas ®.” Miami, historically a major tourist destination and since the early 1970s a national center for cocaine importation, distribution, and use ( Didion, 1987 Portes & Stepick, 1993), is also a major player in the U.S. This type of night life is found in almost every large city but is especially prevalent in major tourist destinations where people tend to be looking for an escape from their routines. The modern all-night dance club culture has its most recent roots in the adolescent rave and gay male circuit party subcultures that emerged in the late 1980s, with more distant connections to the earlier New York nightclub scene epitomized by Studio 54 ( Fritz, 1999 Kurtz, Inciardi, Surratt, & Cottler, 2005 Silcott, 1999 Thornton, 1996).
