Oldal 54 [54]
OCR
52 = USING INTERPRETATIVE PHENOMENOLOGICAL ANALYSIS the first things in the morning), lost control, and fears around adverse effects that we found in this study were also reported by Van Hout and Hearne (2016). According to participant accounts, the rapid development of negative experiences is the biggest difference between SCs and other drugs. In a qualitative study with people who used mephedrone (O'Neill, 2014), participants recalled mostly positive experiences (including euphoria, wellbeing, talkativeness). Adverse side effects were also reported as necessary components of the overall mephedrone experience, which was perceived as largely positive. Lee, Battle, Soller, and Brandes (2011) found that people who used ecstasy reported positive and predictable negative effects. The experience patterns of gamma hydro-xybutyrate (GHB) reported by people who used the drug were also very similar (Barker, Harris, & Dyer, 2007). The effects of GHB use were perceived mostly positive (such as euphoria, relaxation, increased sexual desire), but participants reported that negative effects were necessary in order to reach the desired effects of GHB. These risks could be controlled with the presence of a user group (Barker et al., 2007). According to the accounts of participants in our study, the use of SCs evoked unpredictable and severe effects such as psychosis, as it was also described by Every-Palmer (2011). As such, the consumption of SCs could cause not only temporal psychotic symptoms but also persistent ones (Miller et al., 2010). Due to the rapid alteration of experiences and psychotic symptoms, participants perceived the effects of SCs unpredictable, which explains the paranoid perceptions. It is important to note that we did not have information about what kind of SCs participants use during their drug consumption usually neither the people who use nor the dealers know what actual compounds are on the market. This also could be a factor of unpredictability. Furthermore, the changing experience of positive to negative effects could be related to legislative changes that have led to more toxic SCs being used to make the products. As Barratt et al. (2013) outlined, JWH-018 did not appear to have any more toxicity or likelihood to cause psychosis than natural cannabis. However, as Bright, Bishop, Kane, Marsh, and Barratt (2013) demonstrate, there is a complex interface between moral panic in the media, reactive legislation, and increased harm. This interplay between legislative changes and Hungarian media - where the portrayal of NPS could enhance moral panic (Kassai, Racz, et al., 2017; Pelbat et al., 2016) - could contribute to the emergence of new SCs with increased toxicity. Participants experienced a strange sense of self (the drug changed them, they became asocial, and the drug made them do things that they would have never done when they are sober) and they felt they were controlled or even hijacked by the drug. The narrative of a drug “taking over” one’s life is a personification of the drug (which is an old narrative of antidrug propaganda,
