RRP: $84.95 (hardcover)

Originally developed for the treatment of blood-clotting by the German pharmaceutical company Merck in 1912, ecstasy was subsequently “rediscovered ” by the Shulgins, who through their own experimentations and critical-self reflections had the remarkable foresight to anticipate the clinical use of the drug as an aid to psychotherapeutic practice. More recently, federally approved trials in the United States have openly sanctioned the legal use of ecstasy as an adjunct to psychotherapy in clinical trials treating people with post-traumatic stress disorder. Standing in contrast to this controlled use in strict clinical conditions is one of the largest socio-cultural movements of the 20th century: transnational club and rave culture. It is against the backdrop of the rise of the “chemical generation” that Jennifer Ward’s ethnographic research focusses on the socio-economic networks that sell and distribute ecstasy. What is impressive about this ethnography is the unflinching honesty through which the author dives straight into the deep end of the London drug scene to study the use of ecstasy and the socio-cultural dynamics of its dealing. Although some qualitative research has addressed the significance and meaning of these activities, Ward addresses the paucity of ecstasy-based studies within the international research community as she describes and analyses the income generation and economic networks of ecstasy distribution. The central methodological orientation of this study derives from the ethnographic tradition generated by the Chicago School in the 1930s and 1940s with its emphasis on extended immersion in socio-cultural contexts. This orientation to ethnographic research allows the ethnographer to get a detailed first-hand sense of the Review