Colored City: Recreational drug use in Belgrade

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How does the Belgrade underground party scene look like trough the eyes on a local anthropologist – read the story of our Serbian EDPI partner.

Underground party culture is one of the biggest youth subcultures in Serbia. As part of a growing global subculture, and a powerful entertainment industry, electronic music lets individuals experience trance and religious rapture, helps them to deal with personal issues, and of course primarily gives them a really good time socially. It is also often said that party culture is closely linked to the use of psychoactive substances. Since I was personally involved in this community in Serbia over the years, I subconsciously learned about the relationship between recreational drug use and the ideology behind the underground electronic music scene. Let me share with the reader my thoughts in this regard.

During the late 1990s and at the beginning of the 21th century, the use of psychoactive substances was fairly common among young people attending these parties,. One explanation could be that the popularity of illegal substances was related to living conditions in Serbia by that time. We experienced several wars and bombing, which pushed young people to search for new ways to liberate their minds. The underground party scene was, for some, a perfect way to do it, thanks to the unlimited behavioral freedom, coupled with the sense of belonging to a community. Using drugs gave them a whole new perspective. During that period, the most popular drug was ecstasy, which was cheap, affordable and easily available. There was a wide variety of ecstasy pills available on the market – you could hardly find the same thing twice. Every weekend, there was a new brand of ecstasy on the market. Besides ecstasy, speed was also very popular, while from time to time, even cocaine could be found.

Today, a decade later, the situation is much the same. The party subculture is still growing and people are similarly using drugs – though the “top drugs” have changed.
As an anthropologist, I try to examine this subculture through cultural heritage constructs. I see party subculture as the contemporary intangible cultural heritage of Belgrade and Serbia. It shows that illicit drug use among the youngsters at “rave parties” can be understood and explained as a modern inheritance of spiritual trance and dance.  According to my observations, use of drugs at parties varies, depending on the subgenre of electronic music the people listen and dance to. Professionals say that hallucinogenic substances are no longer used in Serbia; experience in the field shows otherwise, however. There is a whole psychedelic wing of the underground party culture. At psychedelic trance parties, one of the most popular drugs is LSD. This is especially true if the party takes place in the countryside, outside the city at any pytrance/goa festival. Magic mushrooms are slightly less available, but similarly popular.  In Serbia, both of these substances can be found at a price of 1,000 dinars (~10euros) for LSD, or 2,000 dinars (~20euros) for a portion of magic mushrooms. Speed, cocaine, MDMA and ecstasy are also to be found, in some cases taken in combination with hallucinogenic substances.
In the techno scene, on the other hand, use of LSD or psychedelic mushroomsis is infrequent.  In techno subculture, ecstasy used to be very popular, and other amphetamines were also easily accessible. Availability is related to the existence of illegal laboratories in the suburbs of Belgrade that lead to increased amphetamine use among young people. The main drivers behind the popularity of amphetamines, were high quality, low price and easy accessibility. Unfortunately, there were no harm reduction responses reflecting the change of patterns of use, from oral use of ecstasy and LSD, to snorting speed (amphetamine). Nowadays, 10 years after it became the most popular drug among clubbers, users still snort it through rolled banknotes. There are no safe nightlife outreach programs, which could effectively educate consumers about potential health risks, avoidance of overdose, and in general about safer drug use.

The most recent trend on the market is the spread of new psychoactive substances (designer drugs). After the police shut down a couple of huge illegal laboratories, the quality of amphetamines decreased significantly, prices rose, and mephedrone took centre stage. Ecstasy and amphetamines have almost disappeared from the illegal drug market, displaced by mephedrone. Its low price and easy access have pushed the queen of designer drugs to become the dominant club drug in recent years. But alongside its popularity, the threat of mephedrone overdose appeared, too. In addition, there is only one toxicology department in Belgrade, for a city with a population of 2,5 million. Unfortunately, just a couple of professionals working in that department know about mephedrone’s existence. If you overdose, you need to be very lucky, to be checked up by one of those experts. Otherwise, you would probably be given an antidote for opiates, due to terminological confusion with methadone.

Speaking of designer drugs, synthetic cannabinoids have also been welcomed by users of all ages and cultural backgrounds, because of the lack of any distinctive smell, their availability, and the fact that they don’t show up on urine tests. You can buy them in numerous smart shops in the centre of the city, or order them by phone and get them delivered to your door.  They could hardly be more available, and in addition, have been legal since their first appearance on the market.
New psychoactive substances still dominate the market, because the government hasn’t added any substances to the list of controlled illicit substances since 2006.
It’s highly questionable that a government with drug policies as strict as those in Serbia, has effectively legalised numerous substances (from stimulants to hallucinogenic and central nervous system depressors) by  ignoring the fact of their use – while at the same time continuing to prosecute users for possession of all traditional psychoactive substances.

The characteristics and shared values of members of the party subculture, such as orientation towards nature, unity, love, and sexual freedom, are also reflected in group norms of sexual behaviour. Sex is often unprotected, and due to a lack of nightlife outreach programs, condoms are not distributed at parties.
The party community is not shrinking; on the contrary, it’s continuously growing, related to the constant development of electronic music, from psychedelic trance and techno, trough electro and breakbeat, to drum and bass and dubstep. Belgrade is famous for its blooming nightlife, friendly people and 24-hour parties, which suggests that there is a need to develop nightlife outreach programs and focussed harm reduction measures.
Irena Molnar, Re Generation