Refinery29
Evan Ross Katz
Originally appearing here.
"I don't pop Molly; I rock Tom Ford," boasts Jay Z on a track off his latest oeuvre, Magna Carta… Holy Grail. And while Hova might abstain, Molly is undoubtedly on the tongues of many, courtesy of a recent haphazard, high-profile media blitz both glorifying and vilifying the drug's ascent. In 2012, Madonna feuded with Deadmau5 after he criticized her for asking the crowd at Ultra Music Festival if they'd seen Molly. And while Electronic Dance Music (EDM) is assuredly Molly's main squeeze, she makes her presence known throughout the lyrics of hip-hop, as well: 2 Chainz, Trinidad James, Lil' Wayne, Kanye, Nicki Minaj, Rick, and RiRi.
But it was the recent controversy over a Miley Cyrus lyric in her new song "We Can't Stop" that set Molly mania into hyperdrive. Early on, Cyrus's record label was vehement in spelling out the lyrics as "dancing with Miley," until Miley herself, testing the limits of candidness, opened up to The Daily Mail revealing: "It depends who's doing what. If you're aged ten it's 'Miley', if you know what I'm talking about, then you know." Molly, for those of us age 10 and over, comes in many forms and goes by many names " though, talk to friends and fans of the popular drug and you'll quickly learn that those who follow are often devout. But there's more to 'her' story.
It all starts with MDMA: It's cheap and increasingly easy to find. Studies have shown varied results in tests for addiction and tolerance in humans, but so far no conclusive evidence suggests that it has the same potential for addiction as other drugs. A recent New York Times article, "Molly: Pure, but Not So Simple," accredited the rise to human desire for interaction on a deeper level. Brad Burge, Director of Communications and Marketing for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, agrees. As he puts it, "We're in a culture where we're feeling so isolated from each other, everything is so mediated and moderated through the Internet, that it depersonalizes it. We're in a country that's in a steep economic decline. This can cause some cultural trauma. People are looking for ways to connect. In certain doses, in certain places, certain drugs can produce this feeling of intimacy."
Refinery29 investigates the recent popularity of the street drug known as "Molly," which is often sold as pure MDMA despite frequently containing harmful contaminants. Public intrigue in Molly has recently been building, and Brad Burge of MAPS proposes one reason for the spike in interest. "People are looking for ways to connect, Burge said. "In certain doses, in certain places, certain drugs can produce this feeling of intimacy."