Ulster Prevention Council Blog 8-27-13: Dancing with Miley? or Molly?

For the last several weeks I've addressed drug references in song lyrics. This week Miley Cyrus is in the news for a decidedly raunchy performance at the MTV Video Music Awards. However, I was already planning to write about the lyrics to her song "We Can't Stop". While at first she claimed that the lyrics were "dancing with Miley", she eventually conceded that she was referring to the drug Molly, which is often billed as a "pure" form of the club drug ecstasy.
So la da di da di, we like to party
Dancing with Molly
Doing whatever we want
This is our house
This is our rules
And we can’t stop
And we won’t stop
Can’t you see it’s we who own the night
Can’t you see it we who bout’ that life
Miley Cyrus is not the only performer to openly refer to using Molly. Madonna named her 2012 album MDNA and, on stage at the Ultra Music Festival in Miami that same year, she asked the crowd: "Has anyone seen Molly?"
 
Molly has also became popular with hip-hop artists and rappers as well. NBA star LeBron James was caught on camera rapping "popped a Molly, I'm sweatin'" from Trinidad James "All Gold Everything" during a warmup. The video went viral.  "The impact that that song had is what really turned things around for it," said Devron Kelly, one of the hosts of  "Hip-Hop Flavors" on WMNF. "Basically, it's just a new drug, so you're going to have kids experimenting with whatever they hear the latest rappers talking about."  2 Chainz, Nicki Minaj and Kanye West also sing about Molly.
Musical references to "Molly" misrepresent its dangers. It is often billed as a safe high with no side effects. Ecstasy normally comes in a tablet form and is mixed with caffeine or even other illegal drugs. Molly is the same basic drug (MDMA) but without any other ingredients mixed in. The illusion of "purity" gives users a false sense of security. With demand starting to drive up the price of Molly, dealers sometimes are tampering with the pure MDMA, cutting it with other things before selling it. As with other illegal drugs, users never really know the amount taken, and high levels can cause extreme hallucinations, heart trouble and organ failure.
Molly gives people a sense of euphoria. Users report a false sense of calm, lowered anxiety levels, and a skewed view of the world around them. This false sense of well-being can easily be a user's worst enemy by causing them to overlook dangers, leading to injury to themselves and others.
Physical symptoms include high blood pressure, sweating, insomnia, nausea, and uncontrolled teeth-grinding. Teeth grinding contributes to the fad of using pacifiers when out clubbing; lollipops and gum are also often used.
MDMA causes long-lasting damage to the serotonin system, which regulates processing of information and emotions. Use may result in permanent damage to one's ability to learn, pay attention and remember, difficulty sleeping and ongoing depression.
Molly is a Schedule 1 drug, meaning that it is absolutely illegal to sell, distribute, buy, ingest, or own.

Cheryl DePaolo
Director of Ulster Prevention Council