He hangs out with young, eager women. But every night he's at the Hot Spot disco in Beijing, and nearly each time he's high on the drug ecstasy. Ecstasy is spreading throughout China like wildfire. While heroin and amphetamines remain more common, ecstasy's explosive growth and broad appeal have caught drug enforcement officials off guard. Its rapid spread demonstrates how a generation of youth reared on promises of a workers' paradise is reacting to a complicated reality of unimagined prosperity, broken homes, unemployment and corruption.
People have money.
Now they need something else. That's why something like Falungong is so popular. References to the outlawed spiritual movement come up often in conversations about ecstasy. That link reflects the way casual drug use may pose a similar threat to the Communist Party's ideological monopoly. Not that ecstacy users are protesting in Tiananmen Square.