Substance use, harm reduction attitudes and behaviors among attendees of nature rave parties in Israel

Substance use, harm reduction attitudes and behaviors among attendees of nature rave parties in Israel

Although since the late 1980s there has been a large Israeli rave scene (called ‘Nature Parties’), only a few studies have been conducted among nature party attendees, and almost all of them are from a qualitative perspective. This study’s aim was to fill the gap and conduct quantitative research to investigate the patterns of substance use, harm reduction attitudes and behaviors among Israeli nature rave party attendees.

Methods: A cross-sectional online survey recruited 1,206 people who reported having attended nature rave parties, of whom 770 (64%) were male, aged 18 - 60 years (M =29.9; SD= 7.4 ).

Results: The most common illegal substances used at Israeli nature rave parties in the past year were cannabis (62.2%), follow by LSD (41.4%), MDMA (31.7%), mushrooms/psilocybin (23.9%), ketamine (19.6%) and cocaine (17.2%). A significant but weak association was found between harm reduction behaviors and harm reduction attitudes (r = .26, p < .001) and attitudes towards drug testing kits (r =.33, p < .001). Logistic regressions demonstrated that stronger associations with harm reduction behaviors showed high level of positive attitudes toward harm reduction drug testing kits (OR = 4.53; CI 2.97–6.90; p < .001), high level of positive attitudes toward harm reduction interventions (OR = 4.06; CI 2.62–6.29; p < .001), , using MDMA (OR = 1.63; CI 1.19–2.23; p < =.01) and using LSD (OR = 1.41; CI 1.03–1.94; p < =.05).

Conclusions: Formal harm reduction policy and interventions are needed for Israeli nature rave parties, in addition to prevention and information programs which are also very rare. Future studies should examine the subject of harm reduction attitudes and behaviors among the public, policy makers and professionals.