The
aim f the study was to compare self reported “ecstasy” use with the results
of the analysis of hair harvested from the same users. Subjects were recruited
by multisite chain-referred sampling within the 1994-95 “dance scene” in
Glasgow. One hundred subjects donated hair after completing a lengthy
interviewer-administered questionnaire. Overall gross concordance between self
reported “ecstasy” use and discovery of MDMA (or related compounds) in
analysed hair did not surpass 59%, and no relationship had a Cohen’s kappa of
more than 0.08. Within the positive concordant dataset (n=52), scatter was
considerable, with no correlation being significant, and none more strongly
positive than –0.0518. The results presented here indicate that, as far as
MDMA is concerned, if judged by self-report, hair does not reach a level of
apparent accuracy that would permit its use as a general population estimator.
However, hair testing is probably more reliable than self-report, and its
accuracy could be verified independently if large-scale inter- and
intra-laboratory comparative research is conducted.