I'll go out on a limb and as in part its a generational thing.. Most "kids" (18 - 27 or so) have grown up watching a social switch and moment that has had "public" figures like Snoop dog smoking out on national TV. It has been common place the last 15 years or so in the media ( TV, Movies, Music Videos ect) for people to be using substances that are not legal.. You fast forward to the past few years and now "POT" is legal in a few states, legal for medical uses in even more and there is a push for national legalization ....
As someone who was a child of the 1980's and subjected to the "D.A.R.E." and "Just Say No" campaigns from the Reagan era its almost been shocking seeing such open uses, much less "acceptance " in popular culture as a whole..
I think a lot of what we are witnessing now, here in the USA, is the Death of the War on drugs.. I mean, I am sure that the D.E.A. will hold on as long as they can to fight everything that they can.. But it's really does have a half life at this point.
The more substances like "molly" make its into general "pop" culture the more they are accepted by the masses.. The more the masses see there is no issues with it, the more open people and the media become about it.. I have seen T-shirts asking "Have you seen Molly"..... "Any one want to hang with Molly or Mandy tonight" ... " Love that girl Molly, She's so pretty and white" I mean OMG!!! These are commercially produced shirts with MDMA references on them!! The first I think any of us (post the 1960's that is) have seen open, public and often times commercial uses of "drug" references was when the Maryjane leaf started popping up on stuff in the late 1980's and 1990's.. a lot of it came from the reggae sorts at first then it speared thru the "Hip Hop" community as Acceptable .........YES there have been other references before this.. Psychedelically minded posters, head shop art ect.. but not openly commercial, on TV, in our Music ect.. Since the Rock of the 1960's and 1970's and even then.. you were of a small sub culture (hippies for the most part, GO Dead HEADS!! lol) and not openly accepted by the masses as part of our culture.
I had a moment of WTF when I heard Empire State of Mind from Jay-Z and heard "Came here for school, graduated to the high life, Ball players, rap stars addicted to the limelight, MDMA got you feeling like a champion
The city never sleeps, better slip you an Ambien" I was like.. NO FUCKING WAY!!! I had to go pull it up on line and listed to it a few more times and pull the lyrics.. The cultural lines that have been in place for this substance had always sort of ended with the EDM scene for the most part here in the states ( I can't speak for other countries) for the most part.. if you were not between the age groups of your late teens to MAYBE late 30's at most (on avg.. I know some older rollers too.. but.. ) into EDM music of some sort you were not interested in MDMA.. if I want to push that a bit further I could even add in racial profiling here in the states as well, but I really don't want to go there.. It seems as the "little MDMA bubble" has popped and now all kinds of people are interested in it..
To this end I actually had what, at the time, felt like a very weird conservation about a year ago with someone about Rolling and music.. They asked what I like to listen to while rolling.. I think I must have gotten a "DUH" look on my face as they said "WHAT?" all wide eyed.. I really can't fathom trying to listen to anything that is not at least some what EDM based music wise while rolling.. I mean.. I have some "DARK" music that is EMB and some times that can work, mostly on the come down or candy flipping.. but other wise.. NO .. I just cant think of listing to rock, hard core, rap.. It blew my mind a bit that anyone could.. I have tried just as an experiment once or twice to flip something different on.. it did not last very long.. the energy just seems wrong.. the flow.. all of it..
I would be really interested to know what someone like Jay-Z would listen to while rolling...am I alone in wondering something like this?