NEWS: SMH 24/05/06 "Sniffer dog warning as ecstasy use rises"

Sniffer dog warning as ecstasy use rises

By David Braithwaite

May 24, 2006 - 3:04PM

Police sniffer dogs are more likely to cause, not stop, drug abuse, a Sydney drug summit heard today.

As ecstasy use rises, the focus should shift from police busts to pill testing and other ways of reducing harm, a drug researcher told the International Conference on Drugs and Young People.

Jennifer Johnston, of Melbourne's Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre, told the conference that more people now take ecstasy, despite efforts to cut its supply.

But she warned that sniffer dogs - now widely used by police in Sydney venues - could be doing more harm than good.

She said there was anecdotal evidence that some drug users confronted by sniffer dogs were swallowing all their pills to avoid detection.

"We're certainly concerned about reports people have seen sniffer dogs and got rid of their pills, sometimes four or five, by taking them," she said.

Ecstasy was now used by 3.2 per cent of the population, up from 2 per cent in 1993, and 12 per cent of 20 to 29 year olds, according to a 2004 National Household Drug Survey of about 30,000 people.

Ms Johnston said the typical ecstasy user is 24 years old, well-educated and employed or studying.

"Supply reduction doesn't seem to be having an impact - ecstasy is readily available and it is relatively cheap," she said.

"The three approaches - supply, demand and harm reduction - are all important.

"However, supply and demand reduction are quite well-funded in comparison to harm reduction.

"Given the increasing levels of use, it appears supply and demand reduction don't appear to be working at the moment in regards to ecstasy."

She said targeted messages could reduce risky behaviour among ecstasy users.

"More emphasis should be placed on harm reduction - given the increasing levels of use, we're responsible for keeping people safe," she said.

The testing of pills at parties and nightclubs had proved effective in reducing harm and educating ecstasy users overseas, Ms Johnston said.

"[The government} would do well to look at it - there is evidence it reduces use and is a good way of getting other messages across," she said.

Test kits for ecstasy pills were in themselves not illegal in NSW, a police spokesman said.

Professor Howard Parker from Manchester University told the conference that while drug use in Britain had levelled off, youth drinking was on the rise.

"There's a message there that if [Australia] is not careful, when people get bored with illegal drugs, they will get back to their favouriate drug: alcohol," he said.

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Ecstasy use 'on par with drinking'

The Australian, 24 My 2006, journalist Katherine Danks


MORE than 650,000 Australians have used ecstasy in the past 12 months, with some users believing that popping a pill was on par with having a drink, a drug expert said. Jennifer Johnston, a research fellow from the Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre in Melbourne, said the number of ecstasy users had increased steadily in the past decade.

Ecstasy was now consumed by couples at home, and even in the workplace by some hospitality staff. "We've got about 3.2 per cent of the Australian population who have used it within the last 12 months," she said. The drug cut across most sections of society, but many users were aged in their 20s, well educated and employed or studying, she said. "It's becoming such a widespread behaviour that we're going to see it (ecstasy use) across all types of people," she said. "Certainly within some groups, popping a pill is considered on par to having a drink,(these people believe) it's not even worth commenting about."

The Australian Crime Commission's Illicit Drug Report, released in April 2005, found 20 per cent of the 20 to 29-year-old age group admitted experimenting with the drug. It said the main producers of ecstasy continued to be clandestine laboratories in the Netherlands and Belgium, but local producers and Australia's regional neighbours were also in on the act. As a result of these suppliers, the report found, ecstasy was easily obtainable.

In a speech delivered at the International Conference on Drugs and Young People in Sydney, Ms Johnston said ecstasy's popularity showed government efforts to reduce supply and demand for the drug had had little effect. She said funding would be better directed at harm minimisation strategies for users, including safe levels of water consumption. "These strategies don't seem to have been working, so we need to be looking at keeping people who are using these drugs safe while they do so," she said. "For the vast majority of people it will be a stage that they pass through and then they will get on with their lives, and I think we need to be seeing it (ecstasy consumption) within that context."

She said there was evidence that levels of usage were stabilising in some countries and decreasing in others. That would probably happen in Australia in years to come as cultural habits changed, she said.

http://theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19243227-23289,00.html

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