NEWS: Courier-Mail - The Drugs Scrouge

[hoptis]

Booze and pills toxic mix
Article from: The Courier-Mail
Matthew Fynes-Clinton
March 29, 2009 11:00pm

TAKE today's typical ecstasy consumer, remove the drug from their lifestyle and what would remain? A dangerously heavy drinker.

Five years since the first Ecstasy and Related Drugs Reporting System – an annual federal health department-funded study tracking patterns of ecstasy use – this conclusion is inescapable.

In the Queensland tranche of the research, involving a different group of more than 100 regular ecstasy users each year, 62 per cent reported drinking alcohol while under the influence of ecstasy in 2003.

After marginal growth in 2004 (63 per cent) and 2005 (64 per cent), the number of those mixing alcohol with ecstasy rose to 80 per cent in 2006 and to 83 per cent a year later.

But not only is ecstasy (or MDMA) increasingly being washed down with alcohol, it is at saturation levels.

In 2007, 88 per cent of those who reported drinking with ecstasy did so at a rate of more than five standard drinks.

In 2005, only 50 per cent of the comparative group surpassed the five-drink mark.

Employing an established screening tool, the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, EDRS researchers found six in 10 ecstasy users from the 2007 Queensland sample to be at risk of "acute alcohol-related harm".

Rod Irvine, a world-renowned ecstasy boffin at the University of Adelaide's Department of Pharmacology, says the long-term effects of bingeing on MDMA and alcohol could include brain damage.

"The combination of taking these drugs and alcohol is certainly going to increase your chances of a psychological disorder or a cognitive disorder in the future," he says.

Principal EDRS investigator Stuart Kinner, from the Queensland Alcohol and Drug Research and Education Centre, warns of the "increasing normalisation"' of ecstasy.

He says an especially large spike has occurred in the state's number of female ecstasy users, identified as "hazardous and harmful" drinkers (69 per cent in 2007, up from 46 per cent).

"Ecstasy started off being an underground rave thing where people would use it and nothing else because (it was seen) as pure and wasn't like using alcohol," Dr Kinner said.

"What's happened is that the whole culture has become mainstream. We're seeing people increasingly using in licensed environments and drinking with ecstasy in risky ways.

"And we're seeing young women drinking with ecstasy at the same levels as young men."

Dr Kinner says ecstasy users are also dabbling in at least one other illegal drug.

"Poly-drug use is absolutely the norm," he says. "It's not the case anymore that you have people who use ecstasy or use cannabis. Almost everybody in the (2007 EDRS Queensland study) had used at least two illicit drugs. Typically, it's ecstasy and cannabis . . . plus (there's) a range of other substances."

Dr Kinner says users try to offset the comedown from ecstasy – often punctuated by anxiety, depression and disorientation – with cannabis, more alcohol or benzodiazepines such as Valium.

One of the 29 ecstasy experts consulted as part of the EDRS reported Valium consumption among "E" users was "normal, rather than the exception."

Courier-Mail

 

[hoptis]

How addiction leads to jail
Article from: The Courier-Mail
Matthew Fynes-Clinton
March 29, 2009 11:00pm

The nexus between narcotics and crime is felt every day in police stations, courts and jails, writes Matthew Fynes-Clinton.

FIFTEEN minutes after excusing himself from our interview at the Southport Courthouse, the prominent criminal barrister returns to our tiny room on the fourth floor.

"I've just a had a quick video-conference with a client of mine," he says restlessly, "who's been charged with a hold-up on a chemist where he's allegedly stolen money and pseudoephedrine-based drugs.

"He's already in custody in relation to an alleged sexual offence that he committed whilst under the influence of ecstasy."

The barrister emits a sharp, stress-relieving laugh.

"It tells a story," he says.

"Every robbery I've done this year, bar one, has been drug-related. Break and enters, armed hold-ups, snatch-and-grab handbags, breaking into cars.

"Anything to get their hands on money – or phones or cameras or other easily-disposable items.

"I've known addicts and they will just quite literally do anything to get their hands on money because they need that hit. It's that bad."

The latest Justice Department figures supplied to The Courier-Mail show Queensland Supreme and District Court sentences for the most serious drug offences have risen dramatically.

In 2006-07, 187 sentences were meted out for drug trafficking – up from 126 the previous year – and 313 offenders were sentenced for supplying a dangerous drug (260 in 2005-06).

Corrective Services department sources say drugs are linked in some way to offences committed by 75 per cent of Queensland's prison population.

The Australian Institute of Criminology, a federal statutory authority, has since 1999 been attempting to unravel this ugly tapestry with its Drug Use Monitoring In Australia program.

The scheme involves the quarterly collection of drug analysis information from detainees at police stations or watchhouses.

Ten sites across Australia participate – including the Brisbane City and Southport watchhouses – taking voluntary urine tests from alleged offenders and issuing questionnaires.

Almost 4000 detainees were interviewed in 2007, 79 per cent of them submitting to the drug swab. Sixty-six per cent of tested detainees were positive to any drug (cannabis, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, ecstasy or highly addictive prescription tranquillisers, often used illicitly, known as benzodiazepines).

In Brisbane, 23 per cent of men charged with crimes such as robbery, assault, fraud, theft, drug use and supply tested positive to methamphetamines – ahead of benzodiazepines (22 per cent), heroin (13 per cent) and cocaine (1 per cent). Cannabis use was highest at 49 per cent.

Forty-four per cent of Brisbane women detainees said they had taken methamphetamine in the 30 days before, exactly the same number who reported smoking cannabis in the previous month.

However, methamphetamines alone topped the list when it came to men and women who tested positive for a drug and also had faced recent criminal charges.

Seven in 10 male detainees and 72 per cent of females who returned positive methamphetamine tests at the Brisbane watchhouse reported being charged with a crime within the preceding year.

Queensland Chief Justice Paul de Jersey says drug abuse has become "emblematic of large parts of trendy young society".

"But," he adds, "the extent of the phenomenon is not limited by age or social barrier.

"Now, the majority of crime has some drug link."

Courier-Mail

 

[hoptis]

'He smashed indestructible door'
Article from: The Courier-Mail
Trent Dalton
March 29, 2009 11:00pm

The take-down room with its 'indestructible' door - which has been broken several times.

IT is called the "take-down room", a hard-walled cell in the Gold Coast Hospital's short-stay emergency ward, and it has a thick plastic window for light and a 10cm-thick door designed to be indestructible.

Three months ago a male steroid user in an amphetamine-induced psychosis bashed the door down, according to the emergency ward's director David Green.

The door has been destroyed five times.

"It's been kicked, trashed and set alight," says Dr Green, who, with other doctors and nurses on his staff, has had to complete several courses in aggressive behaviour management.

"In drug-induced psychosis there's a lot of interpersonal violence that presents here. We're often needing police. We're always needing security. Often we're needing large amounts of sedative drugs to control them."

The take-down room, says Dr Green, is needed "once or twice most days".

Liz Phillips, a clinical nurse consultant and part of the hospital's acute mental health team, recalls an ice addict bashing on the take-down room door with such ferocity he broke his arms. The man didn't realise his bones were broken until he emerged from his psychotic state, days later. "They seem to be unaware of any physical limitation," says Ms Phillips. "They just seem to go like a wild animal."

Inside the take-down room, Dr Green reads a message scratched into the plastic window: "Kill your idols."

"Self-mutilation, trauma, falls from heights, genital mutilation, all sorts of bizarre behaviours that would not have happened if the person was not intoxicated with amphetamines," he says.

"Heroin was really easy compared to this. They were mostly sedated. Much easier to manage. And we had an acute reversal agent, Narcan, which we don't have with ice. We don't see much heroin at all anymore.

"Amphetamines is a much bigger problem, particularly ice. We have a highly concentrated drug, usually used intravenously, with much higher peak levels of the drug which obviously causes ongoing brain injury."

Amphetamines increase impulsiveness, says Dr Green. While people intoxicated with alcohol may be aggressive, they're less motivated and less co-ordinated. People with amphetamine-induced psychosis can be extremely violent and co-ordinated.

The emergency ward's deputy director David Spain, recently conducted a study that found almost a third of the "extreme behavioural disturbances" presented to the hospital were related to amphetamine use.

"We're the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff," Dr Green says. "Amphetamines increase the numbers of patients we see in a wide range of areas: domestic violence, depression, drug-induced psychosis, trauma, motor vehicle accidents and a whole range of issues related to drug use such as infection and chronic mental illness.

"You've got to treat the most urgent cases first. That puts pressure on waiting times. If people stopped using amphetamines it would make our job a lot easier."

Ms Phillips has worked 31 years in public mental health.

"I'm well-known for despairing," she says.

"And after 31 years, you do start to despair.

"Since deinstitutionalisation, we now see people who would have had chronic mental problems anyway, made a thousand times worse by drug use. And drugs that are so incredibly powerful now and so massively addictive."

Ms Phillips despairs most for what she calls the "frequent flyers", the people who choose to live on the streets of the Gold Coast so they can spend their rent money – or their unemployment benefits or disability pensions – on amphetamines that already are considered cheap in comparison to the heroin of yesteryear. They drop in on the comedown days – Monday is one of the busiest days in the ward, says Dr Green.

Ms Phillips says the minor drug dealers will drop in with their clients.

"But the drug dealer doesn't care," she says.

"They deal to support their own habit. They don't care what misery they inflict."

What's more, in a time of financial crisis, in a state with minimal available housing and worsening levels of unemployment, Ms Phillips fears the numbers of young people with amphetamine-induced mental problems needing her assistance will only increase in the coming years.

"There's a lack of coping mechanisms," she says.

"We see people come in here saying, 'Oh, my iPod's broken, I'm going to kill myself'. The drug taking is so negative.

"It's wipe yourself out. It's obliterate yourself. There's a sense of desperation and misery in them that drives them to drug use. It's a societal thing. It's bigger than just a mental health issue."

Courier-Mail

 

[hoptis]

The price we pay for using
Article from: The Courier-Mail
Matthew Fynes-Clinton
March 29, 2009 11:00pm

THESE faces are windows to a resident evil: amphetamine drugs that are killing and maiming, tearing families apart, hurting business, choking courts, overwhelming the mental health system and dominating child abuse and neglect cases.

Initially shell-shocked by the chaos surrounding her daughter's "speed" addiction, grandmother Sue recalls a drug counsellor's empathy. "She said to me, 'Do you know that one drug addict directly or indirectly affects 75 people?"'

Two young women dead. A traffic cop beaten to within an inch of his life. A pharmacist robbed, a mum on the run, a paramedicducking for cover.

A champion athlete swaps Olympic silver for prison browns. The son of a once-prominent politician awaits his fate. The lives of a talented lawyer and her baby son, extinguished.

Australia is the largest per capita consumer of ecstasy in the world according to the UN's 2008 World Drug Report, which puts our consumption ahead of the Czech Republic, New Zealand, the UK, Estonia, Hungary, Canada and the US.

In the 2007 National Drug Strategy Household Survey, a record 608,400 Australians – aged 14 or more (3.5 per cent of the population) – admitted to taking the psychoactive drug in the preceding 12 months.

Police say that every weekend 100,000 ecstasy pills are ingested across the nation. And while there is evidence the "ice" epidemic has slowed, it is hardly a thaw.

The NDS reports that methamphetamine in its various forms – including base, speed (powder) and the crystalline ice – is annually consumed at least once by one in 40 or 395,000 Australians aged 14 and over.

Only The Philippines and El Salvador have more users per head of population, the UN claims.

One fact beyond dispute is that amphetamine-type stimulants have trickled from dark corners into our homes, pubs and clubs.

The most alarming outcome is the tide of youth mixing binge drinking with drugs. In the 1990s, when ecstasy was largely confined to underground venues and the alternative "rave" scene, users eschewed alcohol in favour of water.

Fast-forward to a 2007 Federal Government-funded study – the annual Ecstasy and Related Drugs Reporting System – and 83 per cent of regular Queensland ecstasy users report consuming alcohol while using the drug.

Of those, almost nine in 10 say the amount of alcohol consumed is more than five standard drinks.

Just two years earlier, only 50 per cent of those who took ecstasy with alcohol did so at such levels.

The 2007 Household Survey also found 88.8 per cent of methamphetamine users had consumed alcohol with that drug.

It is this cocktail that many police and health workers suspect is behind the wave of violence and assaults at entertainment precincts over recent years.

Methamphetamine mimics adrenaline by stimulating the central nervous system, boosting energy and often leading to acute psychosis marked by paranoia and rage, says Royal Brisbane Hospital addiction psychiatrist Mark Daglish.

"If you're paranoid and disinhibited, you're more likely to get into a fight," Dr Daglish says.

"Because if you think someone is stalking you or about to attack you, you can get your retaliation in first."

The latest Australian Crime Commission figures show that in 2006-07, the number of arrests for amphetamine-type stimulant offences leapt 28 per cent on the previous year.

But an ongoing Australian Institute of Criminology program drills deeper by examining the relationship between drugs and all crime – including robbery, violent assaults, fraud and theft – from interviews and urinary testing of police watchhouse detainees.

In 2007, almost a quarter of alleged offenders tested positive to speed or ice, up from 11 per cent in 1999. Of these, one in five offenders claimed all their crimes were methamphetamine-related.

Forty-eight per cent of detainees who had been charged with an offence in the previous 12 months confessed to having taken an illicit drug before committing one or more of the crimes.

The Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation calculates the community cost of illicit drugs at $6.7 billion a year.

Losses to business productivity are $800 million through a reduced workforce and $339 million due to absenteeism. Drug-related crime costs are estimated at $3.2 billon, while crime attributable to illicit drugs and alcohol used together tally $1.3 billion.

"But the biggest cost is to the individual," Dr Daglish said. "You're more likely to spend time in jail. You're more likely to lose your job, your family, your care of your kids. You're more likely to die."

Courier-Mail

 

[hoptis]

Drugs menace uncovered
Article from: The Courier-Mail
Matthew Fynes-Clinton and Michael Crutcher
March 29, 2009 11:00pm

FOR many Queenslanders, it's viewed as a problem that affects only our young and reckless. But so-called party drugs are a curse on many more than Generation Next.

From the warmth of family homes to the chill of prison cells; from flashy nightclubs to sterile hospital wards, the drug curse is reaching further into the state every day.

Almost one in every two Queenslanders knows of someone whose life has been affected by "party" drugs, according to a Galaxy Poll taken for this newspaper this month.

And seven in every 10 Queenslanders aged 18-34 know someone who has used them.

Today, The Courier-Mail starts a special investigation into the devastation wreaked by these drugs.

Their official name is amphetamine-type stimulants, or ATS.

They include methamphetamine, a far more potent and addictive form of amphetamine than that found on the streets 20 years ago.

The psychostimulant is better known as "ice" or "speed" – drugs so mind-altering that users in their psychotic states have been known to destroy 10cm-thick doors.

MDMA, or ecstasy, also belongs to the amphetamine class, albeit with different effects.

Both drugs are ruinous: complicit in the deaths of addict solicitor Theresa Marchetti and troubled Brisbane 28-year-old Rosie Bebendorf, whose parents Gerry and Neville are still coming to terms with their grief.

Meantime, Nathan Baggaley, 32, a world champion kayaker and a man who twice stood on an Olympic Games medal dais, languishes in jail with his latest title – confessed ecstasy dealer.

Their stories, and others, reveal the toll that drugs are taking in Queensland and the state's struggle to keep pace with the pill epidemic.

This week, The Courier-Mail will reveal the stories of dealers, addicts, shattered families, police, judges, chemists, child safety workers, doctors, lawyers, and customs officials whose lives have been affected by drugs.

Courier-Mail

 

[hoptis]

Time to rid society of the drug curse
Article from: The Courier-Mail
March 29, 2009 11:00pm

THOUSANDS of Queensland families every year have their lives harmed by what are colloquially known as party drugs, a label that underplays the damage caused by the abuse of amphetamine-based substances.

The biggest victims are the users but the harm they cause to themselves fans out to their loved ones. There are also those hurt by the offences that are committed to feed a habit and, ultimately, the taxpayer, who funds a court and prisons system to house addicts riddled by drug abuse.

It was time the community said: "Enough."

Enough looking the other way while young people chance their futures on dangerous drugs. Enough accepting that licensed premises and public places will become drugs bazaars. Enough willingness to keep pouring public money into solving the effects of a problem we need to tackle at the roots.

The Courier-Mail today launches its series, The Drugs Scourge, to highlight the real effects on families and communities of the ballooning use of drugs, euphemistically tagged party drugs. We do so to encourage a louder public debate about the impact of these drugs that are in common usage in Queensland.

During the coming weeks and months, we will tell the stories of families caught in the drug trap, we will take our readers inside the drug trade and we will examine exactly what users of these drugs are taking and the medical impact.

But, most importantly, we want you to be part of the debate. Change happens when informed people make it happen. This series is designed to inform you, to elicit your views and to encourage you to put forward solutions.

This is a traditional path for The Courier-Mail. In recent years we have exposed many shortcomings in our society with the objective of engaging our readers in helping craft solutions. Drugs are a different sort of problem. It cannot be dropped in the lap of any government but governments can take a role in developing solutions before the problem is intractable.

They are more likely to do that when they know voters care. Illegal drugs have always been a scourge on society. They destroy lives but they also corrupt institutions. We must ensure this does not happen in Queensland. Now, more than ever, they need a policy response that moves beyond the traditional law and order debate and takes account of the complexities surrounding modern drug-use habits.

A good policy response will see federal and state governments take a co-ordinated and considered approach to regulation and treatment to the benefit of the many categories of victims of this looming epidemic. And they're more likely to do so with your involvement. We hope this series encourages that.

Courier-Mail

 

[hoptis]

Threat from Afghan connection
Article from: The Courier-Mail
Matthew Fynes-Clinton
March 29, 2009 11:00pm

THERE are about 73,000 dependent methamphetamine users in Australia – almost twice the number of heroin addicts.

But after an 80 per cent fall in opium production in Myanmar (formerly Burma) since the late 1990s – the so-called heroin drought which resulted in Asian drug syndicates switching to manufacturing "ice" and "speed" – health workers note signs of a comeback.

This time, Afghanistan, not Australia's traditional heroin supplier, is fronting the threat. Bumper crops, helped along by improved manufacturing techniques, have led to a recent doubling in output of Afghani, or "brown", heroin.

The drug is cheaper and purer than its South-East Asian white-powder rival.

Earlier this month, Robert Ali, chairman of the Asia-Pacific committee of the Australian National Council on Drugs, raised the alarm – claiming record numbers of heroin border seizures in Australia, and more overdoses.

Cocaine also appears to be growing its once-exclusive user base. According to the latest National Drug Strategy Household Survey, 1 per cent of the population aged 14 and over confessed to recently taking (usually snorting) the drug in 2004, compared with 1.6 per cent (or 281,100 Australians) in 2007.

Other designer drugs such as gammahydroxybutyrate, known colloquially as GHB or fantasy, maintain limited appeal.

Attracting 17,000 users a year, GHB is a colourless liquid often sold in the same small, fish-shaped vials that handle soy sauce.

While the substance may bring about euphoria, it is also used as a drink-spiker in pursuit of sexual assault. Higher doses can promote blackouts.

Marijuana remains the nation's most popular illicit drug; 5.5 million Australians have tried it.

Courier-Mail

 

[hoptis]

Why teenagers try drugs, and how to respond
Article from: The Courier-Mail
March 28, 2009 11:10pm

APPEAL ... there are several common reasons teenagers might try drugs, ranging from peer pressure to a means of perceived escape from other issues. Picture: Cutting Edge: The Meth Epidemic.

HERE are some common reasons teenagers give for experimenting with drugs, and how you might respond.

“Someone had some and I just thought I’d try it.”

Express your concern and question their decision. Ask whether it was what they expected and talk about the risks of further use. Try and find out if they felt pressured – this may lead to better ways for them to handle a similar situation in the future. Consider using examples of times when you have had to deal with a similar situation.


“I always wanted to try that stuff.”

Ask what made that particular drug appealing, and what they expected to get from it. Questions such as “What did you think it would be like?” and “Why that drug?” may be worthwhile. You may be able to discuss whether they have tried other drugs and if so, why. Say that you’re concerned with their behaviour and try to establish some ground rules.

“All my friends were doing it so I thought ... why not?”

Make your feelings about drug use clear and explain why you don’t want them to use drugs. Ask if they felt it was safe because their friends were using it. Ask why they thought their friends used it and whether they were aware of the risks. Discuss the dangers of experimenting with drugs. It may be useful to discuss the importance of being able to make their own responsible decisions instead of following the crowd.


“It made me feel really good.”

Try exploring the main reason the young person took the drug. Find out how they have been feeling. This is a good time to offer help and to find out if there is anything you can do for them or if they want to talk about another issue. Talk about less risky ways of feeling good.

“All my problems from school, home and life just went away.”

This statement is a chance to really confront other issues. You can express your concern about your teenager using drugs as a means of coping. Let them know that if there are problems, you would like to talk about them. Ask what can be done to make things better. Discuss whether the problems returned after the effects of the drug wore off. Express your feelings about the dangers of using drugs to deal with problems. Make it clear that you want to work together to find a better way of solving their problems.

“It gave me more confidence.”

Let them know that this is of concern to you and explain that they don’t need drugs to feel good about themselves. Share your own experiences where you also found it difficult in social situations and explain ways that helped you gain more confidence. These can be both positive and negative experiences. By acknowledging your own behaviour, you will increase your credibility with the young person. Consider ways in which you can help to improve the young person’s confidence and self-esteem.

“Well, you used drugs.”

You should be prepared for this type of response if this statement applies to you. You need to be frank and open with your child. Acknowledge that illicit drugs are dangerous and that you would think differently now. You are an important role model.

Source: Australian Government National Drugs Campaign

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[hoptis]

Ten ways to talk to teenagers about drugs
Article from: The Courier-Mail
March 28, 2009 11:09pm

THERE are ways to broach the subject of drug use with teenagers. Here are 10 methods you can use to help open, honest communication.

Be part of their lives

Make sure that you make time for your children. Take an interest in their interests and establish a routine for doing things together. Don’t be afraid to ask where your teenagers are going and who they will be with. Spending time together as a family is important. For example, try to talk and eat together every day and find other opportunities to enjoy time together as a family.


Listen to them

Showing a willingness to listen will help your children to feel more comfortable about listening to you. Ask for their input about family decisions to demonstrate that you value their opinions. Try not to interrupt or react in a way that will stop further discussion. Encourage them to feel comfortable about telling you their problems.


Be a role model

When it comes to drugs, there is no such thing as “Do as I say, not as I do”. If you take illicit drugs, you can’t expect your child to take your advice. Don’t underestimate the influence your behaviour can have on your children, particularly any use of tobacco or misuse of alcohol and medications.


Be honest

It is important to be informed but don’t pretend to know everything. Be prepared to say “I don’t know but I will try and find out”. Be honest and clear about where you stand so that your children will find it easier to be honest with you.


Pick your moment

Choose the right time to discuss the topic by looking for natural opportunities as they arise. This might be while watching TV, when talking about someone at school or in response to something that was similarly difficult to talk about.


Be calm

Being calm and rational is also important. Don’t overreact. You should keep the lines of communication open and don’t ridicule or lecture. Remember that getting angry will just close the door on further discussion.


Avoid conflict

It is difficult to solve a problem when there is conflict. Try to see their point of view and encourage them to understand yours. If a confrontation develops, stop the conversation and return to it as soon as both of you are calmer.


Keep on talking

Once you’ve had a discussion, it’s important to have another. Ensure that you are always willing to speak to your children about drugs and start early.


Set clear boundaries

Most young people expect and appreciate some ground rules. Allowing them to take part in setting the rules encourages them to take more responsibility for sticking to them. Once you have rules, enforce them and ensure young people know of the consequences of breaking them.

Find and agree to ways young people can act should they find themselves in a situation that exposes them to drugs. For example, let them know that you will always collect them if they need you to, even if it is late at night.

However, make it absolutely clear that you would rather they didn’t put themselves in a situation where they are likely to be exposed to illicit drugs.


Focus on the positive

Reward your children’s good behaviour and emphasise those things they do well. Encourage them to feel good about themselves and let them know that they deserve respect.


Source: Australian Government National Drugs Campaign

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[hoptis]

How to tell if your child might be using drugs
Article from: The Courier-Mail
March 28, 2009 11:04pm

THERE are warning signs that your child might be using drugs. You need to be aware of other reasons that might explain your child's behaviour.

If your are worried that your child might be taking drugs, asking them might be a good way to begin. If your children have told you that they aren't using drugs, but you are still concerned they may be doing so, there are warning signs that a young person may be experimenting with drugs.

The following is intended only as a guide, as many of these signs may be a result of other changes related to development through the teenage years. Please consider how often these warning signs occur, if a number occur at the same time and the extent to which a young person's behaviour or actions have changed.

* A drop in school grades
* A reduction in extracurricular activities (such as an unexplained dropping-out of sport or other activies of interest)
* Bloodshot or glassy eyes
* Lethargy and loss of motivation
* An unexplained change of friends
* Unusual or irregular behaviour
* Mood swings
* Minimal interaction with the family
* Valuable items or money missing
* Changes in eating patterns
* Agitation, anxiety, jitteriness
* Sleeping problems, including not sleeping
* Aggression



If you think your child might be using drugs, it is important that you discuss the issue with your teenager.

Let them know that you are concerned about their wellbeing and that they might be using drugs. You may not be able to discuss this easily, but don't give up. Be open with them so that they are encouraged to be open with you. Otherwise, you won't get the full story of what is going on in their life. Discuss with them what they consider to be the benefits and consequences of using drugs. This may provide the opportunity to give them new information about the risks of drug use.

Where do you go for help?

Don't be afraid to ask for help. A range of support and services is available to help both the person using drugs and their family and friends. Remember that you don't need to handle a drug problem on your own. There are many places in your community – doctors, schools, churches and other organisations – that can provide support.

Here is a list of organisations that can help.

Source: Australian Government National Drugs Campaign

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[hoptis]

Where to go for help for drug-related problems
Article from: The Courier-Mail
March 28, 2009 11:02pm

HERE is a list of organisations who offer advice and counselling for families and users affected by drug addiction and abuse.

Alcohol and Drug Information Service (07) 3837 5989 / 1800 177 833 (rural)

Lifeline 13 11 14

Family Drug Support 1300 368 186 www.fds.org.au

Kids Help Line 1800 551 800 www.kidshelp.com.au

Mensline 1300 789 978 www.menslineaus.org.au

beyondblue 1300 224 636 www.beyondblue.org.au

SANE Helpline 1800 187 263 www.sane.org.au

Australian Drug Information Network www.adin.com.au

Headspace www.headspace.org.au

Reach Out! www.reachout.com.au

Counselling online www.counsellingonline.org.au

Indigenous Support www.drugs.vibe.com.au

Quitline 131 848

Source: Australian Government National Drugs Campaign

Courier-Mail

 

[belarki]

^^ Saw this in the paper today, kind of hard to miss being the cover story (taking up the entire front page and 3-4 pages in the middle of the paper). It's crap like this that stops me from buying the courier mail.... waste of the paper it was printed on!

 

[jenkem]

What the fuck! Those last few "articles" are just reprints of sections of Howard's talking to your kids about drugs booklets.

Didn't realise it was this easy to sell newspapers these days... what a fucking joke.

 

[hoptis]

Undercover cop poses as 'ecstasy truckie'
Article from: The Courier-Mail
Greg Stolz
March 30, 2009 11:00pm

THEY met for lunch in a Gold Coast restaurant: an accused drug trafficker, a mystery middle-man and a drug-dealing truckie wanting 1000 ecstasy pills.

But all was not as it seemed. The meeting, in June last year at a Broadbeach restaurant, was being secretly photographed and recorded. The "truckie" was an undercover cop.

Operation Golf Brazen, a 10-month sting which netted authorities millions of dollars in drugs, cash and allegedly ill-gotten property, was going down.

The joint operation by Queensland police, the Australian Crime Commission and Crime and Misconduct Commission, led to police raids on 40 properties across southeast Queensland and NSW and the arrest of 15 people, including Brisbane drag racing identity Brett Stevens.

Pill presses capable of making 1000 pills a minute, $750,000 in cash, thousands of ecstasy pills, several kilos of MDMA powder, motorbikes and high-performance cars were seized.

Among those charged was Vlatko Tesic, who was yesterday committed for trial on 13 charges including trafficking and supplying MDMA (ecstasy).

Two of his alleged underlings, Gianni Santanceto, 21, and Brett Young, 25, both pleaded guilty to drug supply offences, with Santanceto also admitting to trafficking. They will be sentenced in the Supreme Court later this year.

Operation Golf Brazen case officer Sergeant Adam King told the court Tesic was a target of the investigation.

An undercover police officer posing as a drug-dealing truck driver had befriended Tesic and arranged to buy drugs, the court was told.

The drugs were allegedly supplied by intermediaries or "runners" because drug traffickers often "did not want to get their hands dirty", Sergeant King said.

Tesic's lawyer, Damon Locantro, suggested his client was only "trying to help out a mate" in referring the undercover officer to drug suppliers.

Magistrate Dermot Kehoe refused bail, saying Tesic was at risk of re-offending.

Courier-Mail

 

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High's a hazy concept amid costly fakes
Article from: The Courier-Mail
March 30, 2009 11:00pm

REGULAR ecstasy users have long suspected that some pills they buy for up to $40 are duds, and now results released to The Courier-Mail prove they're right.

Results from Queensland Health scientific analysis show that far from urban myth, fake ecstasy is real.

Some pills included no dangerous drugs. Others were created from over-the-counter paracetamol and codeine. There were straight caffeine tablets, and a selection were methandienone, an anabolic steroid.

The samples were among hundreds of different tablets and capsules seized in Queensland police operations in the past year. Despite the absence of mind-altering constituents, the drugs were marketed as ecstasy to duped clients.

QH Forensic and Scientific Services senior chemist Jenny McGowan said pills labelled "no dangerous drugs" were often found to be sugar or fluoride tablets.

QH clinical forensic medicine unit director Bob Hoskins said a steroid such a methandienone would do "nothing" in terms of a high.

He said pills made of paracetamol and codeine were tantamount to a popular headache tablet.

"You can buy them without a prescription at the chemist – they're called Panadeine," he said.

Courier-Mail

 

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Young man's death linked to fantasy
Article from: The Courier-Mail
Robyn Ironside
March 30, 2009 11:00pm

POLICE have ruled out the possibility a "bad batch" of the drug fantasy was to blame for the death of a young man after a party in Kangaroo Point.

Just after 1am yesterday the Queensland Ambulance Service was called to a house where a 26-year-old man had gone into cardiac arrest after taking an "excessive amount" of the designer drug, also known as grievous bodily harm.

Another man, 31, was taken to hospital with symptoms including vomiting.

Police said there were no suspicious circumstances.

"It appears the fellow may have taken an excessive amount combined with a large quantity of alcohol," an officer said.

"It is now a matter for the coroner."

Director of the Queensland Alcohol and Drug Research Centre Jake Najman said fantasy was not popular in Brisbane.

"To the best of my knowledge there is no outbreak, no massive amount of fantasy coming on to the market in Brisbane," Professor Najman said.

"This is the first death I've heard of, as a result of using fantasy."

Although dealers promote the drug as enhancing sexual awareness, when taken in large doses it switches off brain-stem functions and shuts down the respiratory system.

Courier-Mail

 

[hoptis]

Streets awash with lethal cocktail of drugs
Article from: The Courier-Mail
Matthew Fynes-Clinton
March 30, 2009 11:00pm

THREE of the six prescription drugs that led to the overdose death of Hollywood actor Heath Ledger are being sold on Queensland streets as ecstasy.

Backyard manufacturers have switched to the products to maximise profits and swindle users with cheaper, contaminated and potentially more destructive illicit pills.

Oxycodone, diazepam and alprazolam were identified in tablets seized by police over the past 12 months and analysed at Queensland Health Forensic and Scientific Services.

Dubbed "hillbilly heroin" because of its escalating use among addicts in poorer regions of the United States, oxycodone is a morphine-derivative pain reliever.

It is now being shot up more than heroin in Sydney's King's Cross injecting room as a result of a booming black market buoyed by "doctor shopping" – the practice of attending many medical clinics and feigning symptoms to gain access to a prescribed drug.

Tax-subsided oxycodone, retailing for as little as $1.50 a pill under brands such as OxyContin, can fetch $25 per tablet when on-sold illegally.

But the oxycodone Queensland Health found to be masquerading as ecstasy was broken up then cut with paracetemol and caffeine – suggesting the distributor was aiming for even greater profit.

"One of the risks for people is that codeine or morphine allergies are some of the more common allergies," said Dr Bob Hoskins, director of the Queensland Health clinical forensic medicine unit.

"So you think you're buying an ecstasy (pill), and someone's put codeine or oxycodone or morphine in it . . . all of a sudden you've got an anaphylactic reaction and you die."

Dr Hoskins said the sedative alprazolam, cut with caffeine in pills discovered by Queensland police, also could be dangerous.

"You get slurred speech, impaired alertness and impaired memory," he said.

"It also carries the risk of an atypical reaction – more common when combined with alcohol – where rather than having a sedative effect, it causes heightened awakeness, usually associated with uncontrollable aggression."

Diazepam (the sedative Valium) and methamphetamine (speed) – present in other seized pills revealed to The Courier-Mail – could be an explosive cocktail, Dr Hoskins said.

"You could get disinhibition with the diazepam (along) with the heightened aggression and recklessness of methylamphetamine," he said.

"Methylamphetamine is relatively cheap to make. So if you can put a small amount of that together with a prescription drug and sell it for $25 or $30 a tablet, then you're making a pretty good margin.

"All of these combinations try to create some sort of effect so the person thinks they're getting something they paid for. It's fraud."

Ketamine, a frequent whole- or part- substitute for ecstasy, is an animal and human anaesthetic, although rarely used in people these days because it triggers post-operative hallucinations.

"It has dissociative effects," Dr Hoskins said. "If you give an anaesthetic dose, a person still has the appearance of being awake. They're moving, breathing, their eyes open and close. But you can do things to them and they're completely oblivious to it."

Aside from deadly PMA and the strong hallucinogens, LSD and BDMPEA (or 2C-B), also turning up in the Queensland pill market, the Australian Federal Police are deeply concerned by its recent detections.

Tablet analysis from AFP drug hauls has uncovered adulterants including heroin, rat poison and crushed glass – said to cut the stomach to aid absorption of MDMA, providing quicker and stronger effects.

Courier-Mail

 

[hoptis]

Ordinary events altered by influence of ecstasy
Article from: The Courier-Mail
Alex Dickinson
March 30, 2009 11:00pm

ELLIOT didn't listen to his brother's advice: "Don't do it man. Ecstasy will drain your spinal fluid until you snap in the wind like a twig."

Those words didn't stop Elliot taking his first hit of ecstasy during a night out in Brisbane's inner-city entertainment district, Fortitude Valley.

"I was 18, drunk and outside a club in the Valley," Elliot recalls. "A school friend of mine was dishing them out. So I thought, what the hell.

"It looked smaller than a tab of Panadol – harmless. We all raised our beers in a toast and took them at once with a swig of beer."

It is a scene that is repeating itself every weekend on the streets of Fortitude Valley and has reached epidemic proportions. Ecstasy is one of the most commonly used illicit drugs by Brisbane residents.

A university graduate with a successful property career, Elliot is now 24 and says he takes ecstasy about once every three months. He spoke to The Courier-Mail on condition of anonymity.

"When you're on ecstasy, things that seem mundane and everyday suddenly evoke a deep appreciation," he says.

"The weather, the feel of your tongue running along your teeth, or the woolly jumper of the person next to you makes your skin tingle. Everyone around you gives you warm comfort like they're all childhood friends." Elliot says he is far from an addict and, with a long-term girlfriend and strict healthy eating and exercise routine, feels it hasn't taken a toll on his life.

He says it's just another form of escape, like television, computer games, or a game of bridge.

"Euphoria is the only word for it. It starts as a warm glow in your stomach. Kind of a light, comforting tickle before gradually spreading to your head and through your limbs until you feel weightless," he says.

"But anticipation is what it's all about. As soon as you feel the first inklings of the feeling, you know it's only a matter of time before you're right up there. If you're drunk, ecstasy can make you feel better and give you clarity."

According to Elliot, ecstasy is no longer an underground drug taken by bohemians or trendy "druggos". It's taken by doctors, lawyers, accountants, and mothers and fathers. A sociable drug with no stigma.

"Smokers have to isolate themselves and huddle in a fenced area away from the group to get their hit. But if you're on 'X', you don't have to leave the table. You don't smell and nobody knows when you're taking it," Elliot says. "But the nature of ecstasy is that it makes people friendly to each other.

"I take it with my girlfriend all the time and we can just have sex all night. I heard it's been used in marriage counselling and that doesn't surprise me."

But Elliot admits that "what goes up must come down" and ecstasy is no different.

"People factor in a hangover when they plan to get drunk and I do the same with ecstasy," he says. "Like all chemical reactions, a comedown will affect people in different ways."

But Elliot says ecstasy "can turn on you" if you don't treat it with respect.

"Once I took four pills over the course of a night but I've never double dropped (taken two pills as once). Once I overdid it and was a bit down in the dumps and couldn't concentrate at work that whole week. I've learnt not to do that," he says.

"People get into trouble and start dying when they start taking a few pills at once, or mix it with LSD, cocaine, weed or ice."

Courier-Mail

 

[hoptis]

Drug-fuelled revellers rife in night spots
Article from: The Courier-Mail
Josh Robertson
March 30, 2009 11:00pm

THE dancing in the nightclub is celebratory. Young women pump their fists to the music and young men hug each other spontaneously.

The messy, flirtatious and sometimes violent manner of the drunk is nowhere to be seen – but these people are clearly intoxicated.

On top of everything sits the beat, loud and repetitive, reducing conversation to a brief exchange of shouts.

What are these people on?

Take a walk inside a nightclub toilet and you can literally stumble across the answer.

"Hey, some idiot dropped their pills," a young man with a North American accent says.

"Are these your pills?"

The young man has nearly trod on ecstasy on the floor of the men's facilities in the Fortitude Valley venue, a dance club that is one of the biggest in the country.

There's a long line-up for cubicles but plenty of spare urinals, the exact opposite of a pub.

Around the corner at another club, cubicles in the men's don't even lock because the door bolts have been removed.

The lack of privacy hasn't deterred someone from cutting up lines of cocaine on the aluminium surface atop the toilet roll holder.

Nearby, a newer dance club is heaving with hundreds of Saturday night revellers.

The cubicles there certainly do lock, are better-appointed and afford the party drug user several ledges upon which to cut lines of cocaine for snorting or to divide up portions of ecstasy.

The Courier-Mail observes white powder still visible on a ledge beside one toilet cistern.

It could be cocaine, which can set users back $300 a gram, an amount that can nevertheless be consumed in a single evening.

There are no obvious transactions in these drugs at any of the clubs The Courier-Mail visits.

But there must be some dealers willing to sell to strangers.

Earlier this year, a Colombian student working part-time as a Valley nightclub cleaner discovered, at the end of one night, a sealed plastic bag full of pills.

He handed the pills, presumably ecstasy and numbering a hundred or more, to his manager.

Down at another of the precinct's clubs – where a more mainstream brand of dance music and a crowd of mostly 20-somethings play – two girls are heard chatting excitedly together in one cubicle of the female toilets.

It's an inexplicable situation but for the opportunity to share something illicit.

Two other girls emerge together from the next cubicle. It's not an uncommon sight for pairs to stroll out of cubicles.

Outside some clubs stretch lines of people waiting for their chance to get in.

The wait can be up to an hour to enter some venues, where the drinks of choice are vodka and energy drinks that help fuel the energy levels of the crowd.

You won't find many people clasping an old-fashioned pot of beer.

It was the confluence of ecstasy, dance music and dance clubs that saw the birth of rave culture in the 1980s at English clubs like the legendary Hacienda in Manchester.

Andy Williams, drummer of UK group The Doves, was a teenage reveller when the Hacienda was at its height, frequented by bands like the Happy Mondays, who had an early hand in bringing ecstasy to Manchester from London.

"There was a lot of speed before then," Williams tells The Courier-Mail from the UK.

"But when (dance) music, the club and ecstasy . . . when those three factors came together that's what made (it).

"(Ecstasy) went so perfectly well with the music. That's really what kicked the whole thing off."

Williams adds that while he doesn't want to advocate drug use, "there's another side to it".

But that club culture has spread worldwide. And, two decades after its birth, seems more in a state of ascent than decline . . . certainly as far as the city of Brisbane is concerned.

Courier-Mail

 

[hoptis]

Users risk permanent damage to their brains
Article from: The Courier-Mail
Matthew Fynes-Clinton
March 30, 2009 11:00pm

ECSTASY consumption, perhaps as little as "one big exposure", can cause irreversible brain damage, says an international expert on the drug.

University of Adelaide Associate Professor of Pharmacology Rod Irvine said the drug could lead to a generation gripped by early onset of serotonin-depletion diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

"One big exposure" to MDMA could be enough to damage the brain permanently.

"You probably don't necessarily have to (be a user) for a very long period of time," Professor Irvine said.

He said the liver struggled to excrete MDMA from the body after as little as one pill.

"So the concentration goes much higher than you expect," he said.

Brain neurons emitting serotonin, the neurotransmitter involved in regulating mood and memory, are attacked and disabled.

Memory and cognitive harm, and depression – referred to as "Eccie Monday" or "Suicide Tuesday" – were commonly reported by weekend ecstasy users.

"But in the US, tests on monkeys who have been exposed (to ecstasy) and then left drug-free for years . . . when you examine their brains, they've still got this loss of serotonin," Professor Irvine said.

"Even if there is recovery (in the long-term), it's very slow and the brain doesn't make the same connections. So it's unlikely that you're going to have the same functionality as what you had before."

According to the 2008 Ecstasy and Related Drugs Reporting System, an average Queensland user is 24 and employed. One in every two has tertiary qualifications, and typically, two pills are "dropped" every fortnight.

While ecstasy does not appear to be highly addictive, a 32-year-old Brisbane caller to triplej radio earlier this month told of swallowing 15 pills one night.

"It took about two days until I came down properly," he said.

He said that after 15 years of taking the drug, his "short-term memory was shot".

"Another strange symptom after taking MDMA is . . . paralysis – you wake up mid-REM, hallucinate and hear things. You pretty much can't move and panic."

Courier-Mail