Australia leads world in ecstasy use

[czak]

proud to be an australian!

hopefully, if more of these imports get siezed it will make it more profitible/viable for local "cooks" to produce mdma instead of methamphetamine.

The demand is high...

 

[Bent]

Re: Australia "currently" Leads the World in Ecstasy Use

were dropping more pills than a nurse on wobbly roller blades.

ROTFLMAO

 

[lostpunk5545]

Re: Australia "currently" Leads the World in Ecstasy Use

During the mid to late 90's, Britain and Europe together were dropping more pills than a nurse on wobbly roller blades. At the same time, while the major centres of Australia were enjoying the uprising club/rave/dance scene, the rest of our soon to sprout ravers were still head banging to Jimmy Barnes or toe tapping to sexy Slim

That reminds me of a night recently in which a group of about 4 of the biggest bogans you will ever encounter (Read: Flanno's, about 30-45ish, missing lots of teeth), were pilling in one of the seediest pubs around my place. They were rocking out to Aussie classics and hugging each other.

Most surreal night of my life.

 

[frog_e]

Re: Re: Australia "currently" Leads the World in Ecstasy Use

That reminds me of a night recently in which a group of about 4 of the biggest bogans you will ever encounter (Read: Flanno's, about 30-45ish, missing lots of teeth), were pilling in one of the seediest pubs around my place. They were rocking out to Aussie classics and hugging each other.

Most surreal night of my life.

as much as i dislike "Farnsey" and all things that involve flanelette... i'm really happy that xtc has reached a wider audience, and perhaps a culture that really needs something like pills to bring out some compassion and love instead of farting competetions and bar-fights. I just hope all the little ravers out there don't start getting shitty because the bogans "stole their drug" (and yes i am aware that i'm grossly stereotyping people in flannelette.. but you get my point)

 

[hoptis]

Re: Australia "currently" Leads the World in Ecstasy Use

Perhaps, like Britain and other early bloomers, Australia will soon see a decline in Ecstasy use. But this will in all likelihood be due to fashion - to quote an old dance line "I need a new drug" - and either a newer RC or an older cocaine will take over as the most popular clubbing aid.

While I agree with the contention that Australia is simply following in the footsteps of Britain/Europe who came before us, I'm not so sure that Australia will simply "move on" once it becomes apparent Europe has.

I guess I base this on a personal observation that Australians aren't as cynical as the Brits, and with generally warmer weather all year round, I think that ecstacy has a much greater potential to expand it's influence to a level in this country that's not happened before in other countries.

More than that, it's just a sense I have about the compatiability of the national psyche with MDMA that tells me the two were destined to make magic together. Lol... I know how crazy that sounds.

Don't forget, we were the first country in the world to give women the vote so it's not like Australia is incapable of taking the lead to the rest of the world on divisive issues.

Just daydreaming anyway...

EDIT: Something else I wanted to mention which is what made me think of posting in this thread.

I was on a tram in the Melbourne CBD this afternoon and two guys sitting near me, one of them called his dealer on his phone and asked for help getting a "few of the little ones" for Saturday night. They then openly discussed Green Mitsi's and Yellow 69's on a crowded tram... my jaw almost hit the floor at their audacity (stupidity?).

Also this same news article that started this thread, I noticed was posted on Whirlpool; a broadband forum. The thread is at fourteen pages and growing, which is typical for any drug-related threads that pop up there.

More signs of what it's like to live in the country with the highest per capita number of hungry-hungry-hippos

 

[charlesbronson]

Originally posted by hoptis
More than that, it's just a sense I have about the compatiability of the national psyche with MDMA that tells me the two were destined to make magic together. Lol... I know how crazy that sounds.

Not crazy at all, I'll side with you on that.

Don't forget, we were the first country in the world to give women the vote so it's not like Australia is incapable of taking the lead to the rest of the world on divisive issues.

BUT I won't side with you on that! Let's not take credit for something that our virtuous Kiwi neighbours accomplished well before Australia had the initiative to do it.

Women were celebrating not only their enfranchisement and a major advance towards equality in citizenship, but also - and even more important to many - the chance to influence society. New Zealand was the first country in the world to grant women the vote [in 1893] and congratulations poured in from suffragists elsewhere: the achievement of New Zealand women gave 'new hope and life to all women struggling for emancipation'. The campaign for the vote in remote New Zealand was part of the movement for women's rights in Europe, Britain and its colonies and the United States.

^^ from here

Another link, just for good measure

 

[Wobbled]

I am seriously appalled at the way how people view this whole topic with pride and joy. You should be ashamed of your selves. I think that thinking like that is very imature and you people should grow up. Now im not saying that I don't contribute to this total but for people think that this is a great thing to happen to this country even if it's true or false is really fucked up. Even if drugs were legalised and acceptable(Which i can see happening 50 years down the line when mabey %90 of the population are on drugs and all the old folk die out) i still think its completly an unacceptable way view things. If we keep this up we wont have all those worlds best sport teams and we will be shunned upon as drug smugglers and a completly drugfucked nation(also 50 years down the track). The place would become a land of hugging and dancing which would be excellent but our nation would not be the same

I'm hopeing that the people who posted earlier were being sarcastic, if not grow up and im also hopeing phase_dancer is right about this craze dying out because no nation needs to be dependant on drugs that would suck completly

 

[LiquidMethod]

I just hope the price of pills drop.

 

[phase_dancer]

...and im also hopeing phase_dancer is right about this craze dying out because no nation needs to be dependant on drugs that would suck completly

I can see MDMA use possibly reducing with time, but to be honest, I can't see drug taking as a whole diminishing that much. What's around the corner we really can't say, but you can betcha some of these drugs will prove to be just as popular as MDMA has been in recent years. What may change is just where and how the 'new drugs' are manufactured. These substances of the future are unlikely to be as easy to synthesize, so in all likelihood most will originate from within the pharmaceutical or chemical industries. Not necessarily from legal sources, but perhaps diverted or produced by some enterprising individual or company.

One might argue that no company is going to spend a fortune developing something which will at best bring about unfavorable public response and at worst be banned the moment it becomes popular. But it's almost a sure thing that such compounds already exist, tucked away in the vast libraries of the pharm giants.

These substances are the products of drug discovery, involving processes where up to several hundred compounds are produced simultaneously and later screened for activity. All it would take is for someone with this knowledge to take it a step further. Remember that not all drugs, the moment they are produced are automatically stamped illegal. This is particularly true in relation to countries which don't have a comprehensive analogues law.


On a different slant, there's been some talk in the past of substances which are benign when taken alone, but become active when mixed and taken together and there's also the novel approach to letting your enzymes "do the walking" so to speak; see fastandbulbous's thread on Using the body to make drugs

There's also this from TiHKAL. It received quite a bit of comment when first discussed.

... Tryptophan, a natural and nutritionally essential amino-acid, is a centrally active intoxicant and sleep-provider in man. It is converted metabolically to tryptamine which is a little bit psychedelic. When administered with methionine (another amino-acid known to methylate things) it produces methylated tryptamines, the two best studied being N-methyltryptamine (NMT) and N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT). The effects that result are hard to categorize, reflecting the diagnostic status of the patient. But something happens. In short, tryptophan, alone or in combination with MAO inhibitors or methyl donors, is a fabulous tool for exploring brain function.

from TiHKAL # 53 hosted by Erowid

Laws and monitoring may eventually mean that todays drugs are not viable to smuggle or even deal in, but while there's a market for getting high, divisive means by which to create new (or rehash old) drugs will definitely surface. It's the desire to get high that needs to change, but as history has repeatedly shown, this will probably never happen, particularly as current uprise in the desire to use drugs is more a product of the expectations of a modern society.


Hold tight, the future will be full of strange and wonderful [?] things, and those things will each likely bring with them new and perhaps more dangerous practices. Unless demand is magically reduced, or until drugs become legal commodities, those interested in making big money from illegal drugs will - to quote another line from Layercake- always find a way to "make hay while the sun shines"

 

[hoptis]

I was wondering the other day just where the statistic came from so I did a bit of research, especially as a friend had asked me in response, "Surely England must be higher?".

The ABC News article in the original post was based on the ACC Illicit Drug Use report for 03/04 year which can be found here.

That report itself doesn't make any findings about ecstacy use in Australia, per capita.

A short search later, I found the claim made in a UNODC Annual Report.

The highest levels of ecstasy use were reported from

Australia (3.4% of the population age 15-64 in 2001),
followed by Ireland (3.1% of the population age 18 and above in 2002),
the Czech Republic (2.5% of the population age 15-64 in 2002),
New Zealand (2.2% of the population age 15-64 in 2001),
the UK (2% of the population age 16-59 in 2003),
Spain (1.8% of the population age 15-64 in 2001),
the province of Ontario in Canada (1.8% of the population age 18 and above in 2000),
the USA (1.3% of the population age 12 and above, equivalent to 1.6% of the population age 15-64)
and the Netherlands (1.5% of the population age 15-64 in 2001).

From United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime World Drug Report 2004: Chapter 2.4 - Trends (Amphetamine-type substances)

Of course the data from those surveys is back in 2001, it'll be interesting to see more recent statistics like those above on per capita use by country. Sorry if this is common knowledge.

 

[Infinite Jest]

Sorry to be bumping this after several weeks, but it was linked in the Lounge and I thought it might be worth commenting.

As the previous poster said, the statistic was for the percentage of the population who had used ecstasy in the past 12 months - even if they had only used it once. NOT the total consumption per person. (Because there is no way you guys are ahead of the Brits on that one).

The UN study, on which it is based, is not very credible.

As an example of their methodology: "how do we find out how many people in New Zealand use drugs?" Answer: go ask some Australian researchers. They didn't even look at the published NZ literature or talk to any of our researchers. Seems a little suspect. Our researchers, for example Chris Wilkins, who is the expert on illicit drug use in NZ, thinks the report is low quality.

On the topic at hand: that study shows the percentage of people in the population who used a drug at least once in the previous 12 months. What it doesn't show is how *often* they took the drug. Now in NZ, we have a usage rate comparable to the UK or the US - but the majority (over 60%) of people who used ecstasy in the last 12 months only used it once or twice. Whereas in the UK, they are using many more times, and doing many more pills, than that.

I would wager anything you like that the same, or similar, holds true for Australia (maybe more than once or twice a year, but surely less than in the UK).

Also, the UN report itself says that people in NZ and Australia might be more likely to report drug use than people in other countries, because we have relatively free and open societies. (I would have thought that the Brits would be just as likely to report use as we are, but I could be wrong).

 

[DeSpise]

nice

this is fantastic news. *golf clap*

im currently 'taking a break' and all that, but fuck it... i will have to drop one to celebrate!

whos with me :D