Do Australians have a "recreational" drugs attitude?

[MazDan]

Each time that there is a drug discussion happenning in the media.........generally following a footballer being busted, ie Bens Cousin or Andrews John, our local ABC radio does a few interesting interviews and the host......... Virginia Trioli has consistently raised the point with those she is interviewing that many many Australians take the view that maybe they will have a nice wine this weekend or maybe they will buy a few pills.

Often her interviewees subscribe to the........"They are NOT recreational" but instead....... "they are illegal or legal" description which is something that many are trying to force us to change the way we view drugs.

Trioli promotes the fact that despite what drug bashers may like to think, the fact is that many Aussies simply do see them as recreational and that maybe its well and truly overdue that we start to open up about this and maybe look at legalising some recreational drugs.

What are your thoughts?

Do you think that Aussies tend to view many drugs as simply recreational?

Is it time for the laws to catch up with the times or is legalisation going to open a whole pandoras box of problems.

Any other ideas?

 

[speedygonzales]

I think Is more to do with the croud you hang out with more than the nationality. I know I use to viewIV drug users as addicticts before I started IVing my self, now I view IV drugs as recreational too

 

[Tortoise]

Is that you talking though, or is it the drug talking? I'm not dissing, it's just that certain drugs (opiates/opiods, I'm looking in your direction...) have a knack of making you think that very thought.

 

[JoeBloggs]

I think a lot of people would be suprised if they were to realise what types of people like to IV things recreationally. All sorts of people do it, sure, a minority, but still a variety of different types of people from all walks of life.

But more on topic, personally I believe that legalisation would create a better situation providing there was some sort of government regulation of the substances. Not total legalisation so to speak, more like a decriminalisation. The whole culture would surface from its seedy underground superhold. There would no longer be the taboo, the lure, the excitement. It would just be viewed as something some people choose to do. Still, in this wonderland scenario there would be a large number of people opposed to the idea. Im referring to the types of people that know nothing other than what the media feeds them, drugs are just bad, could be heroin or weed its illicit drugs so it must be evil. If more balanced information was being fed to these types maybe that could make way for open minds towards decriminalisation. Sadly though there will never be a situation in which all of the voters will be happy, and for now the harm minimisation types seem to be a rather silent minority in the scheme of things.

 

[thinkpink]

I think it's only recreational if you're not dependent on it. If you can go a few weeks or months without taking anything then it's just for fun, but if you can't survive one week or a day then I think maybe there's a problem there.

 

[phase_dancer]

I think it's only recreational if you're not dependent on it. If you can go a few weeks or months without taking anything then it's just for fun.....

Which is undoubtedly what many Australians do.

'Recreational' and 'party' drugs are fitting terms. The use of these terms in official reports and surveys may now be changed, but it's unlikely users in general will feel any different. As for 'up and coming' users; terms used by peers have a far greater influence IMO.

 

[Tronica]

Do you think that Aussies tend to view many drugs as simply recreational?

On the whole, I don't think this is true. I think that a significant minority view *some* drugs (eg, cannabis, ecstasy) as recreational. An even smaller minority would view all drugs as recreational, even then, it depends on how you use them!

I think the majority (if you are thinking whole of Australia, including all ages) believe the Howard govt mantra, that all illegal drugs are inevitably harmful or even wrong. This has been my experience in explaining my research projects to my parents and their friends!

Interesting question!

 

[ilikeacid]

I have many friends who view their drug taking as recreational. These people have normal lives, go to work and uni and are successful at what they do, but every few weeks they decide to let their hair down and indulge a bit with E, speed, sub cocas, G, K, and even occassionally acid - obviously this is only a list of drugs which we do take, only on a BIG night will we indulge in more than 2 of these at once.

I think what the authorities get wrong (constantly) is that viewing drug use as recreational is not nessessarily a bad thing. You can have a recreational attitude to something which is potentially dangerous and still respect it. By forcing the view across that people shouldn't view substance use as recreational the authorities will simply alienate users who refuse to see that taking a pill on the weekend is anything more than a bit of fun. Once again, I think the politics of the phrase "recreational" makes it certain that no government anytime soon will ever take the view that drugs are anything but deadly and life destroying, for if they did they would have to start really looking at their approach to substance use in Australia...

 

[Tronica]

Just a bump on an old thread with an interesting question.

 

[Jakeperson]

An even smaller minority would view all drugs as recreational, even then, it depends on how you use them!

I think the majority (if you are thinking whole of Australia, including all ages) believe the Howard govt mantra, that all illegal drugs are inevitably harmful or even wrong. This has been my experience in explaining my research projects to my parents and their friends!

Thats very true however I believe that the number of people who think that way is growing. Well it seems like it to me from my experiences.

 

[Tronica]

@Jakeperson that seems to be the general consensus (phase_dancer discusses this in his harm reduction thread).

I don't personally find people less tolerant of drug use than 18 months ago (when I wrote that), but I am in an odd social situation, working in the drugs field so my contacts have pretty specific views about drugs that aren't going to sway with the general population. And I haven't had much more 'drug' discussions with my parents and their friends since then. We just don't go there much - it can be maddening!

 

[expothead]

er - i'm having trouble understanding the question...

do aussies see them as recreational? as opposed to what? therapeutic? illegal? non-recreational? or are you referring to non-users? if so, then I think most non-users (ie. the majority) wouldn't have a clue.

i understand the last bit. Yes, it is time we looked at legalisation. we already have a pandora's box with prohibition. and i'm sick of feeling like a criminal.

 

[js2k6]

i'm following exactly what you're saying there tronica.

i was at my friends sisters 18th bday party.. just chilling.
long stories short, she'd invited pretty much 200+ people to a house party, and suprise suprise. a bit of a fight breaks out when people get a bit pissed.

so a few people get pretty badly hurt, and i wind up in a discussion on the balcony about the plight of todays youth. and the parents out there straight away jump on board... blaming all the drugs.
from an outsiders perspective.. there were hardly any.. probably no drugs being consumed. just teenage boys who cant handle a drink

trying to explain to some rather uneducated 40 something, that ice doesn't make people violent. and i can guarantee drugs have nothing to do with that fight...
he was so convinced he was right, and he quite clearly wasnt.

and from that experience i walk away realising theres no way to sway their point of view. and despite the logic and hard evidence.. .ie me... being a complete and utter drug fiend that has never caused one single fucking fight.. staring them straight in the face.
they are oblivious.

ignorance must be bliss. lucky sods.

 

[blau1005]

I reckon some are viewed by most people as recreational eg weed but others like H or ice are not.

As hard as it is to change someone's view, it can also be hard sometimes to get the opportunity to challenge that view. Example: When I was younger, I used to smoke a lot of weed with a certain mate and when his dad found out, he threatened to knock my head off if he ever saw me with my mate again. After a few years he cooled down and we ended up having a bit of a discussion about it. I said it was just a bit of teenage experimentation and he said "yeah, but the problem is when it goes from experimentation to addiction." Now as much as I wanted to tell him that weed is not physically addictive in any way, and that painkillers his son had been prescribed were very addictive, I couldn't. If I had simply told him that weed is definitely not physically addictive, he would have lost it and I couldn't hang out with a good mate anymore. So yeah sometimes I guess it's hard to even challenge people's views, let alone change them.

 

[static_mind]

Sound's like your just trying to win on a techacality. He said it was addictive thats all, weather its physically addictive or mentaly addictive is irrelivent

 

[drug_mentor]

I don't think so, a lot of people are very fucking disapproving of drugs. Sure there are a lot of younger people who don't have anything against a bit of weed, speed or some E's, but they generally look down on a huge variety of drugs, especially ice and heroin but I hear a lot of hating on GHB, LSD and ketamine.

As you go back a generation or two the attitudes get significantly less approving of any drug use whatsoever. My parents for example, no matter what facts or arguments I give them just don't want to hear it. My dad thinks cannabis is "only a little worse than alcohol" but still inherently wrong because its illegal, he says it probably should be but basically he doesn't care at all that it isn't or that people go to jail for it everyday.

 

[blau1005]

Sound's like your just trying to win on a techacality. He said it was addictive thats all, weather its physically addictive or mentaly addictive is irrelivent

There's a large difference. Almost anything can be psychologically addictive: alcohol, gambling, sex etc. He didn't have a problem with these but did have a problem with weed, hence the hypocrisy.

 

[hyroller]

i think you might find that what begins as a mental addiction manifests itself into a physical dependency...and that's where the problems start.

 

[Jakeperson]

See in my circles, weed, E and Meth are recreational. LSD mainly knows as Trips are by a few.
Coke is okay.

Ketamine is often considered a horrible drug to stay away from.
People don't realize that with K too little is just as bad as too much with other drugs.
But even "Trips" are often seen as a dangerous drug that is going to "fuck you up" (And by that I mean long term)
Heroin is way out.

 

[st420]

hmmm it all really depends on the people. ive always been able to smoke bud an stop for a month easily. where as alot of guys i know couldnt stop for 2 weeks to save there life.

weed can definently be addictive to some people. just like alcohol.


this sounds pretty stupid i know but is LSD actually that bad for you. like physically it doesn't feel bad, and well mentally if your the sort of person who can handle it is it THAT bad for your mind used say, once every 8 weeks or something?

ive heard it does chromosonal damage or something n if you use it you'll have retarded kids. again i know these might sound like dumb questions, but i wanna know..