Half a million Aussies on ecstasy: study

[E-llusion]

A Queensland researcher says ecstasy has become the second most popular illicit drug after cannabis over the past decade.

Greg Fowler from the Queensland Alcohol and Drug Research and Education Centre has outlined new research at a national conference on the Gold Coast in south-east Queensland.

Mr Fowler says more than 500,000 Australians use ecstasy each year.

"Ecstasy is popular partly because it can be consumed in a tablet form," he said. "It's perceived by consumers for that reason as perhaps having less risk than injecting drug use.

"The cocaine market in Australia is substantially smaller than the ecstasy market but there is indications that the cocaine market may be growing."

The research is aimed at providing extra intelligence for police to fight the problem, with Mr Fowler saying ecstasy is adding significant profits to the coffers of organised crime.

Mr Fowler says most ecstasy is imported and a tablet which costs around 25 cents to produce, can be sold for between $30 and $35 in Australia.

"Demand in Australia is supporting a price at that level and organised criminal groups are reaping substantial rewards and that creates an ongoing incentive," he said.

"So we need to look at some of the strategies policing can actually use to look at the various choke points on the supply chain."

---------------------------------------------------------------
Half a million Aussies on ecstasy: study
Posted Thu Oct 25, 2007 7:08am AEST
http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/25/2069632.htm

 

[drunken_etard]

An Australian trend? More like worldwide. I live in Canada and fuck its major popular. Id have to say the only reason its more popluar in Australia than cocaine is the fact your on a island by yourself.

$30 a fucking hit, how can it be popluar? fuck id have to spend well over $120 to get a nice high. Jeeze, hits here are $5 each.

 

[Adrenochrome]

Ecstacy is so passe and saying that its coming back in the seems so cliche

I guess America( FUCK YA!) is just ahead of u all

 

[kevz]

Isn't Cocaine expensive as hell in Australia?

 

[PsiloSubNaut]

You're right about our isolation keeping coke use down drunken_etard but i have spent over a year in many states of Canada working/partying in the past 3 years and the ecstasy use was atleast 70% lower than Australia's.

Coke was a 5th of the prices here or less and it was very popular (especially with me hehe) but the drug taking in general seemed to be a shade below us Aussies.

Having my accent made everyone talk to me in every pub and club i visited. A large percentage of these people weren't on drugs and 30%+ seemed to take offence to my drugged states.

I did come across a few raves that reminded me of home but they were few and far between.

Alot of the Canadians that had traveled Aus told me they were amazed at our open drug use.

If you ever visit Aus and come to a club you will definately see what i'm talking about.

BTW $30 is the high end of what you would pay for a single pill in a city club here. 25 is about the average, less for bigger orders. Where i grew up in the country it was 35 flat though. The pills are usually weaker than Canada because they can't keep up with demand

BTW You guys are the nicest people in the world! Anyone who disses Canada either hasn't been there or they're jealous as hell!

Psilo

 

[E-llusion]

^^ Word !

 

[cornollio]

"Ecstasy is popular partly because it can be consumed in a tablet form," he said. "It's perceived by consumers for that reason as perhaps having less risk than injecting drug use.

wtf? this guy actually thinks he knows what hes talking about... people eat ecstacy because it feels good..im pretty sure if you had to stick it in your ear people would still do it.

 

[EntheoDjinn]

.....Mr Fowler says more than 500,000 Australians use ecstasy each year.

Hell, in a small country like the UK, probably 500,000 people use it every weeekend

And according to an overwhelming number of people, in moderation, it's a great fun drug

If it's decent stuff that is. £2-3 per tab apparently.

........"So we need to look at some of the strategies policing can actually use to look at the various choke points on the supply chain."

Yawn. Let's crank up the drugs war. Geez, it's all so predictable.

I guess America( FUCK YA!) is just ahead of u all.

Hmmmmm

 

[Kkool]

You're right about our isolation keeping coke use down drunken_etard but i have spent over a year in many states of Canada working/partying in the past 3 years and the ecstasy use was atleast 70% lower than Australia's.

Coke was a 5th of the prices here or less and it was very popular (especially with me hehe) but the drug taking in general seemed to be a shade below us Aussies.

Having my accent made everyone talk to me in every pub and club i visited. A large percentage of these people weren't on drugs and 30%+ seemed to take offence to my drugged states.

I did come across a few raves that reminded me of home but they were few and far between.

Alot of the Canadians that had traveled Aus told me they were amazed at our open drug use.

If you ever visit Aus and come to a club you will definately see what i'm talking about.

BTW $30 is the high end of what you would pay for a single pill in a city club here. 25 is about the average, less for bigger orders. Where i grew up in the country it was 35 flat though. The pills are usually weaker than Canada because they can't keep up with demand

BTW You guys are the nicest people in the world! Anyone who disses Canada either hasn't been there or they're jealous as hell!

Psilo

coke was a fifth of the price in canada? damm last time i went to canada it was 80 dollars a gram.

 

[AcidRain]

fight the problem, with Mr Fowler saying ecstasy is adding significant profits to the coffers of organised crime.

Hmm gee.. . however could we stop the criminals getting that money? Is that question really so god damn freaking hard to figure out!? Everyone is yelling in your face the answer to your problem!

 

[InFaDeLiTy]

Holy shit x costs 25cents to make?
But then again I think some of you are forgetting AUS and US $'s are different so $30 AUS isnt $30 US but then again I dont know if the $ in the article is AUS or US

Either way thats a insane profit

 

[8L4YN3]

Hell, in a small country like the UK, probably 500,000 people use it every weeekend

Yeah but there is 20 million people in australia and 60 million people in uk.

 

[Soma24]

I'm not sure whether or not I like the fact that ecstasy use has been getting so much media attention lately.

On the one hand it could be positive, because so many people do it, yet it creates way less social problems than drugs like meth, heroin, crack etc etc... Also you've got someone like Andrew Johns, probably considered one of our greatest sportsmen, admitting to using it thoughout his entire career. Surely people must start to think "hmmm maybe this drug isn't so evil after all"

On the other hand there's always going to be ignorant people with their heads in the sand, and it seems like the Ben Cousins incident has got both Johnny Boy and K Rudd jumping on the "drugs are evil" bandwagon to win some votes before the election.

It will be interesting to see how things have gone by the time our generation are the leaders of the country... half the people I went to school with who were totally anti-drugs pop pills these days.

 

[certified_bomb]

Isn't Cocaine expensive as hell in Australia?

Everythings expensive as hell in Australia.

 

[justsayknow]

coke was a fifth of the price in canada? damm last time i went to canada it was 80 dollars a gram.

Yep AU$400. In some cities you could pay that much.

The tyranny of distance

Pretty sure Australians pay some of the highest prices for drugs in the world especially in the smaller cities. AU$50 dollars for an ecstasy tablet was the standard single price in clubs in Perth a few years ago now its more like $35-40.

 

[Soma24]

Yeah coke here (Adelaide) is waaaay too expensive for me to bother with... up near 300 bucks a gram last time I checked, which was admittedly a while ago

What's the general price near you guys??

 

[hoptis]

Alot of the Canadians that had traveled Aus told me they were amazed at our open drug use.

If you ever visit Aus and come to a club you will definately see what i'm talking about.

Well certainly there is less police attention compared to North America, perhaps we also have less undercover operations targeting users so people are more blase about carrying and selling in clubs.

I work in a company of fairly young people and it's pretty common knowledge who is and isn't into the scene, even the managers know. I think it depends on lots of factors but in many urban areas in Australia, use of ecstasy and similar drugs seems pretty commonplace.

For a few years now the statistics haven't been overly surprising in suggesting that, per capita, Australia is one of the largest consumers of these drugs in the world.

 

[Rated E]

For a few years now the statistics haven't been overly surprising in suggesting that, per capita, Australia is one of the largest consumers of these drugs in the world.

*gets teary eyed*

God bless Australia.

 

[yellodolphin]

ya thats the crazy though the fact that its the second most popular illegal drug after cannabis? to my knowledge that is a first in the world. Ecstasy being consumed so much its more popular then heroin, or cocaine, or amphetamines. usually the second most popular illegal drug comes out to be cocaine i think. you aussies should be commended for use of ecstasy. keep up the good work!

 

[rm2x]

Holy shit x costs 25cents to make?
But then again I think some of you are forgetting AUS and US $'s are different so $30 AUS isnt $30 US but then again I dont know if the $ in the article is AUS or US

Either way thats a insane profit

It's an Australian article so it's AUD

yesterday $1 USD = 92c AUD, so there's not much difference