Anooska Tucker-Evans and Suellen Hinde
September 14, 2008 12:00am
SUBURBAN mums are among the over-30s who have emerged as the new users of the illicit drug ecstasy, a national study has found.
Once considered a "young person's drug", ecstasy has a new following in more mature users who see it as a harmless alternative to alcohol.
Drug and Alcohol Research and Training Australia's Paul Dillon described the results as shocking. "Everyone is stunned. Everyone is thinking it's a really young person's drug but it's not," he said.
The recently released 2007 National Drug Strategy Household Survey has revealed that since 1995, the number of people aged 30 to 39 using ecstasy has increased 5.7 per cent to 6.3 per cent for men, and 2.8 per cent to 3.2 per cent for women.
Mr Dillon said mature people were turning to the drug because of misinformation about its effects.
"I talked to two women in their 30s two weeks ago and these were both divorcees, they have recently split from their husbands, they've got 15 and 16-year-old kids and they've basically discovered their second childhood," he said.
"The reason they're taking ecstasy is because they don't want to drink, because with drinking they get out of control."
The study also revealed that ecstasy was the second most popular illegal drug, behind cannabis, in Australia.
Mr Dillon said the only way to reduce people's use of drugs was through education, including making them aware of penalties under the law.
Relationships Australia vice-president Anne Hollonds said she was not surprised to hear that divorced mothers were turning to ecstasy, but warned against using the substance to "rebuild" their lives.
"These are people who sometimes haven't had involvement with substances the first time round, but second time round they might, particularly to reinforce their youthfulness, to be able to fit in and all of those things because they're often quite emotionally vulnerable," she said. "There's also a lot of risks associated with that in relation to the care of the children."
Royal Brisbane Hospital director of addiction psychiatry Dr Mark Daglish said an increase in use among the 30 to 39-year age group was "expected" as this was the group taking ecstasy 15 to 20 years ago.
He said methylene-dioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA) should be the main ingredient of ecstasy, but a Queensland Police Service report had found a lot of the tablets circulating in the state were actually methamphetamines.
Detective Inspector Marty Mickelson, operations manager of the State Drug Investigative Unit, said police had found instances of dealers distributing "fake ecstasy", which contained high amounts of amphetamines, ketamine (a horse tranquiliser) and caffeine rather than MDMA. Dr Daglish said MDMA was a neurotoxin which kills brain cells and users could suffer permanent brain damage. He said that ecstasy depleted the brain's stores of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which affects brain functions including mood, sleep, appetite and impulse control.
There have been very few studies into the long-term effects of ecstasy.
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24339921-953,00.html
September 14, 2008 12:00am
SUBURBAN mums are among the over-30s who have emerged as the new users of the illicit drug ecstasy, a national study has found.
Once considered a "young person's drug", ecstasy has a new following in more mature users who see it as a harmless alternative to alcohol.
Drug and Alcohol Research and Training Australia's Paul Dillon described the results as shocking. "Everyone is stunned. Everyone is thinking it's a really young person's drug but it's not," he said.
The recently released 2007 National Drug Strategy Household Survey has revealed that since 1995, the number of people aged 30 to 39 using ecstasy has increased 5.7 per cent to 6.3 per cent for men, and 2.8 per cent to 3.2 per cent for women.
Mr Dillon said mature people were turning to the drug because of misinformation about its effects.
"I talked to two women in their 30s two weeks ago and these were both divorcees, they have recently split from their husbands, they've got 15 and 16-year-old kids and they've basically discovered their second childhood," he said.
"The reason they're taking ecstasy is because they don't want to drink, because with drinking they get out of control."
The study also revealed that ecstasy was the second most popular illegal drug, behind cannabis, in Australia.
Mr Dillon said the only way to reduce people's use of drugs was through education, including making them aware of penalties under the law.
Relationships Australia vice-president Anne Hollonds said she was not surprised to hear that divorced mothers were turning to ecstasy, but warned against using the substance to "rebuild" their lives.
"These are people who sometimes haven't had involvement with substances the first time round, but second time round they might, particularly to reinforce their youthfulness, to be able to fit in and all of those things because they're often quite emotionally vulnerable," she said. "There's also a lot of risks associated with that in relation to the care of the children."
Royal Brisbane Hospital director of addiction psychiatry Dr Mark Daglish said an increase in use among the 30 to 39-year age group was "expected" as this was the group taking ecstasy 15 to 20 years ago.
He said methylene-dioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA) should be the main ingredient of ecstasy, but a Queensland Police Service report had found a lot of the tablets circulating in the state were actually methamphetamines.
Detective Inspector Marty Mickelson, operations manager of the State Drug Investigative Unit, said police had found instances of dealers distributing "fake ecstasy", which contained high amounts of amphetamines, ketamine (a horse tranquiliser) and caffeine rather than MDMA. Dr Daglish said MDMA was a neurotoxin which kills brain cells and users could suffer permanent brain damage. He said that ecstasy depleted the brain's stores of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which affects brain functions including mood, sleep, appetite and impulse control.
There have been very few studies into the long-term effects of ecstasy.
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24339921-953,00.html
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