Ecstasy is the drug of choice for young
BEN MARTIN SYDNEY The West Australian 8th April 2005
Ecstasy use has boomed in the past decade and looms as Australia’s fastest growing illicit drug trade.
WA drug authorities said drug users were becoming numb to the risk of using it because it was so common.
More than 1.2 million Australians had used the designer party drug and more than 550,000 did so in the past year, an Australian Institute for Health and Welfare survey of 30,000 people released yesterday said.
Ecstasy was on the verge of overtaking amphetamines as the illicit party drug of choice, especially among young men. More than a quarter of all men aged 20-29 had used it, including 15 per cent in the past year.
In 1995, just 1.1 per cent of all males surveyed had used ecstasy in the previous year. That number had quadrupled to 4.4 per cent last year.
More men used it than women but girls aged 14-19 were more likely than boys of the same age to have tried it.
Sources in laboratories which test seized drugs said levels of the active component of ecstasy — MDMA — in each pill varied between 5 and 50 per cent.
Although most ecstasy pills tested contained some MDMA, many also contained a form of amphetamine or a veterinary tranquilliser known as ketamine.
The survey also showed a drop in the number of cigarette smokers, which health groups hailed as a victory for the antitobacco lobby.
“The percentage of smokers in Australia has virtually halved in the last 20 years, showing that success can be achieved against the powerful and ruthless opposition of the tobacco industry,” Curtin University professor of health policy Mike Daube said.
But anti-alcohol campaigners warned that the report also showed a rise in the number of Australians who drink regularly, prompting fears about the dangers of binge drinking and alcohol-related violence.
In Perth, National Drug Research Institute deputy director Simon Lenton said the trend to more common ecstasy use resulted in an increase in it being used with alcohol, which put users at more risk of dehydration.
The latest WA Drug and Alcohol Office statistics released in 2001 showed WA’s proportionate use of ecstasy was at 4 per cent, slightly higher than the national average of 2.9 per cent.
Most ecstasy sold in Perth comes from Europe via the Eastern States, where there also is evidence of large-scale manufacturing.
Last month, Australian Federal Police seized enough chemicals in NSW and Victoria to make four million ecstasy pills with a street value of about $160 million. The chemicals were ingredients for MDMA, the key element of ecstasy.
Det-Sen. Sgt Roger Beer, of the WA organised crime investigation unit, said most pure MDMA was imported.
