hoptis
Bluelight Crew
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- May 1, 2002
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Utterly pointless, fear-mongering rubbish from the Herald Sun this morning. Mind you, she has managed to summarise quite well in the third paragraph a list of the best pills going around Melbourne at the moment.
From Herald Sun
Maybe if we're really lucky, Andrew Bolt can do an editorial on drugs and youth too.
Drug cocktails on the menu
Shelley Hodgson
21 Mar 2005
YOUNG Victorians are increasingly popping, injecting and smoking a dangerous cocktail mix of drugs.
Speed, ice, cannabis, ecstasy, GHB, ketamine, cocaine, heroin and LSD are all on the menu for young people in a world of ever-increasing choice.
And the list of ecstasy pills making their way on to the market is rising all the time. Blue DVDs, red and green Mitsubishis, orange butterflies, red/pink Russians and white VWs are just a handful of the designer drugs available in Melbourne recently.
The illicit drugs have one thing in common -- a plethora of unwanted side-effects. Some are even deadly.
"More drugs are available now in the last five years, so there's greater choice and that means people are using multiple drugs and that makes it more dangerous," Turning Point deputy director Alison Ritter said.
The Victorian Youth Alcohol and Drug Survey 2003 found 54 per cent of the 6000 16-24 year olds surveyed reported having used at least one illicit drug. Of those 43 per cent had used more than one.
About 19 per cent of young people had used ecstasy or other designer drugs. Of those 75 per cent had used alcohol at the same time, more than 50 per cent used cannabis, 36 per cent used amphetamines, 12 per cent cocaine, 11.5 per cent LSD and almost 10 per cent ketamine.
Metropolitan Ambulance Service paramedic Alan Eade said "poly-drug use" had been on the rise since the outbreak of the heroin drought.
"These days, however, no one takes just one tablet, everyone takes lots of tablets," he said. "As the party drug sector's got bigger, it's almost sort of mainstream."
Mr Eade said the MAS was receiving more cases related to psycho-stimulants such as ecstasy, amphetamines, methamphetamines and cocaine.
He said some drug users might take Viagra to counteract the effect psycho-stimulants have on sexual functioning, anti-depressants to counteract the come-down effect, or GHB at the end of a night to ease themselves down.
"A pure single drug overdose is a rarity and it should be assumed that if someone is presenting with overdose symptoms they have usually had more than one drug," Mr Eade said.
Inspector Steve James, manager of the Victoria Police drug and alcohol strategy unit, said mixing drugs together in a cocktail was common and could be deadly.
The Victorian Youth Alcohol and Drug Survey 2003 found 52 per cent of young people had used cannabis at some time in their life, 18.6 per cent had used ecstasy or designer drugs and 16 per cent had used amphetamines.
Methamphetamine use is also believed to be increasing dramatically.
From Herald Sun
Maybe if we're really lucky, Andrew Bolt can do an editorial on drugs and youth too.