NEWS: How it feels to use recreational drugs

[Tronica]

Probably not 'news' to most people reading this site, but certainly good to have these sorts of stories given p. 5 space in the print news...

Link
p. 5, 10/1/08, The Age

For one user, drugs are a brief and occasional escape.

I WAS 39 when I first used recreational drugs, I had tried cannabis and speed, but very irregularly. I met a person who is now a very good friend who invited me to a dance party in 2000 and asked if I wanted to try ecstasy. I fell in love with it from the first moment I tried it.

I only take these drugs in the party scene, I don't take them any other time. My brain can't get into the idea of taking ecstasy and watching telly. I don't want to function at that level in everyday life, I want to function at a normal level and just go off into a fantasy land once every six weeks or so.

It's about temporary escapism - not escaping from your life all the time - but maybe for 20 hours. It's like a holiday.

Dance parties have an extremely non-violent, friendly, euphoric atmosphere and when you get right into them it becomes an emotional experience. It's quite an interesting way to communicate. The drugs enhance the whole experience; you lose your inhibitions.

The longest dance party I went to lasted for 22 hours, you just can't dance that long without drugs.

I'm a 47-year-old male, so I really can't go to normal clubs and just dance the way I want to dance, not to mention that there is always the violence aspect in those places.

Ecstasy gives you a sense of euphoria; of really liking everybody and being happy. I use it to alter my mind state to where I would like it to be.

When I first started taking it I was aware that I was in an altered state, that it was not real. But now there are periods of time - which may go for an hour or two - where you can completely lose yourself in what you're doing.

Not everybody at these events uses drugs but the people who don't generally drink a fair bit of alcohol. You do make an assumption that the vast majority of people will be on ecstasy or GHB (gamma hydroxy butyrate), speed or cocaine or whatever. Ecstasy is probably the common denominator and it's openly used.

I use ecstasy, speed or cocaine - not usually both, one or the other - and cannabis.

Occasionally, I might have a trip, which is LSD, I've taken G a few times - which is GHB, a liquid. I wouldn't use heroin, although apparently there was heroin in a tablet I took once, and I just went to sleep.

I draw the line at injecting. There is something scary about heroin. I have tried ice. I know people say it's the scary one and talk about how addictive it is. But I don't believe anything is addictive when you take it for the first time. If you take it for the 51st time, I'm sure it's addictive, but there's a point between the first dose and the 51st, where you have an opportunity to stop, and why someone people can and some people can't I don't know.

You do have concerns about the legality issues, for example you wouldn't go to a party with 20 ecstasy tablets in your pocket to share with your friends, because if you get caught with that, you can be charged with trafficking.

I have never been to a party where there was violence but I go to events where the average age is 35, as opposed to events where the average age would be 22.

I've only seen the police in these venues a couple of times and they don't really seem to harass anyone.

An ecstasy tablet costs anything from $25 to $50, depending on where you buy it. Some parties are day parties and you start taking drugs within two hours of getting up.

Usually you'll feel the effect of the drug within half an hour; a poor tablet will last for 90 minutes and a good one for three hours.

You can get a downer the day after taking ecstasy, and I have gone through that - they call it the E blues. You have to remind yourself that you feel down because you're coming off a drug.

One time I had a bad reaction to a tablet, I really couldn't stand up, but because I was with a big group of good friends I was looked after.

If you have someone who's reliable and who you trust, you can have some idea of what quality of drug you are buying, but you really don't ever know exactly. I would much prefer to know what I was taking, but unfortunately that option's not around.

You really have to remain hydrated when you're taking things like G, because it's taken by the mil and by body weight, so you have to really work out how much you need. The younger age group tends to just open up the cap and have a capful, which is what they think they need.

You can research these drugs online and find out a lot of information about them.

In the eight years that I've been going to these parties I've only seen two people taken out by the ambulance.

Of course, any rational person would have to think that there would be some effect on your brain from using these sorts of drugs, because you're changing the serotonin and dopamine levels, so there would have to be some long-term effect, I assume.

I have regular liver-function tests and cholesterol tests, so I keep an eye on it. I think because of my infrequent use there is not too much effect on my body. I don't notice any changes.

There's certainly a stigma attached to drug use, and many of the people I go to these parties with are professionals and in certain environments we would never discuss it. My mother would never know.

I think many people would be horrified to hear me talking like this; they might think that I was deluded because of the drug, or they might think that I was a bit evil.

But people take risks all time. Some people jump out of an airplane for a thrill, and every year people die doing that - but the community doesn't say "Well, we should stop parachuting".

Humans are experimental animals; they have been consuming drugs for thousands of years. We haven't invented drug-taking in the past few generations.

INTERVIEW BY MICHELLE HAMER

 

[hoptis]

Wow... interesting. The piece itself and the fact that it's been printed at all... good stuff. Quite a stark comparison to the opinions on drugs you get presented in the News Limited papers.

 

[Mr TIMO]

really surprised that was written in the newspaper.
a couple of nice 'no so subtle' messages in there too
a completely honest viewpoint on recreational drug use.
99% of the time, as the articles are usually written from the viewpoint of the writer/reporter, they usually cover their arses and just play it safe with the general message of 'drugs are bad mmmkay'. conforming to the masses.

 

[Mr Blonde]

I wouldn't use heroin, although apparently there was heroin in a tablet I took once, and I just went to sleep.

Lol at that one. Maybe they just took out the bit where he clarified, but if he knew as much about the drugs he was taking as he was claiming, wouldn't he know that heroin is basically non-existant in ecstasy tablets?

 

[Splatt]

In my lifetime of Brisbane events, I have seen two overdoses. A girl who accidentlyu picked up the wrong water bottle, some G'd out person had dropped.. and she drank it and collapsed, but she seemed to be stable after blowing out and on-site medical work. and she definitely didn.t die, then at another event, i witnessed someone drop and start seizing, paramedics were there quickly and they treated him, he seemed stable in the paramedics room where they monitored him.. then it went down hill and they took him to hospital where he died...... people were saying G, ecstasy overdose, newspapers even saying "he took red mitsibushi, the deadly new ecstasy drug", randoms saying yeah he took a white toyota and OD'd... then after all that the tox reports come public and it was alcohol overdose, overheating from dancing too much, and being in the sun all day and a weak heart, no drugs, he was not a drug user, but..

that was the start of sniffer dog operations, especially targetting this event, because news never correct the information.. ofcourse... an alcohol overdose? thats not news!

 

[poledriver]

It's a decent read/story. Yeah the heroin in pills part is a bit how ya going...

 

[CozmoNz]

In my lifetime of Brisbane events, I have seen two overdoses. A girl who accidentlyu picked up the wrong water bottle, some G'd out person had dropped.. and she drank it and collapsed, but she seemed to be stable after blowing out and on-site medical work. and she definitely didn.t die, then at another event, i witnessed someone drop and start seizing, paramedics were there quickly and they treated him, he seemed stable in the paramedics room where they monitored him.. then it went down hill and they took him to hospital where he died...... people were saying G, ecstasy overdose, newspapers even saying "he took red mitsibushi, the deadly new ecstasy drug", randoms saying yeah he took a white toyota and OD'd... then after all that the tox reports come public and it was alcohol overdose, overheating from dancing too much, and being in the sun all day and a weak heart, no drugs, he was not a drug user, but..

that was the start of sniffer dog operations, especially targetting this event, because news never correct the information.. ofcourse... an alcohol overdose? thats not news!

My suggestion, start working in a nightclub... you start to see people out the back (where the staff usually take their breaks) completely fucked off their faces, unable to walk, bearly able to breath sometimes... but its ok, coz their mate says "theyve only been drinking water, and a few wines / beers / vodkas"

Sure... as soon as the paramedics arrive you watch their eyes roll as they think *oh look, another one*.

I saw it a few times... never really bothered to find out what happened to them, its not our problem. one interesting event i saw was a guy trying to climb from a second story to a third, within the nightclub.... (onto a balcony), he fell, landed on his shoulder / neck, and drug was he was just off chops a little.... although id say in the morning that would have hurt. He was carted away, neck brace and all. Silly chap.