Duff Beer is the brew favoured by Homer Simpson, which he drinks at home on the couch as a fun way of passing time. Curiously, the director of research at the Australian Drug Foundation is a man named Duff - Dr Cameron Duff - who kind of declared this week that drugs, notably party drugs, are the new beer. "Drug use seems to have become a leisure activity in its own right," he said, citing a foundation survey of 380 peppy Melbourne nightclubbers. [continues 535 words]
At his lowest point, "John" remembers scoring heroin in the city, overdosing on the way home, while his son "Zach" sat beside him on the train. "I was in no condition to look after him," he said. To speak to John now and see him with Zach (not their real names), he seems what he is - a 30-year-old, quietly spoken dad, the product of a middle-to-upper-class family. He has used heroin since he was 16. Now 30, he has been in Odyssey House for 11 months. [continues 383 words]
Sydney police on Sunday denied they were embarrassed to be tipped off by journalists that a busy inner-city convenience store was allegedly selling drugs over the counter. The owner of an Oxford Street convenience store was charged on Sunday with drug possession following a police operation launched only after officers were alerted by a newspaper on Friday to alleged drug-dealing in the city's nightclub district. The story published in Sydney's Sunday Telegraph newspaper on Sunday alleges a journalist was able to buy $40 worth of marijuana and an ecstasy tablet by asking for `tally-ho' and `pills' over the convenience store counter. [continues 267 words]
Ecstasy and marijuana are reportedly being sold openly from a convenience store in one of Sydney's busiest streets. The 24-hour retail outlet in Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, is a front for a major drug-dealing racket, The Sunday Telegraph reported. Its reporters conducted a covert investigation of the store over four nights and witnessed packets of the illegal drugs being handed out to 60 customers, including teenagers, over five hours. Marijuana was sold in $20 sachets and ecstasy pills at $40 each, the paper said. [continues 118 words]
The Howard Government's drug taskforce is launching a new offensive against marijuana, with a booklet that the taskforce's head says will "tell the truth" and combat the "trivialisation" of the drug's dangers. Australian National Council on Drugs chairman Brian Watters yesterday said a "pro-marijuana lobby" had successfully promoted the idea that cannabis was no more dangerous than alcohol and should be legalised. "I think there has been a really concerted effort in some quarters to trivialise its effects," he said. "The pro-marijuana lobby have done very well. They are very, very active." [continues 388 words]
The good news is that heroin use is down, which has led to a decline in property crime, writes Ross Gittins. You wouldn't believe it, but at long last we're making progress in the war against drugs. Evidence is mounting that we've succeeded in limiting the supply of heroin available, which has led to a decline in its consumption and the harm it causes. What's more, the decline in heroin use has led to a decline in property crime. And these good outcomes flow from the workings of simple market forces. [continues 824 words]
Kabul, Afghanistan Afghan soldiers yesterday demolished nearly 40 heroin factories in the remote mountainous province of Nangarhar which borders Pakistan in a large-scale anti-drugs operation, officials said. The drug-producing cells were destroyed one day after the Ministry of Interior announced a plan to eradicate poppy crops around the country and as Afghanistan's administration was due to meet with world leaders in Berlin for a major aid pledging conference. "Recently we were informed of a large number of newly-built heroin factories near the border with Pakistan in the Achin area of Shinwari district," close to the Khyber Pass, Nangarhar governor Haji Din Mohammed said. [continues 193 words]
WASHINGTON -- Afghanistan's opium poppy crop has soared. This year's harvest could be twice as large as last year's near-record crop unless eradication efforts are stepped up immediately, according to the US State Department. The heroin business was "almost definitely" filling the coffers of the Taliban and Hizb-I Islami Gulbuddin, another Afghan extremist group linked to Osama bin Laden, the assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, Robert Charles, said on Thursday. It was also "possibly" enriching al-Qaeda fighters, he said. [continues 338 words]
Queensland police and their military counterparts today raided barracks in Townsville as part of the army's continuing crackdown on illegal drug use among soldiers. Brigadier David Morrison, Commander 3 Brigade, said the raids at Lavarack Barracks targeted 19 soldiers from a number of the brigade's units after information was received alleging illegal drug use. He said the raids by 25 officers from the Military Police and Queensland Police should not reflect on the outstanding work done by the majority of soldiers within those units or the entire brigade. [continues 117 words]
SYDNEY (AAP) -- Two Australian women jailed in Thailand for heroin smuggling flew into Sydney this morning under a prison transfer scheme. Jane Dawson McKenzie, 38, and Deborah Letitia Spinner, 36, were sentenced to 50 years in a Thai prison in 1997 after being caught trying to smuggle 115 grams of heroin to Australia from Bangkok. The women arrived at Sydney Airport on the 6.25am (AEDT) Qantas flight from Bangkok via London. A Corrective Services spokesman said both women would complete normal immigration and customs procedures in a secure location at the airport before being transferred to Mullawa women's prison. [continues 187 words]
The recipe for GHB is widely available on the internet, and has been for years, making it accessible for young users, according to police and leading researchers. A search by The Sunday Age took less than 60 seconds to find step-by-step instructions on how to make the dangerous drug. One website even had two recipes on how to make GHB, or gamma hydroxybutyrate. It listed the exact chemicals, equipment and dosages needed to make the drug, with safety tips on handling the substances. [continues 232 words]
It's the DIY party drug for young ravers. So cheap and easy to make dealers are hardly necessary. It's an internet drug that can be concocted in the backyard. It took The Sunday Age 60 seconds to find the recipe online. All these factors combine to make it a dangerously uncertain hit. Gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB), also known as fantasy, GBH (grievous bodily harm), liquid ecstasy and liquid E, is a central nervous system depressant, an anaesthetic with sedative properties. It costs less than $5 a dose. [continues 1116 words]
A. Bearsley (11/3) argues against the legalisation of drugs by stating that alcohol and tobacco are currently legal, and cause an enormous amount of harm. While that is true, no sensible person would argue that alcohol and tobacco should be banned. The United States tried to prohibit liquor in the first half of the 20th century and it was a dismal failure, just as the current worldwide ban on drugs is a dismal failure. There is a big difference between condoning drug use as acceptable, and making drugs legal. We need to take a harm-minimisation approach. [continues 84 words]
The Victoria Police wants tougher laws to prosecute illegal drug manufacturers. The police want to remove the presumption of innocence for people found with substantial quantities of ingredients used to make illegal drugs. It would mean that people caught with such ingredients would be presumed guilty unless they could persuade the courts they were not planning to use them to make illicit drugs. Or, if this was unacceptable, police suggested the Government consider introducing a new offence of possession of precursor chemicals or drug manufacturing equipment without a lawful excuse. The proposals are being considered by a state parliamentary committee, due to report on its Inquiry into Amphetamine and "Party Drug" Use in mid-April. [continues 350 words]
This week's mass overdose on the drug gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB) at the Two Tribes rave event in Melbourne (The Age, 9/3) highlights the need for a legal recreational drug industry, over and above that of alcohol. As the medical drug industry shows, when standards are set and quality regulated, the risks of drug-taking can be managed and such disaster averted. It is of the utmost importance that unbiased information, combined with quality control, is applied to this large and inextinguishable market. Under the present "tough on drugs" paradigm, this is impossible. [continues 104 words]
Nick Fahey (8/3) is right about Footscray being "a fantastic place to live, work and visit". But it would be a mistake to ignore or to play down the seriousness of the drug problem here. Central Footscray is awash with drug-related crime. Soon after moving here from West Footscray two years ago, we were burgled three times in four weeks. Addicts have come to our property to use the tap. Potential thieves have knocked on the door "casing the joint". Deals have been made in cars outside our house, needles thrown out the window. And one Sunday recently, under the tree outside our house, there was a young couple with their one-year-old baby, changing his nappy and shooting up at the same time. So your recent report (5/3) on the drug trade in Footscray was no news to us. [continues 343 words]
Health authorities have warned about the dangers of the party drug GHB after a spate of overdoses at dance festivals in Melbourne and Sydney in the past few days. The Metropolitan Ambulance Service said 11 people were taken to hospital after overdosing on GHB, or Gamma Hydroxybutyrate, at the Two Tribes dance party at Rod Laver Arena between 1am and 10am yesterday. Later yesterday, a woman attending the Earthcore dance party at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl was also taken to hospital after taking the drug. [continues 512 words]
Police activity in Footscray resulting in 50 arrests and more than 350 charges being laid gives the impression that local traders and residents see this as a successful strategy in "getting rid of the scourge" (The Age, 5/3). Such strategies are well known to simply shift the problem geographically and have no impact overall. Young people caught up in a pattern of problematic drug use are already in trouble; being arrested and charged by itself does nothing to address this significant public health problem. Indeed such a strategy may produce more harm than was intended. First, it may introduce young people to a criminal justice system that places them in contact with older more sophisticated offenders. Second, it may disperse them into more hidden residential environments where the risks of overdose are greater. [continues 66 words]
Footscray gets a bashing - again. From reading "Drugs crackdown" (The Age, 5/3) one might be forgiven for thinking that central Footscray has become an urban no-go zone, Melbourne's very own Bronx. Drugs, knives, hold-ups, "streets littered with cigarette butts", undercover sting operations - there goes the neighbourhood! Apparently, central Footscray is so dangerous that "people think twice about getting into the car and driving to the market". The trouble is, for the life of me, I can't reconcile this "badlands" image with the Footscray where I live and run a small business. When I step out from my house or shop, I see a bustling and dynamic community. When I stroll through the Nicholson Street mall, the gangs I notice are the clusters of elderly Greek and Vietnamese people meeting to chat and soak up the street, or the mobs of little kids running about. [continues 212 words]
The Burnet Institute has carried out health-focused research with drug users for more than 15 years. Much of this has occurred during periods of increased police activity. The recent crackdowns on drug trafficking in Footscray (The Age, 5/3) are old news. Police strategies aimed at controlling the use and availability of heroin provide solutions for only a minority of those involved. These crackdowns will never reduce the amount of heroin available on the streets. Research here and in Sydney shows that they only increase drug users' risk of overdose, HIV and hepatitis C. [continues 69 words]
