The 2012-13 Australian Crime Commission (ACC) Illicit Drug Data Report, released earlier this week, provides mounting evidence that crystal meth is becoming a large-scale problem for law enforcement and…
Substitution isn’t a solution.
Paul Faith/PA Archive
The past few weeks have seen something of a media feeding frenzy around the supposed massive increase in deaths from “legal highs”. Closer inspection of the facts, some of which needed to be extracted…
Many more Australians want to build the ‘body beautiful’ and we want to do it in a hurry, increasingly through the use of performance and image enhancing drugs (PIEDs).
shutterstock
High-profile claims of links between elite sports and organised crime in Australia – such as those outlined in last year’s Australian Crime Commission (ACC) report – have put performance and image enhancing…
Except for medical reasons or if you’re a horse.
The Justified Sinner
Sometimes it seems you’ve only got to turn around and there is another drug in the news. Now we are told that ketamine should be upgraded from being a Class C drug to a Class B drug. Why does this matter…
Media commentators have linked alcohol use with sexual assault.
FLICKR/Monkey Boy42
Controversy over rape, alcohol consumption, and responsibility reignited last month when US columnist Emily Yoffe penned an article provocatively titled College women: stop getting drunk. But the link…
In contrast to War on Drugs rhetoric, many young people report that illicit drug use is manageable, pleasurable and creates social opportunities.
Poldavo
The idea that illicit drugs could hold value in the lives of young people is bewildering to most people, who tend to assume that illicit drug use is necessarily destructive. This becomes even more distressing…
‘I’m not so much anti-establishment as pointing out the obvious.’
Imperial College London/Layton Thompson
The John Maddox Prize for standing up for science is awarded to individuals who are judged to have “promoted sound science and evidence on a matter of public interest” and especially those who have faced…
The final episode of the award-winning American TV show Breaking Bad aired last night. Set against the backdrop of illicit crystal methamphetamine production, the series highlights the huge problem parts…
First you’ve got to work out what’s in it.
Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Lab
Legal highs that are novel psychoactive substances (NPS) have flooded Britain over the past few years and their use has increased drastically. NPS are cleverly constructed designer drugs often structurally…
Sourcing unbiased information about the health effects of using cannabis has always been difficult. Government-sponsored propaganda was evident as far back as the 1930s in the film Reefer Madness, which…
Dependence on opioids, including heroin, causes the greatest health burden (overall death and illness) of all the illicit drugs.
Eric Constantineau
The global burden of death and illness attributable to mental disorders and illicit drug abuse has risen steadily in the last 20 years, two new studies have shown, but experts say policy is not keeping…
People who use LSD and other psychedelic drugs show fewer mental health problems, according to a large population-based study. Researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology analysed…
Only a small proportion of Australian drug users buy their drugs online.
Shutterstock
Fears that online drug marketplaces are flooding communities with illicit drugs may be unfounded, according to the first Australian survey of such websites. While the survey found the number of online…
Brits need to clean up their act when travelling overseas.
Flickr: wanderinghome
Emily Lindsay Brown, La Conversation Canada et Josephine Lethbridge, La Conversation Canada
Deaths, arrests, missing passports, hospitalisations, rapes and sexual assaults - it’s holiday season and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has published its annual report on British behaviour…
Needle exchange kits are a cost-effective way of reducing the harm of illicit drugs.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oddwick
Australian governments are spending more on law enforcement against illicit drugs than treatment and prevention, according to a report released today by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre. The…
High demand for cannabis has led some people down the ‘synthetic drugs’ route - but are these drugs actually trusted by the users?
Schorle
For decades, cannabis has remained the most popular illicit drug among Australians. The strong demand among cannabis and other drug users for methods to evade detection and legal trouble has made online…
Australia has one of the highest rates of illicit methamphetamine use in the world.
Image from shutterstock.com
More commonly known by the street names speed, ice or crystal meth, both amphetamine and methamphetamine belong to a group of stimulant drugs called amphetamines. Australia has one of the highest rates…
Members of the Olympic men’s 4x100-metre freestyle relay team James McEvoy, James Magnussen and Eamon Sullivan at a news conference in Sydney yesterday.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
It was a bonding session that involved prank phone calls, knocking on doors late at night and other acts of “harmless fun”. The men’s 4x100m Olympic freestyle relay team made it sound like they were boys…
We might pay more for cocaine in Australia but the social and economic costs of its use reach beyond our shores.
Corbis
According to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, Australians are now the world’s eighth highest per capita users of cocaine. Cocaine use within the wealthier echelons of society is so unremarkable…