Around 35% of Australians have tried marijuana at some point in their life, and 11% have tried ecstasy. Most people who try drugs do so for a short period in their lives – mostly in their 20s.
With several music festival patrons dying this year the pill testing debate is in full swing. Yet people can already purchase legally available test kits. Do they work?
Quetiapine is an antipsychotic drug to treat severe mental illness, but it makes people feel sleepy, so has also been used as a sleeping pill – by prescription and illicitly.
Ephylone belongs to the growing class of designer stimulants called synthetic cathinones. The effects have been described as a mix between MDMA and cocaine, while others are more similar to ice.
Victoria should implement a new report’s recommendation to allow peers to distribute clean injecting equipment, but it needs to go further to ensure safe drug use in prison.
Social Services Minister Christian Porter told Q&A that ‘rates of drug use amongst unemployed are 2.5 times higher than amongst employed people’. Is that correct?
The proportion of population who use legal and illegal drugs has remained stable or trended down. Fewer young people are using, but the proportion of older people using drugs and alcohol has grown.
There’s no legal reason why Victoria can’t have its own medically supervised drug injecting room to prevent more overdoses, despite political setbacks.
Victorian Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said conducting on-site drug tests at public events “safely and quickly is not really a practical option”. But the technology is available.
West Australian Labor leader Mark McGowan said his state has the “worst rate of methamphetamine usage in the country”. We asked the experts to check the evidence.
Most of our drugs policies have failed to curb use or reduce their impact on individuals or society. It’s time for a more enlightened and informed approach.
During the 1950s and 1960s, LSD was used more for psychotherapy than recreation. Between 1950 and 1965, many were treated with LSD for alcoholism, depression, schizophrenia, autism and homosexuality.