Xylazine, or tranq, is increasingly being mixed with drugs like fentanyl or heroin and can be difficult to detect. Most people who use drugs are unable to tell if they have been exposed to it.
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Articles on Illicit drug use
Displaying 1 - 20 of 31 articles
Fentanyl’s wide availability in the drug supply has led to an increase in unintentional overdoses. While prevention strategies are available, limited availability stymies their use.
Young people may be at particular risk.
Few teens use MDMA and scare tactics, like those we’ve seen recently, are unlikely to reduce existing drug use further.
A person’s drug experience can be influenced by many different things, such as heat, access to water and dosage.
There’s no evidence drug use is a barrier to job seeking. And testing can’t distinguish between one off, irregular or regular use.
Residential drug rehab programs usually last for around eight weeks and include everything from counselling sessions to household chores, which help build connections and support between residents.
People who use party drugs say it gives them energy to dance and socialise, reduces their inhibitions and enhances their feelings of connection to others.
Some drug and alcohol programs
currently used in prisons have little evidence to support them.
Cannabis use is linked to psychosis, but only a small number of users will experience it.
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.
Ice increases the risks of psychosis, violence and impulsivity, and decreases emotional control. So what can families really do?
Why would the Philippine president risk alienating an important and generous ally?
There is a potential for significant harm in Australia if we don’t have adequate systems in place to monitor our drug markets and respond rapidly when specific dangers are detected.
Around 2.3% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians 15 years and over report using speed or amphetamine in the past year. This is similar to the general population.
With use of drugs such as ice on the rise, drug consumption rooms are now being set up in Europe to provide supervised inhalation.
Top contributors
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Professor at the National Drug Research Institute (Melbourne), Curtin University
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Associate Lecturer, RMIT University
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Associate professor, La Trobe University
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Head of Alcohol and other Drug Research, Centre for Population Health; Burnet Principal for Alcohol, other drugs and harm reduction, Burnet Institute
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Sessional psychology lecturer, Australian Catholic University
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Professor of Emergency Medicine, UMass Chan Medical School
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Vice Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre and Digital Ethnography Research Centre, RMIT University
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Peter Whiteford is a Friend of The Conversation.
Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
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Research Fellow, National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney
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Emeritus Consultant, St Vincent's Hospital, Darlinghurst
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Associate Professor and Principal Research Fellow at the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University
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Senior Research Fellow, Monash University
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Professor and Director, National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University
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Professor & Specialist in Drug Policy, UNSW Sydney
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Senior Lecturer of Addiction, Edith Cowan University
