Generation ecstasy
By Emma-Kate Symons
April 21, 2004
IN the US they're called kidults. Australian social researcher David
Chalke labels them adultescents. They're the young Australians aged 18 to
30 who are extending adolescence and deferring adulthood, usually
signified by milestones such as marriage, children and mortgage.
About half of them live at home with their parents until well into their
20s. They are members of an affluent demographic who have benefited from a
decade of economic prosperity, low unemployment and the extra cash saved
from depending on their parents.
And a significant proportion are spending a fair chunk of that cash on
party drugs - increasingly in the home (their own or friends'), to avoid
detection or arrest in clubs and on the street.
"It's the emphasis on the experiential and the now," Chalke says. "Taking
the pleasure now is more important than investment in the future, material
or social or emotional."
####
Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die
We should enjoy life as much as possible, because it will be over soon.
This saying is based on verses from the biblical books of Ecclesiastes and
Isaiah.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002.
<http://www.bartleby.com/59/3/eatdrinkandb.html>
Sounds like this is changing to "Eat, drink, and use drugs...."
####
Research by the Australian Drug Foundation underscores the pleasure
principle driving the social behaviour of cashed-up twentysomethings.
Sixty per cent of nightclubbers with an average age of 23 surveyed in
Melbourne clubs and bars over the past six months said they had taken a
party drug such as ecstasy, cocaine, speed, ketamine (an anaesthetic known
as Special K) or gammahydroxybutyrate (a depressant variously known as
GHB, GBH or Grievous Bodily Harm). The pattern is not confined to
Melbourne.
The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre described as "staggering"
the finding that 20 per cent of 20 to 29-year-olds nationally had tried
ecstasy. That figure is now considered conservative because it was taken
from the last population survey in 2001.
Cameron Duff of the Australian Drug Foundation's Centre for Youth Drug
Studies says drugs such as ecstasy have become so popular with young
people they have overtaken alcohol as the party substance of choice.
"Party drug use started in the rave community in the late 1980s and early
'90s and now it has spread out into the mainstream of youth culture," Duff
says. "Drug use is regarded as a normal part of young people's leisure
time, of going out and dancing."
But there is an often-ignored downside. One in five ecstasy users are
likely to be psychologically dependent on the drug. There are reports of
panic attacks, anxiety and depression -- or so-called "Eccy Mondays" or
"Eccy Tuesdays", when users experience a severe psychological down a few
days after a binge.
"A lot of young people use drugs in all sorts of chaotic ways," Duff says.
More and more, users are popping pills they think are ecstasy but might
contain traces of ketamine or other harmful substances.
Drug educators and researchers are especially worried about the spike in
the use of a relatively new and inexpensive party drug, GHB, that first
appeared on the Australian dance scene in the late '90s. Last month there
was a spate of overdoses in Melbourne that left 10 people unconscious.
Police experts warn that the drug, usually made in backyard laboratories,
can be fatal.
People who choose to use GHB face significant risks, says Louise
Degenhardt, chief researcher with the National Drug and Alcohol Research
Centre.
"In terms of reducing harm, GHB is a tricky drug to use safely," she says,
noting the dangers of mixing the drug with alcohol.
Yet with GHB prices at an all-time low -- sometimes as little as $3 for a
vial -- its popularity is rising.
The latest research shows GHB and ketamine are being used across the
country, from Darwin to Melbourne and Sydney. And there is a connection
with ecstasy.
"We're fairly confident most people will have tried ecstasy before they've
tried these drugs. They are adding on at a later point," Degenhardt says.
While GHB has hospital emergency rooms busy coping with overdoses on
weekends, a sharp rise in the use of crystal methamphetamine, or ice, also
has drug experts concerned.
"We've seen an increase in the number of seizures ... it appears
availability is increasing," says Courtney Breen of the National Drugs and
Alcohol Research Centre.
Party drug users are most likely to smoke ice, which is a highly effective
route of administration for the drug. "But it's a potent drug, so there
are harms that need to be considered," Breen says.
Dependence and mental health problems, including psychosis, were a risk
for ice users, according to health professionals and law enforcement
officers.
But drugs experts and educators are wary of the kind of zero-tolerance
message that characterises the zealous anti-smoking campaigns of recent
decades.
"We don't want to use scaremongering tactics because the young person
won't listen to anything they're told," Breen says. "We need to look at
the harm as well as the good things, and look at strategies to limit the
harm, like using less and looking out for their friends."
Degenhardt agrees, noting that regular ecstasy users are typically
sporadic, not daily, indulgers.
The biggest risks are associated with bingeing. Binge drug use, like
binge-drinking, is showing up as a common high-risk behaviour among
younger Australians.
The National Drug and Alcohol Centre found in 2003 that most party drug
users were not frequent users.
"They're using for 48 hours, bingeing and going without sleep for two
days," says Degenhardt.
Often, ecstasy use was combined with a number of other drugs such as
cannabis or alcohol. However, bingers could not only overdose, they could
be putting themselves in high-risk situations, including unwanted sex or
rape.
#### Which can lead to HIV, AIDS, & death...###
Dale Stagg, spokesman for family rights group Focus on the Family
Australia, oversees courses for parents on how to drug-proof children.
Stagg agrees that by the time young people are in their 20s the "just say
no" approach to drugs such as ecstasy or cocaine has often failed.
"At that age there have been opportunities lost to hopefully steer kids
clear of harmful drug use," he says. "But history will tell us that
scaremongering doesn't work. Those of us in drug education are trying to
repair some of the damage done in the past. Kids have been given
misinformation."
#####
Another instance which shows that lying is not the best policy, for who
trusts a liar?
Ever since the thirties, marijuana has been touted as a "killer drug".
/////////
{extract}
In 1936 the International Narcotic Education Association in conjunction
with the Federal Narcotics Bureau published Marihuana or Indian Hemp and
Its Preparations which included statements such as:
Prolonged use of marihuana frequently develops a delirious rage which. . .
sometimes leads to high crimes such as assault and murder. Hence marihuana
has been called the 'killer drug.' The habitual use of this narcotic
poison always causes a very marked deterioration and sometimes produces
insanity. Hence marihuana is frequently called 'loco weed.' . . Marihuana
often gives man the lust to kill unreasonably without motive. Many cases
of assault, rape, robbery, and murder are traced to the use of marihuana.
29
Such reports were not limited to the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. An
article in the 1936 March issue of Scientific American included the
following:
Marijuana produces a wide variety of symptoms in the user, including
hilarity, swooning, sexual excitement. Combined with intoxicants, it often
makes the smoker vicious, with a desire to fight and kill. 30
Up until the end of prohibition of alcohol in 1933, there was a great deal
of overlap between those participating in various prohibitionist
movements. All of these persons and groups shared an anti-hedonistic ethic
which provided a united front politically in their efforts to legally
prohibit a11 pleasure-producing chemicals as well as other pleasurable
nonchemical pastimes of humans, i.e., dancing, jazz music, gambling, etc.
The years following the end of alcohol prohibition saw the beginning
distinctions between good drugs and evil drugs. Those drugs within the
experience of the majority of Americans were considered good; those drugs
which tended to be used by minority and fringe groups tended to be defined
as evil. Thus alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine (coffee) began to become
increasingly integrated into the very fabric of American life, whereas
cocaine, opium, heroin, and subsequently marihuana and the hallucinogens
continued to be defined as evil - physically, emotionally, and morally
devastating to the individual and unquestionably destructive to the
culture. This definition of certain chemicals as innately good or evil was
to germinate from 1933 into the 1960's where we would witness a giant
eruption of this issue as adult America was forced to attempt to
articulate to their own children the culturally inherited distinction
between good drugs (alcohol) and evil drugs (marihuana, etc.).
[More, including propaganda against coffee, cigarettes, jazz, etc. at:
<http://www.drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme2.htm>
[Worth a look, IMHO]
Now, as you know, am no supporter of drug use, but propaganda doesn't
help once everyone knows it is propaganda. True, marijuana users
sometimes go on to harder drugs, just as some drinkers become alcoholics.
However, have never seen any evidence that the cannabis itself promotes
nearly as much violent behaviour as alcohol does.
Back in the sixties there were horror stories about how LSD, Mescaline,
etc. produced hallucinations which caused people to leap from high windows
thinking they could fly and spatter on the streets below, but there have
been few if any verifiable cases.
Admittedly, it may have happened. People suicide all the time. But it
does no good IMHO to
try to convince people that this was a major risk. Kids at the time
simply knew far too many others who had tried these drugs without major
harm.
As have said before, when I was a kid, marijuana use was rare. Mexican
seasonal laborers might have used it, but it certainly wasn't generally
available. Was in university before met anyone who admitted to having
used it.
However, what percentage of kids have used it today? ...Suspect that
might be pretty high. So parents and others who try to tell them that it
is a "killer drug" simply won't be believed.
Unfortunately, this means that having been lied to about marijuana, the
kids are also likely
to disbelieve warnings about much more harmful drugs.
###########
In his drug-proofing courses, run by 1700 "facilitators" around Australia,
parents are advised to be more effective communicators during adolescence
and beyond.
"It's all very well to teach them to use drugs safely. Let's get a bit
real here, let's communicate with our kids, let's build strong families
that hopefully will help our kids steer clear of ecstasy and GHB," Stagg
says. "You are crossing a line from which you're not really sure you'll
come back when you get into drugs like GHB."
A values conflict arises when parents of the new "adultescents" take a
more indulgent attitude towards their children's abuse of drugs and
alcohol. "A lot of their parents are baby boomers and they tend in some
way to be more tolerant and more encouraging of that sort of life," Chalke
says.
#####
And, of course, lets not forget that many of todays parents are not all
that innocent either. I somehow doubt that their kids believe them when
they say they never tried drugs, or
"tried marijuana once but didn't inhale" :-)
####
"In the old days you'd have called it irresponsible freedom."
Chalke points out that the twentysomethings are the "children of the
social revolution", born after the move to no-fault divorce laws and the
reality of broken families.
The answer for parents still coping with adult children and their more
adolescent behaviour in the home may be more house rules -- and setting a
good example.
"They are living under the family roof with certain graces and I would
hope that parents are able to put in place a values base those young
adults will operate within," Stagg says.
"It doesn't matter if it's a 17-year-old or a 27-year-old if there are
issues impacting the wider family under that roof."
Stagg says that despite the increase in the use of party drugs, parents
still believe alcohol and tobacco are the big issues they face.
"We seem to have accepted that abusing alcohol between the ages of 16 to
18 is a rite of passage," he says.
"But what are the messages we are sending as parents? We are the role
models. Parents are the single biggest influence over our kids in respect
to drug use."
<http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,9340303%5E2
8737,00.html>
Gerry 49M SOCAL USA
Shibumi? In the martial arts, it means effortless perfection. In art and home
decorating, it means in harmony with nature. Subdued natural colors, soft music
tones, and the sounds of falling water.
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