A TENFOLD increase in hospital treatment for cannabis poisoning or dependence among people in their 30s and 40s suggests the habit has run out of control for a hard core of long-term users.
Australian research shows that while cannabis consumption overall decreased during the past decade, the rate of hospital treatment rose. Treatment rates are highest among people in their 20s, but the steepest increase has been among older people, with those in their 30s only slightly less likely to seek help than younger people by 2007, the study shows.
Seven years earlier, people in their 30s were being treated at only half the rate of their younger counterparts, according to the findings of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of NSW. Their faster rise in cannabis-related health problems coincided with greater frequency of daily use.
“These people started their use early and have [in some cases] then gone on to develop problems,” the study leader, Amanda Roxburgh, said. “They might not necessarily think that they have a problem with their use until it kicks into crisis mode.” People in their 20s were about 50 per cent more likely to have used cannabis during a one-year period compared with those in their 30s. But of those who did so, nearly 20 per cent of the older age group had developed a daily habit, against about 15 per cent of the younger adults.
Ms Roxburgh, whose results are published in the journal Addiction, said the rise in problematic use might reflect increased cannabis potency, though there was no formal evidence the drug had become stronger. Its falling price suggested it was being produced more efficiently – perhaps through indoor hydroponic cultivation – and this might have made it more accessible.
Jan Copeland, who heads the National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre, said older people were more likely to consider cannabis safe. “These people come from age groups where cannabis is a benign herb and natural,” she said. “But when you are doing something every day you don’t realise the difficulties when you try to stop”.
Cannabis use among people aged 14 to 19 more than halved between 1996 and 2005, but the study also found pockets of harmful use in that group. Nearly two-thirds of young daily cannabis users reported difficulties controlling their use.
Members of this group were also more likely to report smoking 10 or more cones or joints a day, and if they were treated in hospital for their cannabis use were more likely to be treated for psychosis than older users.
Professor Copeland said young people now understood cannabis could be dangerous, and fewer were experimenting, but dedicated treatment programs were still needed for young people with a serious habit.
Will Temple, chief executive officer of the Watershed drug and alcohol recovery and education centre in Wollongong, said his centre had gone from treating almost no cannabis users to in the past six months treating 30 per cent of clients for cannabis use.
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald 29th March 2010

Drug users who can’t kick the habit can blame a dysfunctional brain for their addiction, according to new research.
A study by the University of Melbourne has found long-term drug users have more difficulty controlling impulses because their frontal cortex is impaired.

The two-year study found opiate users needed to use more of their brains to resist impulses in a test of self control than those who were clean. The findings shed new light on why drug addicts find it so hard to quit, despite the health consequences.
“Drugs can capture and hijack some parts of the brain,” said Dr Murat Yucel, a lead researcher in the study. In this study we found the frontal cortex, an area that is essential for exercising control over thoughts and behaviours, was working inefficiently. These findings may help explain why it takes addicted individuals enormous effort to exercise control over their drug taking behaviour in the face of adverse consequences and why they are vulnerable to relapse back into uncontrolled, compulsive patterns of use.”
The study – published in the journal, Molecular Psychiatry, last month – also found drug users’ brain cells in the frontal region were less healthy than normal. The research shows drug taking is not a matter of choice for long-term users, who have a reduced biological capacity to stop, Dr Yucel says.
Researchers will next examine whether reduced brain function is a consequence of addiction or a contributing factor that makes some people more vulnerable to drug abuse. Co-researcher Dan Lubman said the study would likely lead to the development of new strategies for the treatment of addiction.
“These findings tell us that we need to provide a combination of pharmaceutical and psychological treatments that will help bolster the efficiency of the frontal cortex and hence the individual’s ability to stop their urge to use drugs,” he said.

Source: www.yahoo7News.com Aug. 2007

DRUG addicts using the controversial Kings Cross injecting room are taking advantage of the safe environment to test their tolerance to higher doses of heroin and other cocktails of dangerous illicit drugs.
The claims were made during interviews with the peak body Drug Free Australia and were repeated in Parliament by Christian Democratic Party MLC Reverend Gordon Moyes late on Tuesday night during debate over a possible four-year extension of the injecting room.
Mr Moyes told the Upper House the injecting room “has encouraged (users) . . . to try wilder mixes of drugs” after he read aloud a transcript of a recorded conversation between Drug Free Australia secretary Gary Christian and a former injecting room client.
During the interview, the man claimed there was widespread dangerous mixing of heroin and pills including Benzodiazepene, Normasin, Oxycodone and Xanax.
“I have seen that they are going in for one thing but really they are going in for two (or three), with the heroin on top of the pills, but they won’t (tell anybody that),” he said.
“They feel a lot more safer, definitely because they know they can be brought back to life straight away. They know . . . they can, like some people go to the extent of even using more. So in a way they feel it is a comfort zone, and no matter how much they use if they drop (die) they (might) be brought back.”
Drug Free Australia had sought answers as to why the injecting room had “massive” numbers of heroin overdoses, measured between 36 and 42 times higher than normal rates of overdose in the community.
“In 2003 our expert committee analysing injecting room data found that clients of the injecting room were recording a prior history of one overdose for every 4380 injections on average in their intake questionnaire,” Mr Christian said.
“But inside the injecting room, there was an extraordinary one overdose for every 106 injections, 42 times higher than the client’s previous history.”
The former injecting room client said the rife experimentation was done behind workers’ backs.
“You can hide anything from everybody,” he said.
“It is not the workers’ (fault) . . . they try their best, it is just (that we) are (all) sneaky people.”
Mr Moyes told Parliament a second former client revealed users were using the safety of the room “to get the biggest rush they can, even if there is the risk of overdose”.
“Consequently, far from combating the problem and helping these people to stop harming themselves, the injecting facility has actually encouraged them to try harder, to try wilder mixes of drugs, and to push themselves right to the point of death,” Mr Moyes said.
“For six years the NSW Government has funded a drug experimentation laboratory where users can push their boundaries and where they have medical help immediately on hand from a nursing sister if they go too far.”

Source: The Daily Telegraph (Australia)June 28, 2007 12:00am

By: Ross Goodridge, Sydney, Australia
This year I published a paper entitled “The Methadone Conspiracy – Can Addicts Sue?”, highlighting the fact that Australia currently has approximately 24,000 people on long-term methadone maintenance programs. Patients receive daily methadone, which is ultimately supplied by the Federal Government of Australia. The methadone is often provided without any attempt to control long-term use or to restrict the addict’s use of other illicit drugs. Most methadone is provided by way of “take-away doses,” and thus an estimated 29 percent of methadone in Australia is re-sold on the black market. Methadone has become a substantial primary drug of addiction.
Methadone is a synthetic opiate, developed in Nazi Germany in 1941, in an attempt to replicate heroin for relief of pain. Methadone acts upon the body in a manner very similar to heroin, attaching to the same brain receptors and creating euphoria by the same chemical process.
In Australia, like most western countries, there are often many views expressed as to how society should deal with illicit drug users. There are those who promote a tougher on drugs policy, while others promote legalisation.
Since releasing “The Methadone Conspiracy,” I have personally attracted much criticism by those who promote legalisation. They believe that narcotics should be available either freely or by prescription. They already have one drug available on this basis – methadone.
On receipt of this criticism I posed the question for myself, “Can methadone maintenance be considered a successful drug treatment program?”
The starting point in answering this question is, “What is meant by success?”
If one starts with the position that no drug addict will ever be cured, and there is no point in trying, then I suppose it could be considered a success to provide clinically pure amounts of narcotic each day to that addict each day. This will provide lower risk of harm to the addict of HIV infection, criminal behaviour, etc.
From my prospective, I cannot, and do not, accept that the best outcome that can ever be achieved for any one addict is a lifetime of addiction.
Australia has a rapidly rising number of drug addicts, a rapidly rising number of methadone addicts, and rapidly rising crime. Australia’s prisons are over-flowing, and it is estimated that 80 percent of all prisoners have a drug addiction, which was a cause of their criminal behaviour. The direction must be changed.
Methadone programs do little to reduce the demand for heroin. An estimated 72 percent of people on long-term high dose methadone programs are also frequent heroin users.
Methadone addicts regularly sell part of their take-away doses in order to obtain money for heroin purchase.
Trading in methadone occurs directly outside of the methadone clinics in Australia.
Nobody involved in the field can be unaware of this fact; it is obvious and patent.
Heroin addicts buy methadone because one “done” (usually 20 or 40 millilitres), will help sustain a heroin addict until he or she can buy more heroin. Teenagers use methadone because of a perception that it is a “safe drug.” It is less daunting to take a sip than it is to inject, and teenagers experiment with methadone as a first drug.
Notwithstanding that there are now over 24,000 long-term methadone addicts in Australia, the Government does not offer any programs to help people overcome their methadone addiction. Drug addicts are placed in jail or given free drugs, and historically almost no funds are available to overcome drug addiction!
I am not opposed to methadone per se. I am opposed to methadone as the first and only option provided to people who would otherwise achieve abstinence.
Ross Goodridge is a senior Barrister-at-Law practising in Sydney, Australia. He is credited with the Australian introduction of Drug Courts and was responsible for the endorsement of Drug Courts by the AMA, most political parties and the broad community. Mr. Goodridge has been a keynote speaker at a number of conferences and an active supporter of the Australian Cities Against Drugs movement.

HEROIN is set for a devastating comeback on Sydney streets and could trigger a major surge in overdoses, drug experts warned yesterday.
While a recent heroin drought led to a drop in overdoses in Australia, an influx of pure heroin from East Asia is expected to flood the local market, sparking grave fears of more drug deaths.
The quantity of heroin imported to Australia has almost doubled in the past two years, jumping from 40kg in 2005-06 to about 70kg last financial year, the latest statistics show.
A dramatic increase in poppy production in Afghanistan and Burma due to favourable weather conditions has been blamed for the increased supply of pure heroin, which experts say is destined for Sydney, which is renowned as Australia’s heroin capital.
The Australian National Council on Drugs yesterday warned low grade heroin supplies were being supplemented by higher concentrations.
“The increase in purity has a potential problem for more overdoses,” the council’s executive director Gino Vumbaca said.
“Sydney is the market where it comes to and there’s an increase in usage patterns.”
The UN has recently confirmed Burma had dramatically increased poppy yields.
“They’re expecting a lot of heroin to be produced and sold and the destination will be Sydney and Melbourne,” Mr Vumbaca said.
The trend has angered Australia’s leading drug support group which held a memorial service in Canberra this week – attended by more than 100 people – to pay tribute to family members lost to drug overdoses.
“We haven’t solved the problem, we haven’t done anything to make long-term solutions,” a Families and Friends for Drug Law Reform spokesman said.
The heroin issue was also raised at a national drug strategy conference on the Gold Coast yesterday with experts saying supplies were certainly on the rise.
National Drug and Alcohol Research Council spokeswoman Louisa Degenhardt said internal research showed drug users confirmed that heroin supply was increasing.
“A greater proportion said it was very easy to get compared to last year,” she said.

Source www.news.com.au Oct 2007

A new Australian study suggests that parental encouragement leads to alcoholism in teenagers. The latest MBF Healthwatch survey found that 63percent of Aussies in the higher income bracket approve of alcohol consumption by 15 to 17 year olds at home under the eyes of parents.
“Our survey suggests many Australians believe it’s acceptable to buy alcohol for teenagers and allow them to drink under parental supervision at home,” Bupa Australia Chief Medical Officer, Dr Christine Bennett, said.
Dr Bennett continued: “Some parents may think this is harmless; some may see this approach as a way to teach their teenage children about socially responsible drinking. But we want parents to understand that early exposure may actually be doing them damage. “Evidence suggests that the earlier the age that alcohol is introduced, the greater the risk of long-term alcohol related health problems.
“Binge drinking in young people is on the rise. Too much alcohol impairs young people’s judgement, which can lead to violence, injury and build a pattern of use that leads to lifetime dependence. “It’s shocking to think that one teenager a week dies of alcohol abuse. We teach children about the harmful effects of smoking, unsafe sex and taking illicit drugs, but we also need to teach them about the damage that alcohol can do.”
The survey also found that people’s acceptance of supervised underage drinking was closely related to their income levels. Nearly 63percent people earning over 100,000 dollars approved supervised drinking; 53percent people with incomes between 70,001 to 100,000 dollars were comfortable with the idea followed by 48percent people getting paychecks ranging from 40,001 to 70,000 dollars.
Dr Bennett added: “Given that social drinking is a common part of the Australian culture, our challenge is to help our young people learn how to enjoy alcohol in a socially responsible way and protect them from harm now and in the long-term.
“That will mean educating young people about the risks of underage drinking and, as parents and a community, being good role models.”

Source: Health News Dec. 3rd 2009

Australia’s drinking, smoking and drug-taking caused a lot of sickness, disease, premature death, reduced productivity, crime and accidents in the year to July 2005. The report shows costs were up to $56 billion, from about $34 billion when the estimate was last made in the late 1990s.
The latest estimate puts the cost of alcohol-associated problems at $15 billion. It estimates Illicit drugs cost Australia about $8 billion. But by far the biggest problem is tobacco. The report says it cost $31.5 billion – 56 per cent of the total.
“The smoking rates are reducing but the delayed health effects of past smoking are still being seen,” Health Minister Nicola Roxon said. “So we do hope that in the future, pretty long term in the future, that the lower rates of smoking will see a decline in this social cost.”
Professor Simon Chapman from the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney says Australia is a world leader in anti-tobacco campaigns, but more practical steps need to be taken to make smoking history. “We could begin by putting all cigarettes under the counter in the way that pharmaceutical, ethical drugs are not displayed,” he told AM.
“We could put them in plain packaging rather than the really enticing attractive boxes which are highly market researched to appeal to young people. We could put the price of cigarettes up a lot more and we could regulate the product itself. It’s the only product that is taken into the body which is not subject to, sort of quality controls, safety controls.”
The Labor Party says it is taking a different approach to the previous government in health policy, putting more emphasis on prevention. The director of the Australian Institute of Health Policy Studies, Professor Brian Oldenburg, says there is little detail so far.
“I think at least compared to the previous government, there is the expressed intent to really put more effort into prevention, but we are still waiting to see how that is going to work its way through the system,” he said. Ms Roxon will release the figures on the social costs of drugs and alcohol at the first ever national illness prevention summit, which begins in Melbourne today.

Source: ABC News April 9th 2008

In different forms it’s been sold as plant food, but little is known about a new recreational drug hitting Australian streets, other than it prompts acts of horrendous self-mutilation by some users. Within the past few months in Sydney there have been reports one user tried to castrate himself while under the influence of the drug. Another severed half a finger using a kitchen appliance and degloved his penis in an apparent circumcision attempt.
The drug in question is 4-methylmethcathinone or mephedrone – but more commonly known as 4-MMC, MMCAT, bubbles, megatron, bath salt or miaow miaow. As a derivative of methandienone, the drug is a prohibited substance in Australia.
Continuing to prove hugely popular on the UK clubbing scene, the drug is believed to be partly responsible for the deaths of a woman in Sweden in 2008 and a 14-year-old girl in England in November. It has since been made illegal in some European countries.
The psychoactive drug creates a state of euphoria similar to, but not as extreme as cocaine, with an ecstasy-like hit at the end. Reports of little after-effects and a mild “come-down” have made the drug popular among young professionals who like to party at the weekend before having to return to work.
Since September 2008, the Australian Federal Police (AFP), along with Australian Customs and the Border Protection Service, have detected 25 attempts to import a combined total of more than 20kg of the drug. An AFP spokeswoman confirmed that mephedrone “is a new drug that has emerged in Australia”. While prohibited here, the drug is readily available for legal purchase abroad, predominantly in China and Israel.
In Tasmania, police have labelled the drug “Israeli’s”, because of its country of source, and report its popularity with people who believe it’s legal to possess. “We conducted an investigation at the start of the year and a number of persons were charged with trafficking,” Tasmanian Police Detective Inspector Ian Lindsay told The Mercury newspaper in October last year. He added that since those charges were laid there had been a “dramatic reduction” in the amount of mephedrone seized across the state.
In a report from the Tasmanian Department of Police and Emergency Management, the drug is said to have been possessed “in an attempt to circumvent existing legislation”. In the Northern Territory, a 16-year-old boy faced Darwin Youth Justice Court on January 15 for allegedly importing 1kg of mephedrone, ordered online from a legitimate chemical company in China. The court heard the boy paid $8,000 and was expected to pay an additional $12,000 when the drug arrived, the NT News reported. The matter is ongoing.
Brisbane-based Rave Safe project coordinator Michael Brennan said use of the drug in Australia was “worrying” and people continued to consume the substance without knowing its effects or what’s used in its production.
Typically, mephedrone is mixed with caffeine and the compound can take effect very quickly. However, for users of other recreational drugs, Mr Brennan said the effect may not be as strong as that to which they’ve become accustomed.
“Reports are that it’s incredibly more-ish, which can be a concern in itself,” he said. “It is one thing to pop one or two tabs of ecstasy, but taking this stuff, they could be inclined to take several hundred milligrams.
“In a way these things are more dangerous because people will take one or two doses and not get the effect they want so then they take a lot more of them. When a substance like this comes up that was really only invented only a few years ago, it’s hard to say what the effects will be, so it’s really worrying to me. It’s just a real unknown at this stage.” Typically, the drug is purchased in crystal form and snorted for quick effect, but can also be taken orally.
Mr Brennan said mephedrone had proven popular among ecstasy users, but added that few seemed to move onto long-term use. “I think some people are quite happy with that effect, that you don’t get this terrible after-effect with it,” he said.
“A lot of ecstasy users have been taking it for a try, but a lot of long-term users have gradually lost the attraction to it. And I would bet that 4M CC will slowly disappear into the background.”
As a stimulant, the drug affects the human cardio system and users have experienced varying symptoms including palpitations, paranoia, anxiety, depression, insomnia, headaches and short-term memory loss.
In one case, documented in an online forum, following the consumption of about 100mg over a week, a male user noticed his fingers and knees turn a dark red to purple colour before he passed out. After about six months, including a short stint in hospital, the discolouration disappeared, but the symptoms returned after again trying a small amount of mephedrone.
In the Sydney cases, it’s unknown whether the male users were also under the influence of other substances, but online discussions about the drug frequently list paranoia as a common side-effect. Both men were hospitalised for their injuries, but NSW Health does not have a system in place to record how many patients have been admitted to hospital due to the drug.
Nor is the use of mephedrone recorded by major agencies, including the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, or the Centre for Population Health.
The Australian Injecting and Illicit Drug Users’ League in Canberra has only anecdotal data about the drug. All agencies report having been made aware of the drug’s existence in Australia since about 2008, but concede there is little or no information about mephedrone.
Online forums suggest Australian use or sampling of the drug is most popular in states along the eastern seaboard. Part of the drug’s appeal is its relative cheapness, with online advertisements for various forms of mephedrone available from $170 for 100mg.

Source: www.smh.com.au 29th Jan 2010

Exclusive data reveals 134 people died of heroin-caused deaths in Victoria last year – the most annual fatalities since 2000 when the drug rivalled the road toll. Already this year, 59 heroin deaths have been verified – taking the total to almost 200 in less than two years – with 2009′s figure expected to rise dramatically as investigations into causes of death are completed. With heroin caps now selling for as little as $40 to $50 – about the same as a slab of beer – and police warning heroin purity and volumes are on the rise, experts predict scores more will die.
A Sunday Herald Sun investigation into drugs on Victorian streets reveals:
Drug detectives are battling Vietnamese organised crime syndicates which are using teams of mules to transport “alarming” quantities of heroin into Melbourne.
Victoria Police has compiled a hit list of more than 100 names of suspected couriers who will be detained if detected at airports.
While heroin is booming, an amphetamine drought has more than doubled the price of “ice” to up to $1000 a gram.
And, according to authorities, new groups are “champing at the bit” to fill the void in the speed market vacated by the execution and imprisonment of figures in the gangland war.
In an exclusive interview, one of the state’s top anti-drug enforcers, detective Sen-Sgt Dale Flynn, revealed the international heroin wave had started to break locally.”We’ve been anticipating some type of flood into Australia, into Victoria, and we’ve really just seen signs of that in the past six to 12 months,” he said.
Forensic, toxicology, police and corrections sources have noticed a rapid increase in heroin and its attendant harms in Victoria in recent months. “Identifying factors for us are we’re seizing more and the purity has increased and we’re getting more intelligence about heroin,” Sgt Flynn said. “If there was an increase in any particular drug, that would be a concern to us. Heroin is the one that has probably the most fatalities connected to it, so when that starts to increase that is a concern.”
A Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine report on heroin deaths, obtained by the Sunday Herald Sun, details the startling rise in fatalities. A further analysis shows that including the part-year figures for 2009 from the National Coronial Information Service, there have been 2414 heroin deaths in Victoria since 1991.
Figures also show those who died in 2008 ranged from a 15-year-old female to a 57-year-old male, with increasing numbers of female victims. And ambulance officers had attended 614 non-fatal heroin overdoses in the first six months of this year, the Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre revealed.
VIFM chief toxicologist Dimitri Gerostamoulos said the increase was mirroring the spike that happened in the late 1990s. “There’s more heroin being produced nowadays than ever before, so there is quite a lot of heroin available,” he said.
Police said the amount of heroin being produced in Afghanistan and South-East Asia was significant. In recent years, brown heroin from Afghanistan had appeared locally as well as Asian white. “Probably the main issue at the moment is Vietnamese organised crime groups,” Sgt Flynn said. “They obviously have the contacts in Vietnam and South-East Asia that can get it here initially. They’re the ones that we seem to be targeting at the moment. We have a problem at the moment with Australian nationals getting paid to fly over to Vietnam, stay for a couple of days, receive some pellets of heroin that they insert internally then come back over.”
He said several heroin couriers had been arrested in Melbourne and around the nation in joint ventures between Victoria Police, Customs and the AFP. “But we don’t believe we’re getting all of them. Obviously there’s some that’s getting through,” he said. The deadly drugs are cut and processed locally, often in industrial areas, factories and homes. In September, heroin worth $5 million was seized from a West Footscray house. Victoria Police drug investigators have compiled a “hit list” of more than 100 names of suspected couriers who will be checked if detected passing through airports. “We don’t always just look at taking them out at the border, but we look for the Melbourne-based offenders to try to gather evidence and put them before the courts as well,” Sgt Flynn said.
Melbourne’s heroin hot spots include the CBD, St Kilda, Richmond, Footscray, Frankston, Collingwood, St Albans, Deer Park, Boronia, Dandenong, Reservoir, Fitzroy and Carlton. During the week the Sunday Herald Sun found used syringes dumped in city alleyways, car parks and near a needle exchange program just metres from a primary school.
The broad availability of heroin is causing its price to fall, while ecstasy and amphetamine stocks are falling, pushing up their street prices. A gram of smack can cost as little as $260, while a gram of ice, or crystal meth, now sells for $750 to $1000. A smaller cap of heroin costs between $40 and $50.
Needle exchange group ANEX said the heroin boom would bring a tide of disease if the right steps were not taken. “We need millions more needles in the needle exchange services to prevent HIV and hepatitis C,” ANEX chief John Ryan said. Overall, about half of injections are made without a clean syringe. More than 40,000 needles are distributed to drug addicts every month as part of a Frankston program – one of 19 needle and syringe programs throughout Victoria.
An analysis of Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme data has found the number of prescriptions for methadone and other heroin recovery drugs in Australia almost tripled from about 2.4 million in 1992 to almost seven million in 2007. Victoria has recorded the greatest increase in addicts of any state, with almost 12,000 – more than double since 1998 – costing the taxpayer more than $22 million in treatments.
Source: Heraldsun.com.au 23 Nov. 2009

A ground-breaking report into the use of the stimulant MDMA has revealed it claimed 82 Australians over five years from 2000 – and the number fatalities is increasing.
The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre’s study into MDMA-related deaths is the most comprehensive examination to date, and has prompted calls for more research. Last year, Perth teenager Gemma Thoms collapsed at the Big Day Out and died in hospital. She swallowed three ecstasy pills at the festival gates to avoid being caught by police.
Her mum, Peta, is planning to hand out leaflets at today’s Big Day Out warning revellers about the dangers. Concert organisers had promised to design and print flyers for all the 40,000 people expected to attend the festival.
Additional figures obtained by The Sunday Times this week show 23 people died as a result of taking ecstasy in Australia from 2006 to 2008. There could be more, with a number of cases still under investigation. Of those, 10 deaths were reported in 2006, seven in 2007 and six in 2008, with 65 per cent of victims aged 20-29 and more than 70 per cent male.
More than 80 per cent of the deaths were unintentional and 15 of the 23 victims took other drugs with the MDMA, including cannabis or alcohol. In the earlier cases examined by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, 91 per cent of the deaths were directly caused by drug toxicity and MDMA was the sole drug involved in a quarter of cases.
It also contributed to a number of drownings, cardiovascular problems and car crashes. Last week, The Sunday Times revealed that ecstasy had never been cheaper in Perth, with the street price dropping for the first time last year.
A survey by the National Drug Research Institute also found that young users were taking the party drug more often and in bigger quantities. The number who binged on the drug rose from 22 per cent in 2008, to 40 per cent in 2009.
Funded by the Federal Department of Health and Ageing, a separate National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre report found the median age of ecstasy fatalities was 26, with the youngest victim 17 and the oldest 58.
“There are a lot of accidental deaths where MDMA is thought to have played a role . . . and this seems to be a more prominent and prevalent concern,” the centre’s assistant director Louisa Degenhardt said. “A lot of bad things can happen when combining drugs because accidents happen when people are intoxicated with any drug.”
Royal Perth Hospital emergency 2medicine specialist Daniel Fatovich warned that cheaper prices meant more West Australians could afford more pills, increasing the risk of overdoses.

Source www.perthnow.com.au January 30, 2010

THE serious consequences of long-term cannabis use in indigenous communities are beginning to show, with an alarming surge in the rate of chronic mental health conditions among those who started smoking the drug at an early age.
James Cook University researcher Alan Clough, who has been looking at the issue of indigenous drug use for the past five years, found cannabis use in remote communities was now as high as 70 per cent of people, with almost 90 per cent of users claiming to be addicted.
Since the study began in 2004, the bulk of users surveyed reported continuing heavy use. “After 15 years of a cannabis epidemic we’re really starting to see the chronic mental effects appearing,” Professor Clough said.
“We’ve seen acute psychosis that is irreversible, as well as depression and dependence. Unfortunately we also have the situation where suicide is linked not just with cannabis use but also through withdrawal. The other worrying trend is the declining age of people trying it for the first time. Some kids are starting at 10.”
In a recent study of three remote Arnhem Land communities, Professor Clough and a team of researchers found that cannabis use exceeded six “cones” daily in almost 90 per cent of users. This was about twice the consumption of regular users elsewhere in Australia. The study also found people spent more than 60 per cent of their income on cannabis.
Professor Clough denied that alcohol bans under the intervention had forced people to switch to drugs. Senior Arnhem Land elder Bakamumu Marika said young people were turning to cannabis out of boredom. “People just get bored stiff. They’ve got no work to do, no training, no jobs,” he said.
Source:www.theaustralian.com 9th Nov. 2009

September 29, 2009

A recent analysis of official reports on the Sydney Kings Cross injecting room confirmed that unavailability of heroin is of far greater significance in preventing heroin deaths than the availability of injecting rooms.
Less than 9,800 drug users were registered at Kings Cross, a small number of illicit drug users in New South Wales. Most drug users lived well away from Kings Cross and used the rooms only occasionally so most drug use was elsewhere.
The severe heroin drought at the end of 2000 led to the reduction in drug deaths. In fact, timely ambulance attendance is more likely to prevent a drug death than any other factor.
Source: Kings Cross Injecting Centre Fails to Reduce Overdose Deaths, Dr Sullivan PhD. Click here for the research.
DRUG ADVISORY COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIA COMMENTS
This study confirms overseas research that indicates that injecting rooms are a failure and are being closed down. Restriction of illicit drug supply is effective in reducing use and deaths.
Reducing the demand for illicit drugs is a key to successful drug policy.
Drug policy should divert identified drug users into court ordered and supervised detoxification and rehabilitation to get them drug free.
THE DRUG ADVISORY COUNCIL SUPPORTS:
• More detoxification & rehabilitation that gets illicit drug users drug free.
• Court ordered and supervised detoxification & rehabilitation.
• Less illicit drug users, drug pushers and drug related crimes.
Posted at 10:40 AM in News, Policies, legislation | Permalink
Comments
A very good point. So let’s destroy the heroin fields in Afghanistan!
Posted by: Frugal Dougal | September 29, 2009 at 04:54 PM
There were 2,106 overdose “events” treated at the Centre during the trial period. Nobody died during this time and yet, according to the study, no deaths were necessarily prevented, because these people could have been treated by paramedics or in a hospital ED.
True – as long as they were using with a responsible friend who could call out an ambulance. But the target group, street injecters, often don’t.
It is impossible to say exactly how many of these 2,000+ events would have been fatal had they happened elsewhere, but to choose instead to look for the effect of a single clinic by using overall population data is misguided, or just plain dishonest.
What this study shows most clearly is that people will take the evidence that suits their ideology and use it to attack the good work that is being done by others, simply because, in their opinion, it is “wrong”. Whether lives are saved, or not, is secondary.
Posted by: Adam Baxter | September 30, 2009 at 10:59 AM

“Drug driving tests have been an outstanding success in reliably identifying drivers whose capacity to drive is dangerously compromised,” Mr Holding said. “There can be no mistake that driving under the influence of illicit drugs is just as dangerous as driving while affected by alcohol and is a major contributor to death and trauma on Victoria’s roads.

“The first four months of the saliva drug testing program have identified a worrying level of substance use among drivers that will not be tolerated.” Mr Holding said a three-step process ensured the integrity of the tests. Drivers are initially asked to provide a saliva sample by placing a small absorbent pad on their tongue for a few seconds.

Drivers who return a positive test are then asked to accompany police into a drug bus, similar to a booze bus, for two further saliva samples – one to be kept by the driver and the other for further on-the-spot analysis. If this indicates a positive result, the sample is sent to a laboratory for verification. Motorists who return positive laboratory results for cannabis or methamphetamines are fined $307 and lose three demerit points, or are prosecuted in court. If the offence progresses to court, the maximum penalty for a first offence is $614 and three months’ licence cancellation. Subsequent convictions can result in fines of up to $1227 and up to six months’ licence cancellation.

Mr Holding said in the four months to 17 March 2005, a total of 4619 drivers were tested, with 63 drivers testing positive for drugs. He said 21 drivers tested positive for cannabis and methamphetamine-based drugs. Five drivers tested positive for only cannabis, with 37 testing positive to only methamphetamine-based drugs.

Of the 3488 car drivers tested, 47 returned a positive result. Sixteen out of 1131 truck drivers tested positive for drugs. Eight preliminary tests were not confirmed by the drug bus.

Mr Holding said test handling procedures had been reviewed after three drivers’ final tests ultimately came up negative in the very early stages of the program. “Independent laboratory tests since have conclusively verified the accuracy of saliva drug testing,” Mr Holding said.

Australian Premier John Brumby’s promise to battle the social ills of alcohol has been undermined by inaction on the expansion of big discount liquor stores and bottle shops, often in socially disadvantaged areas. The State Government has accepted only two of the 27 recommendations from its Liquor Control Advisory Council on how to control the booming retail liquor market and its impacts on binge and under-age drinking.
The council’s report found the number of retail liquor stores had increased more than 60% in Victoria in the past decade — to 1851 outlets. The report also revealed the dominance of the state’s biggest purveyor of alcohol — Woolworths.Since the Government lifted the cap on big players in the liquor market five years ago, Woolworths, which owns the Dan Murphy’s chain, has boosted its outlets from 135 to 233 stores. Coles liquor group owns 178 licences.
Woolworths has recently been involved in several cases where communities and local councils, concerned about a saturation of liquor stores, have fought to stop the company establishing new Dan Murphy’s outlets. In September, residents and Manningham City Council lost its bid to stop Woolworths turning a Doncaster Safeway supermarket into a Dan Murphy’s. Last year, against the wishes of police and the Darebin Council, a Dan Murphy’s was approved next to a Salvation Army alcohol treatment centre in Preston. (if ever there was a case of big business succeeding over a community need this must surely be it NDPA)
In its submission to the council’s review of the liquor store market — or packaged liquor — the Liquor Stores Association of Victoria said the state’s saturated market would lead to irresponsible discounting “in direct conflict with the principle of harm minimisation”. Most submissions to the inquiry, including some from the liquor industry, said communities should be given more power to object to new liquor store licences, and community or social impact statements should be included in the application process.
The council, however, did not recommend giving more power to communities. It did say the State Government should review home delivery of alcohol with takeaway meals and groceries because it was concerned the practice gave minors easier access to alcohol. The council, which advises the Government on alcohol issues in the community, is made up of community, police and alcohol industry representatives. The State Government, after sitting on the report for seven months, recently adopted two of the council’s recommendations: one that requires outlets to have extra shelf signage about under-age drinkers, and another about applicants advertising their intentions in local newspapers.
A spokeswoman for Consumer Affairs Minister Tony Robinson said the other recommendations would be looked at during a review of all categories of liquor licences, as outlined in the Victorian Alcohol Action Plan. Two recommendations have been referred back to the council. Mr Robinson said the Government was committed to reducing alcohol abuse in the community. He denied that the community had little say in fighting liquor store applications. Input was also sought from local councils and the police.
“Each application is judged on its merits, and the director of Liquor Licensing’s decision may be challenged at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal,” he said. But Mary Wooldridge, the Opposition’s community services spokeswoman, said the minister was doing nothing to curb the saturation and inappropriate location of liquor stores, despite evidence linking them to a range of social problems, including property damage.
The Government’s alcohol plan only briefly mentioned packaged liquor, she said.
In its battle against booze culture, the State Government has been accused of unfairly focusing on nightclubs. A recent government report into the regulatory impact of increasing licence fees shows that although packaged liquor licences have massively increased over 10 years, the bigger growth has been in “on-premises” licences for bars, clubs, restaurants and cafes. The overall growth in new licences peaked in 2002-03 and has since been in decline.
The report, released last month, shows the number of offences recorded at licensed premises in Victoria has actually decreased from 8166 in 2002-03 to 6835 in 2006-07.
But total police incidents where the offender was alcohol or drug-affected (including those on licensed premises) rose from 11,808 to 14,556 in the same period.
A spokesman for Woolworths declined to comment for this report.

Source: TheAge.com.au Sun 2nd Nov.2008

Harm reduction, which has been the central focus of drug policy in this country since 1992, by its very definition does not focus on getting drug users off drugs. ‘Harm reduction’ is defined by the International Harm Reduction Association as ‘efforts to reduce the health, social and economic costs of mood altering drugs without necessarily reducing drug consumption’.Alarmingly, leaders of the harm reduction movement want Australia to move on to the next step, getting rid of the prohibitions against drug use, prohibitions which the Australian
community support so strongly.

Dr Alex Wodak, Australia’s most prominent proponent of harm reduction both nationally and internationally, responsible for introducing it to Australia in 1985, wants currently prohibited
drugs made legal for personal use. He says,

“In many countries it is time to move from the first phase of harm reduction – focusing on reducing adverse consequences – to a second phase which concentrates on reforming an ineffective and harm-generating system of global drug prohibition.”

Dr Alex Wodak; Paper presented to the 15th InternationalConference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm

Many leaders of the harm reduction movement in Australia are seeking government support for new harm reduction interventions which show little interest in getting users off drugs,
but rather perpetuate their drug use while spending large amounts of tax-payer funds for programs to keep them safe while their use continues.

Injecting rooms
The Kings Cross injecting room does little to get users off drugs, with less than 4.5% of clients being sent to detox or rehab. Rather it spends $2.5 million per year saving clients from overdoses. The 2003 evaluation showed there was 36 times more overdoses in the
injecting room than on the streets of Kings Cross, despite injecting room clients injecting 97% of the time on the streets of Kings Cross rather than in the room. Proponents are working for multiple injecting rooms in every Australian city. Injecting rooms are very ineffective in reducing drug use.

Heroin On Prescription
It is not legal in Australia for the government to provide heroin to heroin users, with methadone being substituted instead. However many harm reductionists want an expensive program providing heroin on prescription to heroin users. Heroin on prescription focuses most on maintaining a user’s addiction. Other agendas that perpetuate drug use are the decriminalisation or legalisation of cannabis, the legalisation of raw cannabis for medical purposes, and pill testing at RAVEs.

EX-INJECTING ROOM CLIENT TELLS WHY INJECTING
ROOMS HAVE SO MANY OVERDOSES
“They feel a lot more safer, definitely because they know they can be brought back to life straight away. They know that they can, like some people go to the extent of using even more. So in a way they feel it is a comfort zone, and no matter how much they use if they drop they just get brought back. What users look for is in heroin and pills is to get the
most completely out of it as they can, like virtually be asleep but awake for 4 – 5 hours. For instance to get that you have to test your limits. And by testing your limits that is how you end up dropping.”
desire for a society free of illicit drugs
CHRISTOPHER
I became addicted and it took seven years for me to realise that I had to stop .In those seven years . . . I would get windows of opportunity to get out. I would feel like I could go to rehab or detox and everything like that but, when I would get on the phone to get in contact with [a treatment agency],there would not be a place available. The feeling of ‘okay, I’ve had enough, Ican get out’ would disappear. I would go back into it.

Christopher, transcript, 7 April 2007 p 68 – cited in Winnable War on Drugs, House of Representatives Standing
Committee on Family and Human Services. p209

TIM
With early inquiries in September 2006, and desperate to rid himself of drugs, Tim was assessed and approved for suitability to participate in a drug rehabilitation program at the Woolshed Drug Rehabilitation Community, Adelaide. Elated at such an opportunity he diligently marked off the list of preparatory requests made, he telephoned regularly as required on 22, 26 and 29 September, and 3, 6, 10, 13, 17 and 20 October for a period
extending five weeks, hoping and waiting desperately for a placement, for an opportunity to learn how to live without drugs.

Throughout this time, Tim had returned to live with us. He had stated that it was a particularly difficult time as not only did he have to deal with the long-term effects of taking drugs and withdrawal, he had to deal with the loss of autonomy in living in his own place of residence. He felt unable to apply for employment outside of the family business, because of his commitment to securing a placement at the Woolshed. Rehabilitation could take as long as six months, with then ongoing support required. On Sunday, 22 October 2006, in a desperate bid to end his pain and suffering, Tim committed suicide in our family home. I have been informed by the Woolshed that there is only accommodation for 24 participants, with up to as many as 34 waiting for a bed at one time for periods as long as 12 weeks. As of 24 May this year, 30 people were waiting. Tim could wait no longer.

Drug Free Australia Ltd

A Review of Australian public opinion surveys on illicit drugsA strong trend since the 1998 NDSHS (National Drug Strategy Household
Survey) has been a hardening in attitudes towards cannabis, a review from Australia revealed. The review, published by National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre in December 2008, analysed a range of illicit drug opinion surveys conducted in the country.

Cannabis is now more associated with “a drug problem”, is a greater concern to the general community, its use is approved of less than in 1998, and there is also less support for cannabis legalisation and decriminalisation, it is pointed out in the review.

In 2004, 25 per cent of Australians approved use of cannabis compared to 10 per cent in 2007.
The strongest support for legalisation of cannabis was observed around
1998 and since then the support has been declining down to 19 per cent in 2007.

Certainly there has been an increased interest in the link between cannabis and mental health, with new evidence showing the link between cannabis use and disorders such as schizophrenia; It is possible that an increased research and policy focus on cannabis and mental health has affected public opinion on this matter, says Pr Ritter from the Drug Policy Modelling Program at the University of New South Wales, one of the authors of the review.

The change in attitudes to the cannabis legalisation has not resulted in support for increased penalties. The majority of the Australians would like to see increased spending for education and treatment.

Source: ECAD Newsletter, 26. Jan. 2009

The effects of cannabis use on health and social adjustment are profound.
Substance misuse by Indigenous people has long been recognised
as one of the devastating consequences of contact with
Western culture. Misuse of tobacco, alcohol and petrol
among Indigenous Australians has received much attention. Cannabis,
by contrast, has not been viewed as a major problem. But
since the 1990s, it has become apparent that heavy cannabis use is
common in some remote Indigenous communities.1 The associated
health and social burdens are now being recognised.
Indigenous Australians, whether living in urban or rural
settings, are more likely than other Australians to report cannabis
use. Recent reports suggest that cannabis use is also relatively
high among Indigenous populations in New Zealand, Canada
and North America. Limited data are available on patterns of
cannabis use among Indigenous Australians. However, a recent
5-year study of adolescents and young adults in three remote
communities in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory has
found that not only is cannabis use common in remote Indigenous
settings, but its effects on health and social adjustment are
profound. These three communities are close to one another but very
isolated, being over 550 kilometres from the nearest city. There is
one local Indigenous language, and English is a secondary language.
Tobacco use was found to be the norm in these communities,
with over 90% of adolescents and young adults smoking.
Because of restricted access to alcohol, problem drinking was
uncommon. In contrast, cannabis use was endemic, with over
70% of males and 20% of females being current users. Cannabis
was typically consumed mixed with tobacco and smoked using a
locally fashioned “bucket bong” that gives the user a rapid and
intense dose with little smoke lost. Regular heavy use (_6
“cones” daily) was found in almost 90% of users. This is around
twice the consumption of regular cannabis users elsewhere in
Australia. Furthermore, about 90% of the Indigenous users
reported symptoms of cannabis dependence. This compares with
about 20% of users aged 18 or over in the general Australian
population.3 Of even greater concern was a suggestion that, for
most Indigenous users, cannabis was not a passing adolescent
phase. After 5 years of follow-up, the great majority reported
continuing heavy use.
Cannabis use was linked to substantial health problems and
social burdens in these communities, which are already disadvantaged
by isolation and poverty. Up to 10% of the communities’
total income and between 31% and 62% of a user’s median weekly
income was spent on cannabis. Cannabis users were less likely
than non-users to participate in education or training and more
likely to report auditory hallucinations, suicidal ideation, symptoms
of depression, and having been imprisoned. Community
violence increased when cannabis supplies were scarce. The
effects on traditional life were described by one NT Indigenous
mental health clinician in the following way:
Too many of my people are chained to [cannabis]. They don’t
go out hunting or spend time by the river with their family.
They just sit and smoke [cannabis], then look for money to buy
more [cannabis] and get into fights when they can’t get any
(Muriel Jaragba, personal communication).
What accounts for the unusual patterns of cannabis misuse in
these remote Indigenous communities? There is little evidence that
cannabis is grown locally, but much anecdotal evidence that
market networks supplied by dealers based in urban or regional
centres are extensive and resilient, making cannabis readily available
(A R C, unpublished observation). Alcohol restrictions have
been effective in reducing problem drinking within communities,
but may have had the undesirable consequence of encouraging an
increase in cannabis use where it could be easily obtained. As
with risks for other forms of substance misuse in these communities,
the social context is important. Limited employment and
education opportunities; crowded, poor-quality housing; community-
wide feelings of disempowerment; and grief and loss related
to high mortality, morbidity and incarceration rates are all likely
risk factors for substance misuse. Cannabis misuse is likely to be
both a consequence of this type of social disadvantage and a
perpetuating influence.
Cannabis misuse in remote Indigenous communities has been
overlooked for too long. It is now clear that it is yet another major
problem for these already disadvantaged communities, with evidence
of cannabis misuse across a broad area of northern Australia.
As well as in the NT, concerns about the level of cannabis
use have recently been noted in Cape York and anecdotally in
other parts of remote and regional Australia. Further research is
needed to investigate the impact of cannabis use on urban
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.
Effective responses will not be easy. Controls on supply by
state- or territory-based police are one of the few available
measures. In order to be effective, policymakers and service
providers would need to work collaboratively with local communities
to tie in local prevention and treatment initiatives with
existing supply control initiatives. Such programs would need to
use Indigenous language and cultural frameworks, build capacity
of local Indigenous professionals, and improve understanding of
the harms associated with cannabis misuse. Ultimately, tackling
the misuse of cannabis and other substances in remote settings
will depend on creating opportunities for social development
and for continuing education, training and employment of
adolescents and young adults.

Source: 228 MJA • Volume 190 Number 5 • 2 March 2009

In 2008 organized crime in Australia is estimated conservatively to cost $10 billion according to the Australian Crime Commission.
The estimate includes the loss of legitimate business revenue, loss of taxation revenue, law enforcement expenditure, regulation and social harms where criminal activity compromises the health, safety and wellbeing of individuals and communities.
Illicit drugs account for at least 50 per cent of the costs of organized crime which are conservatively estimated at $5 billion per year.
As the illicit drug profits are repatriated overseas the costs involving money laundering will add to the cost of organized drug crime.
The Australian Crime Commission believes that organized crime gangs are highly efficient, use the latest technology and employ highly paid professionals to protect their activities.
(Source: Organised Crime in Australia, Australian Crime Commission, February 2009).

DRUG exporters are turning to the postal system in a bid to get illicit drugs into Australia.
And border authorities admit they face a challenge to detect the substances amid the estimated 160 million pieces of mail to be sent into the nation this year.
The Courier-Mail has learnt that drug dealers are sending small parcels through the post, fully expecting to lose some to border authorities but expecting they will get enough through to make a profit. Ecstasy traffickers were keeping parcels to between 300 grams and 500 grams and were increasingly sending through MDMA powder because it was more difficult to detect than pills.
Australian Customs national intelligence manager Andrew Rice said MDMA or ecstasy detections in the post were rising, with more than two every week in the past financial year. “The detections in the post are going up in their sheer number, not necessarily in weight,” Mr Rice said. “There is no pretence from us that we do miss things just because of the volumes. Even in that environment of mass input, we do quite well in terms of significant proportion of drugs being sent through the postal system. But we do see criminals moving between different importation methods and the significant shipments are still likely to be attempted by sea cargo.”
Australia is obliged under a United Nations charter to accept mail from across the world. This year, Customs expects 120 million letters and 40 million parcels to be sent from overseas to the checking points in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.
Mail is screened by Customs or the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service, through the likes of sniffer dog patrols and X-rays, before being handed to Australia Post for distribution. “We think about every item of mail. Some items are given different treatment based on the different risks that we assess,” Mr Rice said.
The figures for ecstasy busts in the last three years have been distorted by the monster find of 4.4 tonnes or 15 million pills in a shipping container in Melbourne in June 2007. The container, sent from Italy, was stacked with tinned tomatoes but Customs authorities were suspicious when X-rays revealed inconsistencies in the tins’ contents. Customs alerted the Australian Federal Police, which decided to seek more information by following the drugs. They opened each tin and replaced the ecstasy with harmless tablets and then followed the trail. An investigation lasting more than a year, involving 400 AFP agents and 20,000 hours of surveillance, resulted in 20 arrests.
In the last financial year, Customs detected 172kg of MDMA/ecstasy and a further 260kg of amphetamine-type stimulants among mail and cargo. This compares with 611kg of cocaine, 72kg of heroin and 49kg of cannabis.
Customs also made large detections of precursor chemicals to methamphetamines, including 105kg of pseudoephedrine in air cargo 18 months ago.
Mr Rice said the criminal networks that controlled much of the world’s illicit drug trade had “access to specialist knowledge around the import and export fields”. “The game is all about concealment,” he said.
Source: www.couriermail.com.au 31st March 2009

A new Australian study has found that the number of newborns suffering serious drug withdrawal symptoms is now more than 40 times higher than in 1980.

The research, published in the latest edition of the international journal Pediatrics, also found that these infants were at greater risk of neglect and of being taken into care.
The data analysis revealed that of 637195 live births in Western Australia between 1980 and 2005, 906 were diagnosed with Neonatal Withdrawal Syndrome. For every year, there was an average 16.4% increase in children born with the syndrome.
Report co-author, Professor Fiona Stanley from Perth’s Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, said the study identified a range of factors that should assist with the early identification of children at risk.
“It is clear that if we are to reduce the number of these children suffering from abuse and neglect, then there is a need to start working with their mothers before these babies are born, and ideally, pre-conception,” Professor Stanley said.
“Our data show that the majority of the mothers had already had contact with hospitals for mental health and substance use issues which suggests there could have been numerous opportunities to intervene to prevent unplanned pregnancy and provide intensive support with antenatal care and substance abuse treatment.”
“A multidisciplinary team that includes obstetricians, social workers, drug and alcohol workers, and welfare workers is required to case manage and support the women through the complex issues that they face. However it is imperative that this support continues long term.”
Professor Stanley said the increase in babies suffering NWS reflected the overall rise in substance abuse within the community and the increased recognition of NWS by health professionals. While this study was in WA, it is likely that it reflects a national trend.
“We now have the situation where 4 babies out of every 1000 births are born suffering the effects of illicit drugs — that is over 1000 newborns per year in Australia. This has serious implications for the child, the family and the whole community and is an issue that must be tackled well before these children suffer potential harm.”
The study was made possible by a groundbreaking agreement by the Western Australian Government Departments of Health and Child Protection that allowed health and welfare records to be linked and the de-identified information given to researchers for analysis.
The research was supported by an Australian Research Council Linkage Project Grant.

Source: Telethon Institute for Child Health Research (2009, April 24). Alarming Increase In Drug-affected Newborns. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 27, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com¬ /releases/2009/04/090423100821.htm

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AUSTRALIA is in a mental health crisis. It’s not impending. It’s here. Government figures show one in four people under 25 will suffer a mental illness.
While we’re worrying about lifting the retirement age and caring for our ageing population, it will cost billions to treat people who develop mental illness in their youth. This bill will soar if we don’t act now.

The ready availability of alcohol and its enthusiastic promotion to make it a normal part of society are major contributors to the youth mental health problem.
According to the 2007 National Drug Strategy Household Survey, more than 20 per cent of 14 to 19-year-olds drink alcohol weekly. A third of boys aged 12-17 downed seven-plus drinks at a time and one in three girls put away five or more in a session.
One in 20 students put away 50 standard drinks or more in a month. An Australian study published in international medical journal The Lancet found that alcohol caused 27 per cent of deaths involving 15 to 29-year-olds in 2002.
That’s tragic, but the physiological effects of drinking on young, developing brains are much more insidious. Brain development continues until the age of 20. Damage from alcohol during this time can be long-term and irreversible. Adolescents need only drink half as much as adults to suffer the same memory loss.
Kids who binge once a week, or increase their drinking between the ages of 18 and 24, increase their chances of not attaining the goals of young adulthood like marriage, educational attainment, employment and financial independence.
While alcohol consumption rates among young people have remained stable for 30 years, what’s really disturbing is the rising intensity of drinking in a small proportion of young people, especially girls.
TV networks have profited tremendously from aggressive alcohol industry ads. The Australian Medical Association has called for a ban on cable and free-to-air TV alcohol ads before 10pm but why not go a step further and ban all alcohol marketing?
Alcohol is a legal product, but why allow it to be marketed so aggressively when the Government is spending millions telling Aussie kids not to binge?
Parents set an example, but an Australian Childhood Foundation report in 2004 said 60 per cent of parents felt they could do better. About 75 per cent said being a mother or father did not come to them naturally. That tallies with research this year by Generation Next, the parenting education group that I will represent in a town hall-style seminar at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre on Saturday.
The Generation Next survey of the parents of 500 children found half were worried or concerned by the challenge of raising children and one in five felt overwhelmed.
When we give them a no-nonsense helping hand and take away the alcohol marketing that makes their job harder, they may become confident enough to take the next step of talking to their kids.
Dr Michael Carr-Gregg is a Melbourne adolescent psychologist. More information about the Generation Next seminars at www.gennext seminars.com.
Source: heraldsun.com.au 9th June 2009

ROUGHLY one-third of Australians have tried it. Half of all people aged 20 to 29 have used it and some of those, like Jade, have smoked so much cannabis that their mental health has crumbled, triggering depression, psychosis, panic attacks, paranoia and even suicidal thoughts.
Former cannabis user Jade experienced paranoia and psychosis before she successfully sought treatment. “It was very scary. I thought people could read my mind. I was getting messages from watching TV. I was very paranoid. I felt like there was a big conspiracy and that everyone was in on this agenda and it was all about me. Cameras were on me. It was something I’ll remember forever and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone,” recalls Jade, now 29, off “bongs” and studying for a career in youth work.
Jade — who began smoking when she was only 13 — says the psychosis she experienced from using and eventually abusing cannabis landed her in Melbourne University’s Orygen Youth Health in-patient clinic for eight days. She wishes someone had helped her recognise that she had a serious cannabis use problem before she hit the wall. Unfortunately, if anybody noticed, they did nothing.
Now somebody is doing something, if not for Jade then for other young people at risk of cannabis-induced mental health problems. The Orygen Youth Health Research Centre has teamed up with the National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre — based at the University of NSW — to produce the first evidence-based guidelines to help people such as Jade’s friends and family identify and assist users who may be sliding down the slope to mental illness. The so-called “first aid” guidelines reflect NCPIC’s job description, says its director Jan Copeland. “There’s a lot of community misinformation about cannabis and only a small proportion of people with problems seek treatment”. And that’s a worry, claims Copeland, a research psychologist specialising in drug and alcohol addiction: “The earlier the intervention the better the outcome.”
Not only can heavy cannabis use lead to the kind of mental illness Jade suffered, it can worsen problems associated with the use of alcohol and other illicit drugs. The resulting emotional cocktail has a host of consequences: impaired judgment, breakdown of families and social connections, legal problems and injuries from car crashes and other accidents. While many of such difficulties can be alleviated by getting off cannabis, others may persist for years, or even life. That’s especially true if people being using very early.
Neuroscientists have learned that different parts of a young brain develop at different rates. Final “wiring” is not complete until the mid-20s, addiction psychiatrist Dan Lubman says. According to Lubman, with Orygen and Melbourne University, that discovery goes a long way to explain why 75 per cent of mental disorders commence before age 25. “It’s a time of huge developmental growth,” he says, noting that stress, drugs and genetic predispositions can make developing brains even more vulnerable.
Most experts agree that developmental mis-wiring involves the brain’s endocannabinoid system. That’s so, as it appears to modulate brain chemicals called neurotransmitters, which relay and regulate signals between brain cells. Lubman says: “Certainly, there’s some evidence from animals that early use of cannabis can cause cognitive problems and problems with social interaction that persist and aren’t seen in adult animals.” There’s also solid evidence that young humans with abnormal brain development often experience a cascade of problems. For instance, cognitive difficulties may lead to poor school performance which may drive poor self-esteem, mixing with other uses, dropping out of school, multi-drug problems and so it goes.
Moreover, Jade’s raging paranoia may have been heightened by the increased potency of cannabis. Unlike the pot smoked by 60s hippies, today’s plants have been selectively bred to increase the amount of the active ingredient of euphoria and mood alteration, tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. In a gardening twist, the rise in THC has been accompanied by a reduction of another cannabis ingredient, cannabidiol. Lubman says cannabidiol reduces anxiety and has been trialled as an anti-psychotic drug for conditions such as schizophrenia.
Little wonder that Jade found herself going from “giggling on the floor for hours” at 13 to full-blown psychosis at 20. As she escalated her intake of cannabis from light use to “a gram or two per day shared between friends”, her brain and behaviour went haywire. It’s quite possible that people close to Jade noticed that she had a problem. It’s also likely that they didn’t want to get involved, wished to keep the matter quiet or simply believed, incorrectly, it was a matter of morality. “A problem is the notion of hedonism, that users should be punished. They brought it on themselves and they don’t deserve help,” Lubman says. Hence, “Helping Someone with problem Cannabis Use: Mental Health First Aid Guidelines”. As well as simple information about cannabis abuse problems, the guidelines provide practical advice about issues such as approaching a person about their cannabis use, what to do if the person does not want professional help, how to find professional help and where to go for support.
Critically, every bit of information was identified and scrutinised for effectiveness and accuracy by 87 participants, divided into three panels: clinicians, carers of users and former users. Co-ordinated by Lubman’s group, the experts came from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the US and Britain. Copeland claims this extensive process was necessary as much of the advice online and in books and other literature is inaccurate, useless or in some cases downright dangerous. While many suggestions are very specific — stay calm, don’t criticise the persons’ cannabis use, don’t bully or nag, ask about the person’s use instead of making assumptions, offer to help find professional help and the like — there are key things to keep in mind, claim both Lubman and Copeland. The key one being that many good treatments are available, from counselling to self-help groups.
Lubman ticks off important basics: “Be realistic about the outcomes. It may be the first time a person has been approached or thought about a problem. Be aware of local options. “Be prepared that the person may not want help and decide how you’ll respond, and understand what you will and won’t do to support the person.” Do the guidelines make sense? “Absolutely,” says Jade. In fact, right now she’s doing a placement with Orygen, working as a peer-support person. “When you’ve got somebody who’s been through it it’s good. They know what’s in your head. That’s why I’m here at Orygen. I’m trying to give back and be here for anyone else going through it.”
Source www.ncpic.org.au, www.mhfa.com.au 19 June 2009

EMERGENCY departments in Queensland public hospitals are being strained by hundreds of thousands of drunken and violent patients.
Almost one person a minute is thought to be attending the state’s emergency departments for alcohol-related reasons, but experts fear that could be a conservative estimate. Australasian College for Emergency Medicine chairman David Rosengren said studies showed alcohol was a factor in 25-30 per cent of presentations at emergency departments.
The latest figures produced by Queensland Health showed that 373,000 people presented at its emergency departments in three months.
“Alcohol is such an insidious undercurrent in a lot of other presentations,” Dr Rosengren said. “It can be one of three things – the cause of that presentation, someone intoxicated or on the receiving end of intoxication. The vast majority of what we see in an emergency departments from the violence of alcohol is people who have been in fights punched up.”
Dr Rosengren said the true extent of the problem was unknown because alcohol was not recorded in emergency data. “It’s a very big issue, but we can’t actually record that because there’s no system in place,” he said. So any figure that we’re going to see is going to be a gross underestimate of the actual true incidents of alcohol-related problems. All we can do is correlate from other data sets that exist but we work on specific studies that are published, which indicate 25-30 per cent of all ED presentations have alcohol as a factor in some manner – either the primary or secondary cause.”
Dr Rosengren, a staff specialist at Royal Brisbane Hospital, said Friday and Saturday nights were the busiest times for the hospital. “A hospital such as Royal Brisbane, which is close to the nightclub spots in the Fortitude Valley, just fills up,” he said.
Since October last year, RBH, Gold Coast and Cairns hospitals have been part of a Queensland Health trial targeting people presenting for alcohol and drug problems. Addiction Psychiatry director Mark Daglish said it saw up to 480 people a month and 80 per cent of those cases were because of alcohol.
“We know we’re missing a significant proportion because there are those ones who come in, particularly on a Friday and Saturday night, who have been discharged,” he said. “We reckon it’s usually about a third of all inpatients usually have drug and alcohol problems – so it’s big numbers. The common ones we see in the morning are losers of fights.”
Dr Daglish said three-quarters of people presenting in emergency for alcohol or drugs were males and almost all were under 45. “If you’re talking about alcohol and violence, you’re generally talking about men unless they’re taking it out on women,” he said.
“Alcohol and testosterone is a dangerous mix – it really is. On the Gold Coast, they’re seeing a younger population than we’re seeing, which would be in keeping with their demographic on the Gold Coast.”
Dr Daglish said people needed to be made more aware of the acute impacts of binge drinking, and recommended rolling the intervention program across all Queensland hospitals. “The impetus for the service came from this realisation that a lot of the problems from alcohol and drugs come from the early users who are often not yet dependent or not yet in treatment but are still causing themselves and other people a lot of damage,” he said.
“A lot of them were young and not in treatment, but one place they did go was the emergency department, usually on a Friday and Saturday night, usually intoxicated at the time, and there’s a fair few frequent attendees. If you intervene in their drug and alcohol use early, you can shorten the duration of their admission, which means they’re spending less time in the hospital and they’re in treatment towards their substance abuse as well as the trauma.
“Once they’re dependent, you need a lot more.”
Source www.couriermail.com.au 21st July 2009

The Government is echoing alarmist reports of a cannabis and mental health crisis.

Abstinence or harm-minimisation? A clash of values is emerging, writes Bill Bush.

Police coming down hard to solve a health problem? This is just what the Commonwealth Government is calling for to improve mental health.

Even though the use of cannabis has declined by 37 per cent, the Prime Minister asked heads of Government at Friday’s COAG meeting to toughen their laws on the drug.

The signs are that this is the vanguard of steps to reverse Australia’s harm-minimisation drug policy in favour of one that puts a premium on abstinence and stronger law enforcement.

Other indicators of this shift are:

• Financial support for naltrexone implants that focus on abstinence combined with criticism of methadone maintenance therapy that focuses on stabilisation.

• A $600,000 grant over three years to Drug Free Australia to “advocate abstinence-based approaches to drug issues” while cutting the grant of the peak harm reduction focused Alcohol and Other Drugs Council to just one year.

• The enactment of harsh comprehensive Commonwealth criminal drug law overshadowing that of the states. It includes even minor possession offences under the label of serious drug crimes.

Since the Prime Minister vetoed the heroin trial in 1997, the rhetoric of his Government has been unfriendly to harm minimisation. He has said that he does not believe in it and his Government has played language games with the term.

Only last year the Commonwealth reaffirmed its commitment to “the principle of harm minimisation” in a further extension of the National Drug Strategy. This is defined so broadly that its three poorly integrated components of “supply reduction”, “demand reduction” and “harm reduction” allow governments much room to manoeuvre. Only the last component embodies the essence of harm-minimisation as it was originally conceived: “Strategies to reduce drug-related harm to individuals and communities.”

Nevertheless, the Commonwealth continued to support key aspects of harm-minimisation such as the provision of sterile syringes and methadone maintenance. This now seems to be changing.

For example, the Government is echoing alarmist media reports about a cannabis and mental health crisis.

Health Minister Tony Abbott and parliamentary secretary Chris Pyne have expressed alarm. Employment Minister Kevin Andrews wants to “explore its links with welfare dependence”. The PM has warned that “mental illness and homelessness was the price the nation was paying for ‘lax attitude’ towards cannabis”. “The time,” he says, “has arrived for us – legislators and parents – to get tougher.”