In that case, Mike, you will need to keep your kids away from the beautiful dreaming spires of Cambridge. We have one of the worst drug problems in all of the UK here - on Sats, the police spend all day scouring the green open spaces in the city center to pick up the needles dropped on the grass - where kids play & tourists eat their picnics. We live on a fairly smart street, and I routinely find drug usage equipment dumped in our hedge

I worked in the City of London for a long time, and drug use is very common, tolerated and openly indulged amongst the well-paid, middle class, adult workforce.

As far as the drugs scene in the UK is concerned, you can run, but you can't hide....

Anya.

As you wrote that, I asked my son how much an e was, you can just imagine his face he said 20/25 so same as you that would be party scene Bris or Gold coast. Mull is free! it grows like wildfire here, he says anyone who wants just grows it. He My guess is hes tried mull, think they all would try it once, and certainly loads of booze but I really doubt hes taken anything more serious. Just because its there does not mean everykid will become a druggie.

Agree with that fear. But does anyone have any hard and fast stats on relative death rates between 'party drugs' and 'gotta get a fixes'?

A year or so I went out pubbing with some mates who were all taking E. OK, so it's their choice, if foolish. However, I was amazed when they complained about my smoking a cigarette! They argued that they were in danger as passive smokers, but that, of course, I wasn't going to get anything nasty from their E.

Hmmmmmm......

Anya.

Hi all
When I started this thread I said it was not meant to be a comparison between the UK and Australia.
We all know how those debates end up

It was simply to point out that there is a very real problem (probably worldwide). There always has been.

It may surprise people that there were plenty of drugs around when I was a teenager nearly 40 years ago.
A night out at a disco was not complete without a few amphetamines to keep things swinging.

Remember Purple Hearts,French Blues, Black and Brown Bombers,mandies. Mary Jane etc.

In fact I worked on a drug rehab unit in 1972.

Australia is no different.

G

Too right, G.

My Dad (now in his 80s) now freely confesses that he smoked dope when he was at college more than 60 years ago!!

Anyone else got dopehead parents...? :scared:

Anya.

surprised at the amount of drugs or that it's nearly 40 years since you were in your teens??

Both

G

Mull does grow everywhere and it's widely cultivated, as you say. Woe betide anyone who gets busted for mass cultivation as all states regard it as a serious offense.

Yep
But lots of people grow it on a small scale for 'personal use'.
That seems fairly well tolerated.

Makes up for the Beer

G

I had a cousin who grew it via a sunlamp in the closet of his caravan. Fairly low maintenance plant.

They've got a point, disgusting habit! BTW I'm not condoning ecstasy use either... their habit would't necessarily affect you... but fag smoke could end up making them wheeze all night.
************************************************** **
Most of the party drug deaths are due to the pills being cut with inferior packing substances, rather than pure MDMA. I think they're actually a lot lower than say heroin deaths. Another problem is over-heating, which could be more of a problem in Aus due to the climate.

My guess is that amphetamine use is more of an issue, probably a lot of the pills are this, since MDMA is becoming harder to manufacture because of a lack of availiability of the precursors needed to make ecstasy. For instance, when e was first discovered, the precursors were more freely availiable (governments hadn't started to clamp down) and so the es were purer MDMA. Now they could be cut with Ketamine or anything. If you tested the e's they could well be something worse. Anyway, enough of the waffle.

Advice for concerned parents
Find out as much as possible about what the various drugs do, street names, what should be done if people take them. I would educate my kids as much as possible, a "Just Say No" approach is rubbish, because it doesn't give the kids strategies to deal with peer pressure etc. this approach tends not to be used in schools as educators have realised it is patronising and doesn't work. Your kids need to know the facts, admitting how "good" drugs make people feel temporarily... but educating them about the wider implications and long term affects. If your kids see people using drugs, they will probably initially only see them enjoying the stuff. They need to come to their own conclusions, with the facts... then it will be much more likely that they will make rational, lasting decisions. There is no point in just shoving it under the carpet, they need to know everything. Drugs are everywhere, they always have been. Just think back to the historic Chinese opium trade etc. they are not just a problem of our time.

I would also consider that alchohol has many negative effects - e.g. making people violent etc. which isn't really an issue with pot. So, no point in demonising it... though I don't smoke it myself.

BTW My mother developed a real drug phobia when my bro was younger - he was literally hounded and hadn't touched a thing! Make sure you don't do this, or you'll drive them to drugs. Make sure you have a really strong relationship with your kids, so they can tell you everything and anything. Once you start getting judgemental, rather than objective, they will no longer turn to you and could get up to anything.

Agree with you about the Alcohol Larissa.

We saw very young kids drinking at a campsite and adults drinking quite openly in the middle of Sydney despite it being illegal in most public places.

Despite the tough drink driving laws people regularly do it. The pub and club car parks are full. It seems to be another national sport

There was a campaign against domestic violence (often drink related) on TV while we were there.

Still drinking is legal isn't it?

G

never done drugs per se, but when I was 19 was diagnosed as addicted to prescription drugs (I have had arthritis since I was 14 and my local GP prescribed 9 :scared: different drugs to me, 3 of which I got addicted to) Had to go through a 6 month detox programme to come off them and to be honest I wouldnt wish that on my worst enemy. Maybe if kids saw what detox is like (the hallucinations and shakes are the worst part IMHO) it would make them think twice about trying drugs. Just a suggestion !

I have tried, cannabis,coke,lsd,ecstasy, and the usual sniffing stuff over my years.
The only i thing i do now is cannabis on a recreational basis.Never in front of the kids.
Most of the people i work with either take or have taken drugs of some form or another and it's funny how you would never guess they took them.

I often get dismayed when people spurt things out like " drugs are drugs and they kill you ". I believe it shows an ignorance on their part.Being parents we try to instill the dangers and pitfalls of drugs to our kids.They know not to touch needles and they have found them in the local park.

The very best way of trying to keep your kids on the straight and narrow is through education at an early stage.

Personally, i would love to have my own plant and if a bit of pot is all our kids end up on then i wont have a problem with that ( as long as it's in moderation ).

Probably going to get slammed for that but free speech and all that eh ?
Everyone is unique and everyone is entitled to their own opinion.I think this is a good post because as mentioned before ( by someone else ) it is good to be made aware of the " not-so-good" aspects of life in aus. Fore-warned is fore-armed etc. ( spelling ? )
Grayling, don't get me wrong, i'm not trying to imply that you are slagging off aus, merely raising an issue that may well have been overlooked by many.

Paul

Be sceptical of progeny showing newfound interest in horticulture.