how long do you have to live here before you were as street wise as the place you left?
do you really know whats going on around you?are your children going to have to make the mistakes that we havent encountered to make you streetwise here?

my 12 year old came home and told me she was offered all kinds of drugs last nite and the parents were in the house,,?perhaps its me,not being streetwise and thats o.k?perhaps i should have a barbie and get the crack pipe out...?are people really saying my parties are shite because there are no spacecakes?

all the shite you read on here about living in such and such area,is it just enevitable(i know) that were all in for a rough ride here with our kids?and what do you do to protect them?you cant leave em locked in the house forever?


with thanks..

ast?

It'll be a bong.... lots of them around in Aus. Plus I know of kids that smoke in front of their Parents. I know of a 12 year old who has 3 brothers that smoke. My son actually felt very uncomfortable there, told us about it, and refuses to go. Which i'm really proud of. The family involved is from outback WA.



I think you'll find that because it's so easy to grow dope in Aus, there is a hell of alot more of it around.

I encountered far more drugs in Aus then I ever did in the UK.

Country towns are full of it.

Same here, I probably move in very similar circles, but the use of recreational drugs just seems to be so much more widespread. In reality I suspect it's probably much the same.

Some interesting figures on drug usage:

• Australian and New Zealand have the second highest usage of marijuana, Canada the highest and USA the third highest
• Australians have by far the highest usage of ecstasy and New Zealand the second highest. Australia's usage is double that of the UK and four times that of the USA
• Australian's consumption of cocaine is twice that of New Zealand
• Australian's usage of amphetamine (speed) is the highest, New Zealand is second, with USA and UK being equal third
• UK has the highest use of opiates, Ireland and the USA are equal second and Australia and New Zealand equal third
• Marijuana / cannabis is the most common illicit drug used, with one in three persons (34%) having used it at least once in their lifetime
• 18% secondary students aged 12 -17 have used marijuana /cannabis at least once

http://drugalert.com.au/drug_statistics/

perhaps its just me,but i am sure that if it had happened in the land of grey sky,a few parents would of been round the house and given the scumbag parents a good hiding?

im old fashioned arent i?

Dope smoking is very common here and quite often done in the open, sitting outside a pub or in a beer garden. I remember having an interesting chatette with a female police officer in a Townsville pub garden as she honked on a hash pipe. What is interesting is that utensil usage seems much higher as no one knows how to roll a joint. I think it's all grass as well and no solid.

It's dope mate... I dont partake, I used to... It's really bad for me. However I dont see how anyone that drinks booze can really criticse anyone that gets into THC. Turban Explorer hit the nail on the head, inasmuch as it probably looks worse here, as the majority of dedicated smokers use bongs.

One thing that is changing here is the attitude to booze, it's far more frowned upon now than when my older kids were growing up around 10 years ago. My 16 yo encounters alcohol far less than her much older sisters did.

Spotted the headmistress of my 2nd oldest daughters school smoking it once.

I think if you are reasonably 'street-wise' then you can deal with these issues anywhere. It might take you longer to spot them or know when you might have to deal with them if there are cultural traits you don't recognise in a country - but in general, people who smoke dope smoke dope.

Sometimes these people are slackers, sometimes not so slackers. If they are slackers then I'm happy they are making their lives a tad less miserable - (keep my nose out of it). I'm fairly liberal about it when the people are otherwise pretty switched on - infact clued up in all other areas - but I don't do it myself, promote it, nor does anyone we know nor do we really come across it.


Apologies: age here is important. At 12 I would call the cops.

At 18, and I knew the setting was say a collegiate one then I would caution and hope the kid put it down to a learning experience - and got something from it - in more ways than one perhaps.

anything involving underage kids would warrant an arse kicking epecially where drugs are concerned

what people don't always realise is that the effects of a spliff stays in your bloodstream up to 3 months and if you have an accident at work on on the road you blow your insurance cover

I think the legal issue has to come into it somewhere, regardless of whether one agrees with alcohol being legal, drugs illegal etc, think of the longer term effects if the person - whether child OR adult - is arrested and/or convicted. Anyone who frequents the immigration forums on BE will be familiar with people talking about the problems that their cautions/convictions for drugs have caused. Australia often allows people in with these, but if you're thinking of even visiting Canada or the USA, for instance, they often are less forgiving..........

To be honest, I don't think you can be that streetwise in Aus. In my opinion of living in Brisbane for the last 8 years, I just don't think you can. Especially compared to the UK. I believe Brits are quite a predictable bunch of people, so much so that you can judge a situation a lot easier than here. I seem to hear of many more "random" attacks on people over here. One that sticks in my mind was that poor kid with CP who was king-hit about 6 years ago in Brisbane CBD. It was all caught on CCTV and the victim never laid eyes let alone said a word to his attacker, in fact I don't think he even realised the guy was there. The attacker didn't try and rob him he just wanted to king hit someone

Are they? I'm hanging around with the wrong people

Yes and the long term effects of dope smoking are truly awful. Mental illness and long term drug smoking go hand in hand. Unfortunately there are people around who still defend dope as "just a joint" but dope is addictive and destructive... like any other drug. And, the drugs are grown today to be much more powerful than those of decades past. Experimentation might be harmless for some when they're young, but for those who stay with it, it's tragic.

Another thing to bear in mind is that there may have been no drugs at all. Kids know about drugs I'm sure, and they probably think some of them are pretty cool...you could imagine some of the more clued up kids winding up or bragging to the others about alleged drugs. Happened on an episode of Degrassi Junior High once and the pills turned out to be tic-tacs.

For that reason alone I'd be inclined to try and approach the parents first before the police.