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Wronguy
Registered: 03/05/05
Posts: 4,450
Last seen: 12 years, 8 months
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Heroin, ecstasy addicts 'turning to ice'
#6238467 - 11/02/06 09:41 AM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=330464
Heroin, ecstasy addicts 'turning to ice'
Heavy heroin and ecstasy abusers are increasingly adding the dangerous street drug ice to their substances of choice, new national surveys reveal.
The trend - seen across almost all states and territories - shows a return to levels of crystal methamphetamine abuse recorded several years ago.
But these addicts told interviewers that ice was still a sideline habit, with heroin or ecstasy remaining their favourite drug of choice.
The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre has unveiled its annual surveys of illicit drug availability, price, quality and demand in Australia, to be presented at a conference in Cairns on Sunday.
Interviews with 914 regular injecting drug users found that 57 per cent had supplemented their addiction, usually of heroin, with ice at least once in the previous six months in 2006.
This is a rise from 43 per cent in 2005 and is in line with the 53 per cent registered in 2001 when heroin almost disappeared from the market.
That puts ice ahead of less pure forms of methamphetamine, base and speed, as the most popular heroin alternative.
"Heroin is their drug of choice generally but its difficult to come by and when they do the quality is poor, especially compared to other drugs like methamphetamines," said lead researcher Dr Louisa Degenhardt, from the University of NSW.
"Crystal might appeal because it's the purest and no more expensive than the others."
About 60 per cent of heroin users reported poor purity and a quarter said it was difficult to get - both increases on previous years.
The trend in availability is spurred by a drop in production in the South East Asian "golden triangle" and tendency to smuggle smaller amounts rather than the container loads of the 1990s, she said.
The rising price of the drug - an increase of $40 a gram in Victoria and the ACT in just a year - also contributed the switch.
Dr Degenhardt said it was surprising given that heroin and ice had polar opposite effects on the brain.
"It's interesting that people who have a really strong preference for a very strong depressant drug then turn to a very powerful stimulant," she said.
Meanwhile interviews with 752 regular ecstasy users repeated the trend.
Half of users said they had taken ice in the previous six months, compared with 38 per cent in 2005 and similar to the 52 per cent recorded in 2003.
It was more common for ecstasy addicts to use speed than ice, but even this trend had dropped from 74 to 64 per cent in a year.
Dr Degenhardt said the results showed methamphetamine users were a diverse group, using the drug to different extents and for varying purposes.
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dedjam
Electro Penguin
Registered: 12/14/05
Posts: 2,139
Loc: Moralton, Statesota
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Re: Heroin, ecstasy addicts 'turning to ice' [Re: Wronguy]
#6239231 - 11/02/06 01:25 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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Bullshit. They can say it all they want, but people aren't "turning" to ice. There is no proveable way to coreelate the use of those drugs, yet they put out this shit anyways.
I love how anyone who uses a drug is an addict.
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ExplosiveMango
HallucinogenusDigitallus
Registered: 07/12/05
Posts: 3,222
Last seen: 14 years, 4 months
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Re: Heroin, ecstasy addicts 'turning to ice' [Re: dedjam]
#6240674 - 11/02/06 06:33 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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What spotty statistics... Sample sizes please? Information sources?
-------------------- Know your self. Know your substance. Know your source. The most distorted perspective possible is the perspective that yours is not distorted.
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SuchSmartMonkeys
mycologically driven individual
Registered: 10/26/05
Posts: 1,154
Last seen: 3 years, 21 days
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Re: Heroin, ecstasy addicts 'turning to ice' [Re: Wronguy]
#6241124 - 11/02/06 08:09 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
Wronguy said: http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=330464
Heroin, ecstasy addicts 'turning to ice'
"It's interesting that people who have a really strong preference for a very strong depressant drug then turn to a very powerful stimulant," she said.
this was on my mind the whole time until i read that quote.....seems kind of backwards to me....can't get your fix on some shit to knock you out, so you take some shit to jumpstart your ssystem?
-------------------- [url=http:
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gooddrugguy
Registered: 08/15/06
Posts: 527
Loc: Subjectiville
Last seen: 3 months, 11 days
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Re: Heroin, ecstasy addicts 'turning to ice' [Re: SuchSmartMonkeys]
#6241666 - 11/02/06 10:10 PM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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Eh, you can say all you want about the statistics, but I knew a lot of guys that mixed meth and ice. That was a very popular combo down here in San Antonio.
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dedjam
Electro Penguin
Registered: 12/14/05
Posts: 2,139
Loc: Moralton, Statesota
Last seen: 12 years, 9 months
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Re: Heroin, ecstasy addicts 'turning to ice' [Re: gooddrugguy]
#6243339 - 11/03/06 11:54 AM (17 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
gooddrugguy said: Eh, you can say all you want about the statistics, but I knew a lot of guys that mixed meth and ice. That was a very popular combo down here in San Antonio.
Uh, mixed meth and ice?
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