|
veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
|
[AU] Cannabis decline has drug users in ecstasy
#14321325 - 04/20/11 02:34 AM (12 years, 9 months ago) |
|
|
Cannabis decline has drug users in ecstasy April 20, 2011 - brisbanetimes.com.au
Queensland - Ecstasy may soon take over cannabis as the most commonly consumed drug in the state, unreleased research is expected to reveal.
The University of Queensland's Alcohol and Drug Research Education Centre has recently completed research into illicit drug use that shows cannabis consumption has continued to decline across the state, while ecstasy use is on the rise.
Although the findings have not been released, centre director Jake Najman said data uncovered by the study revealed ecstasy had come close to overtaking marijuana as the most commonly used drug across all demographics.
And he said the drug could surpass cannabis in some age groups.
Research for many years has shown cannabis use has been on a steady decline since the late 1990s.
"Cannabis isn't anywhere near as popular as it used to be," Professor Najman said.
"It is getting to a level now where a couple of other drugs are starting to compete with cannabis and the main competition in terms of popularity is coming from ecstasy."
Earlier figures from the 2007 National Drug Strategy Household Survey showed cannabis usage among all Australian males aged over 14 dropping from 21.3 per cent in 1998 to 11.6 per cent in 2007.
Ecstasy, meanwhile, had steadily risen from a usage of 1.1 per cent of males in 1995 to 4.4 per cent in 2007.
Professor Najman said the latest research by the Queensland Alcohol and Drug Research Education was more recent than the National Drug Strategy survey.
"In the last 10 years there has been a fairly steady decline in cannabis use and that decline stretches across all age groups," he said.
Professor Najman said he believed cannabis had declined over the past 10 to 12 years due to increased publicity about the negative effects of extreme marijuana usage, as well as the decline in the number of Australians smoking generally.
He said this bad press may have seen younger drug users move to other drugs such as ecstasy.
"The impression we have, and I am taking this impression from data that has been collected in the US, is that kids at school tend to be fairly responsive to the perception of how dangerous particular drugs are and when they hear about some drugs being dangerous they typically switch to other drugs," Professor Najman said.
"I think part of what is happening is kids are switching to other drugs because they are hearing stories about the dangers associated with cannabis...
"There's a paper we wrote talking about schizophrenia as one of the potential consequences of very long term use, that it can precipitate schizophrenic episodes, that's really long term use and fairly heavy use.
"You get the impression that a lot of young people regard ecstasy as pretty benign and that may be affecting their decision to use it."
However close ecstasy use is getting to cannabis in terms of popularity, the drug does not appear to be causing as many problems for drug treatment services as marijuana.
According to the Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services in Australia report of 2008-09, 36.4 per cent of Queensland clients saw centres with an issue primarily concerned with cannabis, greater than both alcohol (35.8 per cent) and ecstasy (2.3 per cent).
Drug Arm Queensland operations manager Mark Clark said he would be was surprised if it could be shown that ecstasy had became more popular than cannabis.
"The other thing to remember is a large percentage of drug users are poly-users, it's not necessarily one or the other," he said.
"People might use amphetamines, cannabis, ecstasy and alcohol. In a more likely scenario a combination of drugs are used."
The federal government's Department of Health and Ageing website warns readers that the consequences of cannabis use may include dependence, anxiety and depression, sleep problems, lowered sex drive, learning difficulties and poorer educational outcomes.
They could also experience memory problems, respiratory illnesses, increased cancer risk as well as paranoia and other psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations and development of schizophrenia.
Professor Najman said he believed a major issue with cannabis was that it was a demotivating drug.
"People at school who use cannabis will be as not interested in their studies, and will not be bothered and they can perform pretty bad academically," he said.
"And that's pretty serious kind of consequences because you are nearing up to the rest of your life and if you can't be bothered you're going to have a very poor platform for the rest of your life."
Professor Najman said recent research at the university had revealed the babies of women who had smoked cannabis during pregnancy were 250 to 300 grams lighter than other children.
Of the more serious mental health side effects, such as the development of schizophrenia, Professor Najman said it was unclear how much cannabis a person had to consume, and for how long they had to consume it, for these side effects to come into play.
But he did say using small quantities of the drug was unlikely to matter.
"Most cannabis users only use small quantities and only use occasionally," Professor Najman said.
"One of the things we don't want to be doing is punishing people who are having an occasional joint because for most of the time that will not be having any consequences for anyone really, it's a fairly benign behaviour if its an occasional joint."
The Queensland Alcohol and Drug Research Education centre study is expected to be released later this year.
|
Tulaberry
Stranger


Registered: 10/18/10
Posts: 32
Last seen: 5 years, 5 months
|
Re: [AU] Cannabis decline has drug users in ecstasy *DELETED* [Re: veggie]
#14321518 - 04/20/11 03:54 AM (12 years, 9 months ago) |
|
|
Post deleted by TulaberryReason for deletion: q
|
lucas_southoz
Adelaidian


Registered: 06/09/10
Posts: 1,196
Loc:
|
Re: [AU] Cannabis decline has drug users in ecstasy [Re: Tulaberry]
#14321524 - 04/20/11 03:56 AM (12 years, 9 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
Tulaberry said: I've noticed a huge increase in the amount of clean ecstasy pills around Aussie.
Lucky you, can't find anything decent here...
|
sandi
omg


Registered: 04/11/11
Posts: 796
Loc: M6 (Butterfly Cluster)
|
Re: [AU] Cannabis decline has drug users in ecstasy [Re: veggie]
#14321545 - 04/20/11 04:20 AM (12 years, 9 months ago) |
|
|
Yes. Going from pot to ecstasy is soooooooo much healthier. I guess they got what they wanted in their demonization of weed there...
--------------------
|
nickc
Psyche-dult



Registered: 04/10/09
Posts: 559
Loc: Melbourne, VIC
Last seen: 3 years, 3 months
|
Re: [AU] Cannabis decline has drug users in ecstasy [Re: Tulaberry]
#14324250 - 04/20/11 06:00 PM (12 years, 9 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
Tulaberry said: I've noticed a huge increase in the amount of clean ecstasy pills around Aussie. I think thats the reason for the increase in ecstasy use NOT because of the marijuana propaganda.
Send some over our way, the last MDxx based press in NZ was around mid-2008.
RC pills FTL.
|
saxx
Stranger

Registered: 02/08/10
Posts: 3,351
Last seen: 9 years, 9 months
|
Re: [AU] Cannabis decline has drug users in ecstasy [Re: nickc]
#14326323 - 04/21/11 04:23 AM (12 years, 9 months ago) |
|
|
This may no fly here because it's the shroomery.
But i'm tired of all the burnt out E tards, really am.
If only weed was legal...if only...
-------------------- sucking dick for drink tickets at the free bar at my cousin's bat mitzvah zappateer said: I'm not wasting time at school. I'm gaining hella knowledge and life experience, not trying to use my degree for financial gain.
|
Society
Mmmm... pizza



Registered: 07/03/04
Posts: 14,299
Loc:
|
Re: [AU] Cannabis decline has drug users in ecstasy [Re: saxx]
#14334924 - 04/22/11 07:34 PM (12 years, 9 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
saxx said: This may no fly here because it's the shroomery.
But i'm tired of all the burnt out E tards, really am.
If only weed was legal...if only...
Yeah, I'm tired of all the burnt out pot heads.
If only mushrooms were legal... if only...
-------------------- Delicious Pizza
|
saxx
Stranger

Registered: 02/08/10
Posts: 3,351
Last seen: 9 years, 9 months
|
Re: [AU] Cannabis decline has drug users in ecstasy [Re: Society]
#14335224 - 04/22/11 08:34 PM (12 years, 9 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
Society said:
Quote:
saxx said: This may no fly here because it's the shroomery.
But i'm tired of all the burnt out E tards, really am.
If only weed was legal...if only...
Yeah, I'm tired of all the burnt out pot heads.
If only mushrooms were legal... if only...
Burnt out pot heads eh? I take it you don't know many ravers, either that or know one too many.
-------------------- sucking dick for drink tickets at the free bar at my cousin's bat mitzvah zappateer said: I'm not wasting time at school. I'm gaining hella knowledge and life experience, not trying to use my degree for financial gain.
|
Joolz


Registered: 09/19/10
Posts: 3,614
Last seen: 11 years, 2 months
|
Re: [AU] Cannabis decline has drug users in ecstasy [Re: saxx]
#14335263 - 04/22/11 08:40 PM (12 years, 9 months ago) |
|
|
Pot makes people lazy, but generally, "stupid stoners" are generally stoners who do other crazy drugs, like too much nitrous or molly. At least that's what I've found.
-------------------- Prohibition didn't work for God; Eve ate the fruit.
|
saxx
Stranger

Registered: 02/08/10
Posts: 3,351
Last seen: 9 years, 9 months
|
Re: [AU] Cannabis decline has drug users in ecstasy [Re: Joolz]
#14335425 - 04/22/11 09:07 PM (12 years, 9 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
Joolz said: Pot makes people lazy, but generally, "stupid stoners" are generally stoners who do other crazy drugs, like too much nitrous or molly. At least that's what I've found.
For sure. I've gathered as much from my short time here on earth.
Weed isn't bad, if you habitually smoke it you'll probably get some negative side effects. Possibly it'll make you lazy maybe might fuck with your emotions a little bit. But mostly it brings out what's already there. I've never known a "burnout" who didn't do other drugs, not saying it's not possible. But surely kids that pop random E-pills by the handful every weekend burn out alot faster.
-------------------- sucking dick for drink tickets at the free bar at my cousin's bat mitzvah zappateer said: I'm not wasting time at school. I'm gaining hella knowledge and life experience, not trying to use my degree for financial gain.
|
Society
Mmmm... pizza



Registered: 07/03/04
Posts: 14,299
Loc:
|
Re: [AU] Cannabis decline has drug users in ecstasy [Re: saxx]
#14335771 - 04/22/11 10:22 PM (12 years, 9 months ago) |
|
|
I was mainly making fun of your comment. 
But I have indeed known plenty of pot-users that I would consider burnt out- not just lazy. People who are extraordinarily withdrawn... zombie-like.
When I used to smoke, I felt like this chronically and I wasn't even a daily sure (although I'm very sensitive).
But every substance has a threshold that can be broken with chronic use.
-------------------- Delicious Pizza
|
batman returns
Dude man



Registered: 09/12/09
Posts: 213
Last seen: 8 years, 3 months
|
Re: [AU] Cannabis decline has drug users in ecstasy [Re: Society]
#14342597 - 04/24/11 08:38 AM (12 years, 9 months ago) |
|
|
"People at school who use cannabis will be as not interested in their studies, and will not be bothered and they can perform pretty bad academically," he said.
I medicate several times a day, and read a good amount too, and if I'm interested in the subject matter I would be confident that I'd retain 95% of the information I'm exposed to, even stoned. I'm a motivated stoner though, others can't handle it, play video games all day and jerk their gerk. Everyone is different. I believe people with ADD type personalities do better with pot than others. In my experience, it actually helps keep me on track.
Edited by batman returns (04/24/11 08:39 AM)
|
|