Cocaine not just for the wealthy

Home | Community | Message Board

You are not signed in.
New Account

Forum Index Search Posts Trusted Vendors Highlights Galleries FAQ User List Chat Store Random Growery

This site includes paid links. Please support our sponsors.

Feedback and Administration > Shroomery News Service

Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!

Jump to first unread post

Pages: 1

motaman
old hand

Registered: 12/18/02
Posts: 6,050
Last seen: 2 days, 5 hours

Cocaine not just for the wealthy

#4901407 - 11/06/05 06:09 PM (20 years, 10 months ago)

http://www.smh.com.au/news/health/cocain...l?oneclick=true

Cocaine not just for the wealthy

By Jacqueline Maley Medical Reporter
November 7, 2005

The average cocaine user is just as likely to be a plumber as a stockbroker, according to a new report which busts the myth that the drug is primarily used by "high flyers".

"That's the image that cocaine has ? but it's not the backbone of the market," said James Shearer, the chief investigator on the report, released today by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre.

Researchers interviewed 298 cocaine users in Sydney and Melbourne, and found that only 11 per cent could be classified as of high socio-economic status.

One in five were intravenous drug users, who tended to use heroin as well as cocaine.

Seven out of 10 of those interviewed were so-called "party" drug users who took cocaine as part of a "menu" which also featured ecstasy and/or meth-amphetamine, also known as ice.

Sydney is the cocaine capital of Australia, the report shows, with about 87 per cent of the amount imported being used here.

It is estimated that three tonnes of cocaine are consumed in Sydney and Melbourne each year. In both cities the drug costs about $267 per gram or $50 per cap (about 0.1 grams).

"It's very expensive, so that's how it limits its damage in society," Mr Shearer said.

The cocaine users of higher socio-economic status tended to be married with children. They used the drug on special occasions, Mr Shearer said.

The party drug users took cocaine most weekends, as part of a broad range of recreational drugs.

Both these groups, who usually snorted it, reported no harm from taking the drug. On average, they used about one gram a month.

Intravenous users, by contrast, used about six grams a month on average.

About 16 per cent of those who took part in the study were employed in the hospitality industry. Tradesmen such as plumbers, mechanics and carpenters accounted for 12 per cent.

Professionals, like lawyers and consultants, made up 11 per cent.

Intravenous drug users, although a smaller group in numbers, took about half of all the cocaine imported to Australia from South America.

The drug was more dangerous to these users, Mr Shearer said.

"They commit more crime, they are more chaotic. They inject many times more [than with heroin] and expose themselves to HIV and other viruses," he said.

Cocaine is also known to disrupt methadone treatment.

The report, Characteristics and Dynamics of Cocaine Supply and Demand in Sydney and Melbourne, will be presented on Wednesday at the Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and Other Drugs conference in Melbourne.

--------------------
http://heffter.org

Extras:

Top

Jump to top

Pages: 1

Feedback and Administration > Shroomery News Service

Similar Threads	Poster	Views	Replies	Last post
New Data Hint At Oncoming Cocaine Epidemic	motaman	3,035	12	11/02/06 02:37 PM by chodamunky
Huge Mexican cocaine ring smashed in Melbourne [AU]	veggie	1,491	3	12/01/08 11:09 AM by k4ge
Why the wealthy young elite are switching from cocaine to the deadlier drug ketamine, the horse tran	Bridgeburner	6,111	19	02/14/11 07:59 PM by WateredDown
Drugs worth $78m found in foot spas in Port Melbourne [AUS]	DepthToTheCore	1,394	9	06/12/08 11:14 PM by Coresant
Side Effects Of Cocaine Usage	Bridgeburner	2,333	1	05/25/08 03:39 PM by Irieforester
Rats prefer sweets to cocaine in study	veggie	1,395	10	11/12/07 02:58 AM by johnm214
Sugar found to be more addictive than cocaine	Quake3	1,343	11	09/13/07 12:52 PM by Visionary Tools
Will the Global Slowdown Reduce Cocaine Demand?	veggie	936	4	11/03/08 02:05 PM by Deekay

Extra information

You cannot start new topics / You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled / BBCode is enabled
Moderator: motaman, veggie, Alan Rockefeller, Mostly_Harmless
762 topic views. 1 members, 7 guests and 5 web crawlers are browsing this forum.
[ Show Images Only | Sort by Score | Print Topic ]