Almost every time I finish giving a presentation to a group of parents I get a mother or a father coming up to me wanting to speak about their own family experiences. Inevitably I hear the line: ‘My kids are now twenty and eighteen and, thank God, they made it through adolescence without becoming involved with illegal drugs . . .’
I never have the heart to tell them that if their children are ever going to experiment with illicit substances, it is most likely to be in their twenties, after they have left home, and not in their teens.
The notion that illegal drug use is more likely to occur when kids are in high school is not supported by any evidence. The tabloid media has a great deal to answer for here. I can tell you that every time I am interviewed for a story on a drug I am usually asked ‘How many young people use the drug?’ or ‘What is the youngest person you have heard of using the drug?’ Even if you assure the journalist that this is a substance preferred by people in their twenties and we rarely see teenagers using it, you will inevitably find a headline declaring children as young as 12 using at the top of the article!
Even though it would appear that initiation into illicit drug use is starting earlier, for the vast majority of users we are still talking about a time after they have left school. The only real exception is cannabis, but as I’ve mentioned, cannabis use among young people has been dropping quite dramatically in recent years.
That said, it is still incredibly important that parents have conversations around illicit drug use and let their children know what their views are on the subject. Without a doubt the one drug that does need to be discussed with young Australians is ecstasy. Ecstasy use continues to increase in this country, and it is perceived by many young people as a fairly benign drug, particularly when compared to alcohol. Very little school-based drug education is provided in the area of ecstasy and parents should take every opportunity to talk about this increasingly popular substance. Thankfully all the evidence we have suggests that very few school-based young people have ever used ecstasy. But there is definitely an interest there, and if a teenager is exposed to the drug it is possible they may choose to experiment, particularly if they haven’t been provided with any information to suggest why they shouldn’t.
Always remember that you don’t need to know everything about a drug to have a conversation with your child about it. If your child asks a question about a drug like ecstasy and you don’t know the answer, the most powerful words you can use in response are: ‘I don’t know the answer. Let’s find out together.’
This type of situation provides a wonderful opportunity for families to discover and learn new things, to discuss possible situations that may arise and develop strategies to cope with a wide variety of challenges that your adolescent may have to face in the future.
This chapter covers the main issues that are raised by young people and parents around drugs such as ecstasy, ice, LSD and those used in drink spiking. Hopefully the information provided will clear up a few of the myths that you or your child may believe to be true, as well as offering ways to start having positive conversations about what is an extremely controversial and complex issue.
It surprises many that this question is so often asked by young people. Over the years there have been a number of high-profile ecstasy-related deaths of young Australians. The most well known of these occurred in October 1995 when a Sydney schoolgirl died after taking an ecstasy tablet at an inner-city nightclub. Her death resulted in community outrage about the use of ecstasy and changed government policy in the area. Why then, after so much widespread media attention, do so many young people doubt that deaths really occur?
An ecstasy-related death is rare, but it does happen. For the vast majority of people who use the drug, however, this is not their reality. Most ecstasy users have a pleasurable experience—that’s why they continue to use the drug—and very few people have had direct contact with someone who has died after taking it. As a result, many people believe that ecstasy is harmless, or at least less harmful than other drugs.
It is difficult to say exactly how many ecstasy-related deaths have occurred in Australia over the years. When a death is reported users often look for other excuses for the incident, convincing themselves that it couldn’t be ecstasy that caused it, it must have been other drugs or perhaps the person had a pre-existing condition. In many cases this is true—it is rare for a person to die due to ecstasy poisoning as MDMA (the substance people are actually after in a pill) is not a particularly toxic drug. However, poisonings have occurred and, no matter how much people may want to believe that ecstasy was not to blame, if the person hadn’t taken the drug they would still be alive.
Unfortunately, people still believe that the majority of problems caused by ecstasy are due to impurities, i.e. the other substances that are found in a tablet. This is a myth—very rarely do we find that there are substances in ecstasy that are more toxic than MDMA. Although there are exceptions, the major problems that we continue to see with ecstasy are related to dehydration and overheating.
I was working in the medical tent at a large-scale event when we had a major incident. A young man and his girlfriend had bought several ecstasy tablets from their regular dealer. When they got to the rave they split one of the tablets in two and took half each. The young man had been using ecstasy for ten years. In all that time he had never experienced any severe problems associated with his drug use. He regarded himself as a responsible drug user and followed some basic ‘rules’ around not mixing drugs, taking regular breaks and making sure he was hydrated.
The couple were on the dance floor when the young man started to feel very hot. His body temperature soared and he became flushed and very uncomfortable. Knowing something was wrong he alerted his girlfriend and they left the floor. She fanned him, poured cold water over him and took him outside, where it was cooler. Nothing worked—in fact, he was getting hotter! They decided to seek help.
By the time they got to the medical tent he had lost consciousness. His body temperature was so high it was difficult to touch him. The medical staff acted quickly, using ice blankets to try to bring his temperature down, but nothing worked. An ambulance was called and he was rushed to hospital. Nobody in the tent expected him to survive. If he did, we expected that he would suffer brain damage due to his high temperature. Luckily that was not the case. By some miracle he survived and after a few days in hospital he recovered completely.
There was no explanation for his condition. His girlfriend took the other half of the pill and had no problems at all. The man was not a naïve user and the pill was not ‘bad’. Sometimes these things just happen—drugs are unpredictable.
Apart from the unpredictable nature of drugs, another possible explanation is that there is no quality control when it comes to ecstasy manufacture. Unlike pharmaceutical drugs, where the contents are carefully monitored and regulated, an ecstasy pill can be very uneven in terms of the distribution of the active chemical. One half of the pill could have far more MDMA (or other substance) than the other, resulting in one person getting a far greater dose.
Ecstasy, like any drug, can also attack weaknesses in the user. There have been cases where seemingly healthy young people use the drug and experience fits, strokes and heart attacks. Often these are people who have used the drug many times and have never had a bad experience. There is no apparent reason why these deaths occurred at that particular time.
You never know how a drug is going to affect you, and if you are going to use ecstasy give it the respect it deserves! You should never underestimate the risk associated with any drug.
• What are ecstasy testing kits and are they helpful?
Ecstasy testing kits have been available over the internet, as well as in some specialist stores in Australia, for some time. They are used primarily to test ecstasy tablets for the presence of MDMA.
These kits are basically reagent tests and are able to give some indication regarding a range of substances that may be present in an illicit substance. According to the websites for these products, the user drops some of the liquid provided in the kit onto a small scraping of the pill or powder. A pill which contains MDMA will quickly turn dark blue, purple or black, while other substances may turn yellow or green. If the substance contains amphetamines it will show orange or brown.
So what are these tests actually telling the user? Do they provide them with information that can be used to determine a certain degree of safety?
Well, no. It is important to be aware that an ecstasy tablet rarely contains only one substance. Often a tablet can contain many different substances, some of which are not even identifiable to the highly skilled analysts who work in government laboratories. Some of the substances that have been identified include a range of amphetamine-like substances such as MDEA, MDA, MBDB, DOB, PMA and a range of other stimulants, including ephedrine and caffeine. Ketamine and LSD have also been found in some ecstasy tablets.
These simple tests are, at best, able to identify one substance. Unfortunately many people using these kits identify MDMA and then incorrectly assume that this means the tablet is safe. There are two problems with this. First, MDMA is not a safe drug—as previously discussed, there are risks associated with its use, primarily around dehydration and overheating. Second, there may be other substances which were not even identified by the kit that are more harmful than MDMA.
I’m afraid there are no guarantees and no short cuts when it comes to drug use.
Shale and Lisa contacted me after a particularly nasty experience. Both in their late teens, the two young women used ecstasy fairly regularly. They were very involved in the dance scene and tried to keep up to date with drug information. They had heard about ecstasy testing kits from some of their friends and finally got the courage to buy one over the web. They had recently bought a number of pills that they were planning to use on their next big night out and were eager to test them out.
When they tested their pills they discovered that they had indeed purchased pills that contained MDMA, the substance you ‘want’ when you buy ecstasy. They were thrilled, believing the pills were definitely ‘safe’.
When the night arrived they took the pills but were totally unprepared for what happened next. Believing the pills to be ‘good ones’, each of the girls took a whole tablet (something that neither had ever done before) and within an hour they were both terribly unwell. They had very high body temperatures and were suffering extreme nausea. In fact, Lisa vomited for almost an hour before one of the nightclub’s security guards found her and took both her and Shale to see the medical team.
The medical team at the nightclub were worried about both her high temperature and her continual vomiting, and Lisa was eventually transferred to the accident and emergency department of the local hospital. After about an hour at the hospital she was allowed to go home, but the experience she had been through would change her attitude to drugs forever.
As I said, Lisa and Shale contacted me some time later. They had heard me on the radio and wanted to share their story so that others would not be lulled into a false sense of security as they were. They had seen the results of the ecstasy testing kit as some sort of ‘seal of approval’ and an indication of quality. They had been given a little bit of information and misread it.
An ecstasy testing kit can provide limited information. It is very useful if it successfully detects a poisonous substance, essentially warning potential users about the risks. Unfortunately some young people, particularly the very naïve, continue to believe that MDMA is a safe drug and that if they detect that substance then the pill must be okay.
Although ecstasy testing kits do provide some useful information to the person considering taking the pill, there are still lots of unknowns. There is no way of knowing all of the substances contained in the pill and how much of each there is, and most importantly, there is no chance that you could tell with any certainty what the contents (both identified and not identified) will do to you when you take it. Taking any drug is risky, and taking an illicit drug especially so, even when you have identified what some of its contents may be.
• What is a bad trip and how can you look after someone who is having one?
A ‘trip’ is a slang term for a drug experience, usually LSD or some other type of hallucinogenic drug, although some people talk about having bad trips on drugs like cannabis and alcohol. A hallucinogen is a substance that makes you think and feel things in a different way. That is, after you’ve used a hallucinogen your perception is altered; for example, you may look at your hand and think it looks larger, smaller, closer or further away than it really is—it may even start talking to you!
A bad trip is when the pleasant effects of a drug turn into a nasty and scary experience. Usually it begins as an overwhelming feeling of anxiety but in some cases the user starts to see things that they are very frightened of like spiders and snakes.
Bad trips usually happen for a reason. These can include using more of the drug than you are used to; trying to resist the effects of the drug because you are scared or can’t relax; being in an unpleasant environment where you don’t feel comfortable; and having problems weighing on your mind before you used the drug. Even people who have used drugs for a long time sometimes have a bad trip.
James was fifteen, and at the age when he loved to try new things. He lived on the north coast of New South Wales and had heard a lot about magic mushrooms. His older brother’s friends had said that they were great fun and James was keen to try them.
One Saturday night his brother was able to organise a small amount of mushrooms for James and his friends to try. They each had some and within a short time they were all falling around the floor laughing at anything and everything. However it wasn’t long before James’s experience took a turn for the worse. He began to feel very anxious and strangely paranoid, convinced that his friends did not want him around them. Trying to push the feelings away, James ate more of the mushrooms.
The feeling became overwhelming and James became very scared. His friends tried to reassure him but to no avail—he was having a ‘bad trip’ and he would just have to ‘ride the wave’ until the effect of the hallucinogenic substances had worn off. Convinced that he was going to die and still refusing to accept his friends’ help, James rolled into a foetal position and waited . . .
The best way to avoid a bad trip is to avoid taking a drug at all. Often a bad trip starts small and snowballs into rising feelings of anxiety, fear and paranoia. People who are having such an experience may appear withdrawn and quiet, or visibly upset and frightened. In extreme cases they may become wild and out of control. Often they will do exactly as James did and curl up into the foetal position.
This experience can make the person feel as if they are going insane or about to die. Sometimes they may find it difficult to breathe and it may trigger a full-blown panic attack.
The most important thing to remember in the midst of a bad trip is not to panic. If someone you know is having a bad trip, here are a few things you can do to lessen the impact and make them feel more comfortable:
• Change the environment. This can involve moving the person, altering the music that is playing or changing the lighting in the room. Never force anyone to do anything—remember, they are already paranoid. Gently encourage them to move into another room. Don’t scare them any further.
• Reassure them that the reason they are feeling the way they do is because of what they have taken and the experience will end in time. They need to be told that they will be okay.
• Let them know the time. One of the side effects of using hallucinogens is the distortion of time and sufferers can feel that their bad trip is lasting forever. Letting them know how much time has really passed is extremely helpful and reassuring.
• Help them to relax by breathing with them. The fear that many people feel during a bad trip is often made worse by tensing up and trying to resist. If you can get them to ‘let go’ and relax it will make them feel better. Concentrating on good breathing technique will relax them and give them something to focus on.
• Never leave them alone. It is important for them to know that they are not by themselves, but at the same time, make sure that they have lots of space so they do not feel hemmed in.
Drink spiking is a crime we know little about and much of what is reported in the media is inaccurate. Drink spiking does happen and we know most about those spikings that led to another crime being committed, such as drug-assisted sexual assault or drug-assisted robbery.
People who believe that they have been the victim of drink spiking often say the same thing—‘the night was a blank’. The drugs used in drink spiking are believed to be amnesic in effect, and therein lies one of the greatest problems when it comes to collecting good information about how often this crime is actually committed. People are often confused about exactly what happened and rarely report the crime until it is too late to collect vital information, including administering tests to tell what drugs have been used.
We do know that alcohol is the drug that is most likely to be used in drink spiking, although that is rarely reported.
While speaking to a group of fifteen- and sixteen-year-old young men about a range of drug issues, the subject of drink spiking came up. There was a range of questions about what drugs were used, how to prevent your drink being spiked and how to identify a potential drink spiker.
When they were informed that according to the best information we had, alcohol was the drug most likely to be used in spiking incidents, one of the young men, Justin, became very concerned.
Earlier in the discussion, Justin had expressed his disgust at the thought of drink spiking. How could anyone believe they had the right to put something into someone else’s drink and get away with it? This was a serious crime and the people who were caught doing this should be punished to the full extent of the law. But when the subject of alcohol was added to the mix, Justin no longer saw it in the same way.
He took me to one side and informed me that he and his mates had occasionally bought a bottle of absinthe to take with them when they were having a big night out. Absinthe is a highly alcoholic drink, usually green in colour, which has recently seen an upsurge in popularity. When they joined up with a group of girls they knew later in the evening, they might add a shot of the extremely potent spirit to the unknowing females’ drinks.
Justin was very worried that this could be regarded as drink spiking and tried desperately to defend his actions. In his words, he was ‘only helping the girls to get as drunk as they wanted to be’. Although I tried to explain that secreting anything into someone else’s drink with the purpose of making them more intoxicated was without a doubt ‘drink spiking’, Justin would not have it.
Drugs such as Rohypnol, ketamine and GHB are usually associated with drink spiking, but research has shown over and over again that these drugs, although routinely checked for, are rarely identified when someone is tested after an alleged spiking.
Realistically, any drink spiker worth their salt is not going to use a drug that can be easily identified. There have been cases in the media recently where perpetrators of this crime have been caught and the drugs they were using had previously never even been considered by authorities. Although we have amazing equipment, unless we know what we’re looking for, we’re never going to find it!
One of the great myths around drink spiking is that there are substances that are tasteless, odourless and impossible to detect. First of all, if this is true, why does cough medicine taste so bad? If there were drugs that were tasteless and odourless, pharmaceutical companies would be marketing them. At the very least, most drugs have a chemical taste to some degree, while others just taste plain revolting.
GHB (or fantasy, as it is sometimes known) is a drug that is often linked to drink spiking because it is said to be odourless and tasteless. Ask anyone who knows anything about this drug and they will tell you that this is simply not true. At the very least, ‘true’ GHB has a very salty taste, and at worst it has a very strong chemical smell and taste, making it almost impossible to disguise.
Young people need to know that if they taste anything unusual (generally salty or chemical tasting) or feel anything gritty in their drink, they should stop drinking immediately and let a friend know about their fears. Often the only way they wouldn’t be able to identify that something had been placed in their drink is if they were already intoxicated.
Possibly the most important thing to remember is that someone who is sober is probably not going to be targeted by a spiker. Whatever drug is put into a drink will have much more of an effect if the victim is already affected by alcohol. If you are drinking alcohol, you are immediately a potential target for a drink spiker and should take precautions.
Drink spiking is usually considered to be a crime that is carried out by strangers. Most of the campaigns dealing with the issue warn about people lurking in bars and nightclubs waiting to slip something into your drink without you knowing. Interestingly, most of what we know about drink spiking does not match that scenario. In fact, most of the cases that have made it to court involve people who are known to the victim. Also, many of these spikings do not occur in bars and nightclubs. Instead, they take place in the home or some other place away from crowds. If you think about it, it would be much more difficult to drug someone in a crowded bar than in a party held at someone’s home. If spiking was to take place in a venue, how would the offender be able to get the victim away from the club or pub without anyone noticing?
The myth that it is only strangers who carry out this crime is potentially dangerous as it leads some young people to take unnecessary risks. People you know, or have recently met, are just as likely to spike your drink as complete strangers, particularly if they are able to get you into a situation where you are on your own.
Rebecca was a fairly rebellious sixteen-year-old. She had just started seeing a much older boy and her mother, Bronwyn, was not happy about it. He seemed to be just as wild as Rebecca and, as a result, Bronwyn banned her daughter from going out with him. Not that Rebecca was going to listen to that . . .
Late on a Saturday night, after her mother had gone to bed, Rebecca scrambled out of her bedroom window and ran down the road to where her new boyfriend was waiting in his car. Without thinking she jumped into the passenger seat. It wasn’t until the car had left her street that she realised there was someone in the back seat.
Her boyfriend introduced his best friend to Rebecca. She wasn’t impressed about someone else coming out with them but there was little she could do. Their plans had been to go to a party across town so she thought that she would be able to ditch the ‘third wheel’ there. But they didn’t seem to be travelling in the direction of the party.
They finally ended up parking near a reserve on the outskirts of town. Rebecca was told that they were going to have a few drinks together before moving on to the party. The young man in the back of the car handed Rebecca a bottle.
Rebecca took the bottle (which appeared to be a pre-mixed spirit) and had a swig of its contents. She immediately knew that something wasn’t quite right. The drink appeared to have a salty taste and when she passed it to the young men, both refused to share it. She didn’t really have any options; she was in a car with two young men, one of whom she didn’t know, in a strange place and she now thought that she had been drugged in some way.
Rebecca doesn’t remember too much after that, although she does recall feeling very drunk for a while, after which it all merges into one very unpleasant dream. When she woke up she found herself on her front lawn. The sun was just coming up and it took her some time to work out where she was and what had happened to her.
When she told her mother what had happened, Bronwyn immediately took her to the local hospital where she was tested for the presence of a range of drugs. There were no drugs detected. Unfortunately there was evidence of sexual assault. They filed a police report and the young men were arrested, although neither of them was convicted of any charge due to the lack of evidence, since Rebecca had no memory of the incident whatsoever.
Here are some simple tips on how to avoid drink spiking from occurring:
• Always get your own drink. Watch it being poured.
• Don’t leave your drink unattended.
• Don’t taste anybody else’s drink.
• Don’t accept drinks from anyone else.
Drink spiking does happen. Make sure you look after yourself and look after your friends. If your friend seems drunk, or is acting out of character, but you know they haven’t had that much to drink, there is the possibility that they may have been drugged. It is important that you take action immediately. If they tell you they think their drink may have been spiked it is important that you believe them.
Stay with them. Make sure you report the suspected crime to the authorities and, if possible, provide urine and blood samples to the police and ask that they be tested for traces of drugs. It is vital that this be done immediately after the suspected spiking.
So remember these things:
• Drink spiking does occur.
• If your drink is salty, chemical-tasting or gritty, stop drinking.
• Spiking is just as likely to occur in a home or party as it is in a nightclub or bar.
• It is more likely to be carried out by someone you know, or have recently struck up a friendship with, than a stranger.
• The drug most likely to be used is alcohol.
• If you are already intoxicated, you are more likely to be a target.
• Are we really in the middle of an ‘ice epidemic’?
To understand the whole ‘ice’ issue, it is important to have some background information about amphetamines. Amphetamines— often referred to as ‘speed’—are a group of stimulant drugs that increase central nervous system activity. These drugs can come in many different forms but are usually sold as a powder. The drug varies in colour from white to beige, orange and pink, and anywhere in between. It can also come in crystal form, tablets or even as a liquid.
One form of amphetamines is methamphetamine. Some people call the crystalline form of methamphetamine ‘ice’. It may also be called by other names, such as ‘crystal meth’, ‘crystal’ and ‘meth’. Speed and ice are similar drugs and have similar effects as they are from the same amphetamine family. However, ice may have more powerful effects because of its higher purity.
Methamphetamine has been an extremely hot topic in the Australian media for some time. Hardly a week goes past without some new story with a link to ice. We’ve had an ‘ice storm’ and ‘ice babies’, even ice supposedly being sold in lolly form to children (more of that on pages 156-158), and you can guarantee we’re bound to have more of the same in the future.
Don’t get me wrong, methamphetamine has become a significant drug issue within our community, particularly for frontline workers such as hospital emergency department staff and the police. However, the impression that this drug has permeated mainstream society and is reaching epidemic proportions in the general community is not supported by any real evidence; in fact, all the evidence we have would suggest that use has been going down. What we have experienced in the last few years has been the emergence of new forms of methamphetamine becoming more widely available on the illicit drug market. This has not necessarily made the pool of drug users any larger, but it has led to changes in patterns of use among existing drug users.
For a long time methamphetamine usually available in Australia was the ‘salt’ form of the drug (‘speed’). However, new, more pure forms of the drug have emerged, like ice. With an average purity of around 80 per cent, it is no surprise that it is the crystalline form that has proved popular with illicit drug users. With the quality of street drugs traditionally low, we have seen a range of drug users (such as injecting drug users and ecstasy users) experiment with a high-quality drug that is readily available and reasonably priced. Essentially, drug users have found a drug that gives them ‘more bang for their buck’.
However, this effect comes at a price. Increasing numbers of users have become dependent on methamphetamine and there has been an increase in related problems (including psychosis and other mental health issues). This has placed increasing demands on service providers and it is usually these workers that we have seen interviewed on current affairs programs.
Unfortunately, while concern continues to grow around methamphetamine, we lose sight of other problems. As is often the case with the media, there is rarely any context given to issues. Methamphetamine use does not exist in a vacuum. Ice users nearly always use a range of other drugs, with many of the more serious cases, particularly those identified in media stories, also being heroin-dependent. This is rarely, if ever, spoken about and thus the general community is given only half the story. The impact that alcohol may have had on the ice user is often ignored too.
Methamphetamine use is a significant issue in the Australian community and needs to be addressed. However, we need to ensure that we put it into context and do not focus on it to the exclusion of other, potentially more serious problems in our society. For the majority of parents the ‘ice epidemic’ is a non-issue. It is important to discuss the stories that we see and hear in the media but remember to stay focused on those issues that are far more likely to have an impact on your teenagers, such as alcohol.