Ilicit drug use, drinking starting at 12

[freddie]

from:smh.com.au

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/illici...7740183595.html

 

Illicit drug use, drinking starting at 12

 

 

Natasha Wallace Health Reporter

December 18, 2007

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THE average age of first-time drug users in NSW has dropped to 12½ and alcohol problems have outstripped illicit drug problems for the first time in 30 years, according to Odyssey House's annual report, to be released today.

 

Odyssey's chief executive, James Pitts, said many "tweens" and teenagers entering its rehabilitation centre in Sydney had developed addictions as a way of coping with a difficult family life because illegal drugs had become easier to obtain.

 

"Drug misuse is starting younger: the average age at which people first try drugs, particularly alcohol and cannabis, is now around 12 to 13 years, down from 17 to 19 years in the 1970 and '80s," Mr Pitts said.

 

"Unfortunately, alcohol dependence is often the pathway to illicit drugs for young people and can set them up for drug problems that continue into adulthood and are difficult to overcome," he said.

 

Children as young as 10 had been admitted to the program for alcohol abuse, which was a strong predictor for cannabis use a few years later. "Certainly in some cases by the time they're 11 or 12 years old we have some people smoking dope."

 

Mr Pitts said they were predominantly children from disadvantaged socioeconomic groups who lacked parental supervision, especially in the hours immediately after school.

 

"One of the other indicators of illicit drug use amongst adolescents is the age which they started smoking [cigarettes]. If you start smoking cigarettes then it's not a big jump to smoke marijuana then it's not a big jump to smoke heroin."

 

He said almost 85 per cent of people aged 12 to 20 would have drunk alcohol or used illicit drugs but only 10 per cent went on to develop a serious addiction.

 

The number of people entering the withdrawal and residential rehabilitation program at Odyssey increased by 34 per cent, from 614 to 825, in 2006-07; 57 per cent were aged 18 to 30 and 68 per cent were male.

 

Alcohol was the primary reason for almost a third of admissions to Odyssey House, the report showed. It accounted for 28 per cent of admissions in 2006-07 - up from 20 per cent two years earlier.

 

The report said about 70 per cent of people cited alcohol as a significant problem.

 

Amphetamine-type substances such as crystal methamphetamine (ice) and ecstasy accounted for 26 per cent of admissions in 2006-07, up from 15 per cent the previous year, while heroin accounted for 18 per cent, down from 31 per cent after a worldwide shortage of the drug.

 

But Mr Pitts said "a bumper crop" was expected from Afghanistan over the next year to 18 months.

 

Cannabis accounted for 14 per cent of admissions in 2006-07, the same as the previous year.

 

Mr Pitts attributed the increase in alcoholism to a rapid rise in amphetamine use among drug users aged 18 to 25, which in turn was pushed up by the heroin drought.

 

Firstly, I don't think teens should take drugs, including alcohol. I started at 14 and think it was way too young. Funny that this article seems to suggest alcohol as a gateway drug. Personally I think alcohol is probably the most serious drug problem of all. I still have problems thinking of cannabis as a drug of addiction as my own experience is that it is ridiculously easy to give up. 14% there for cannabis addiction! I guess everyones different.

[iamnotacop]

It seems alcohol is the "pathway" to illicit drugs, so there for Cannabis can still be the "gateway" to harder drugs.

 

It is about time that they started looking at the real figures.

[67Special]

Mr Pitts attributed the increase in alcoholism to a rapid rise in amphetamine use among drug users aged 18 to 25, which in turn was pushed up by the heroin drought.

 

Does that make sense to anyone else?

How the fuck can a rise in amphetamine use cause an increase in alcoholism I think Mr Pitts just pulls these theories out of his arse

[DownUnderDoper]

If you start smoking cigarettes then it's not a big jump to smoke marijuana then it's not a big jump to smoke heroin.

 

Ummmm Over here Mr Pitts .. yes me.. ummm I just have to ask

 

 

Are you out of your fucking mind?

 

 

Not a big jump from smoking cannabis to smoking heroin? It's not a big jump from walking on a bridge to BASE jumping either but so few people do it.

 

It seems alcohol is the "pathway" to illicit drugs, so there for Cannabis can still be the "gateway" to harder drugs.

 

Whilst that has the ring of a Government answer iamnotacop, it could however pose a problem if they ever tried to use it.

[iamnotacop]

Whilst that has the ring of a Government answer iamnotacop, it could however pose a problem if they ever tried to use it.

 

As in, like most of what they have to say is bullshit. The only problem is you have to be a stoner to pick up on it.

[DownUnderDoper]

As in, like most of what they have to say is bullshit. The only problem is you have to be a stoner to pick up on it.

 

As in if the Government were to accept that Alcohol and Tobacco use promote the use of illicit substances, then they start to open themselves up to duty of care problems.

 

"Warning: Alcohol consumption may lead to illegal activities" what happens once that gets stamped on your can of VB?

[mull]

"The number of people entering the withdrawal and residential rehabilitation program at Odyssey increased by 34 per cent, from 614 to 825, in 2006-07; 57 per cent were aged 18 to 30 and 68 per cent were male."

 

Seems to be a few irrelevant quotes in that article. 18-30 year old male inpatients... has got what to do with drugged 12 year olds..

[Al Fish]

This is just the usual mindless, paranoid and depressingly deranged fantasy presented as fact. I can only stomach the televised news when stoned. One of the nightly current affairs programmes is going to broadcast High 5!

 

I want to know - who writes this stuff? Even I couldn’t think up some of this material. Sure, there are young kids abusing drugs. So what? This isn’t good, but it isn’t new. Pull some cones. Read some history. Discover common themes.

 

As a public service everyone should post their most outrageous scenarios and together we’ll have ourselves a movie script and a bucket of money from who knows how many repressive organizations! I can see it now: The story of promising young people who after their first drink began shooting mulled super potent extra-special hydro up their arm! Pre-school kids whoring themselves after Kindy so that they can get so wasted they soil themselves! It starts with a beer and ends with a needle behind your eye!

[DownUnderDoper]

Behind your eye!!!

 

Fuck that's getting a bit hard core

[RobbieGanjaSeed]

This is clearly the annual Bullshit report, aimed totally at increase in budget measures.

 

Each organisation every year needs to justifyit's expenses, as used through the grant they recieved the previous year. So for a couple months before each year's new grants are handed out, eachorganisation hits the streets, and claim to have gotten "deeper" into the subcultures they are funded to "help" than anyone else. The easiest way to do this is to have more startling "evidence" than the other groups bidding for the same grant monies.

 

I spent years at night working with an aid group who handed out a bit of food and warm drinks to homeless people, mainly very young youth, inan attempt to locate them and help them resolve whatever their problems were. We funded ourselves, somthing which annoyed the crap out of me, because I was fully aware through confrences and stuff we were always invited to, just how much big money was on offer by the fed gov every year. But the old fella who was loosely in charge of what we did wouldn't dirty himself he reckoned, likening the grant game to money grubbing.

 

we'd be out several nights a week, and all the funded groups would only show up for a couple months each year once a week to justify their grant. In the short time they were out, they would claim to have encountered the most amazing things, things we never saw, and we were on first name basis with almost every kid in the area.

 

We noted the most common drug, almost exclusively to all others was booze. They have no money for pot, and tripping etc. just doesn't seem to be their scene in that group of dispossed kids. In the years of intense time I did in this area, I could count on one hand the amount of times I encountered youth that were on something other than piss, and speed.

 

I include speed because it's a huge problem around here in kids, as I suppose it is everywhere. I blma ethis drug directly on society as young girls wishing to wear clothes better sized for 8 yearolds was ther main goal for using speed. The super thin Vouge need to be "waife" has made speed trhe drug of choice with young girls.

 

Scoreing a foil of grass at 25 dollars for little more than a single joint was something they always bragged of doing, but rarely did. Why would they when for the same money they could get cheap piss to waste the whole croud?

 

Anyway, we'd be the only guys around all year, then, as I siad, when grant time approached the amount of "drug arm", the "salvos", etc etc etc arriving inthe same places as us was embarressing. I would stand in silent disbelief as they would have a person or two who would take notes of what they encountered, each team having "experts" aying things like "ohh..my..that one's on heroin", "that one looks like he's on a halucegen", and the tone of authority in their voices was amazing. It blew me away because I've been doing a lot of these drugs all my life and I'm stuffed if I know what they could see that I ddin't.

 

But it's all to make amazing and frightening reports, to scare gov funds up, and it works. The guys repsosnible for dishing out the money are probably afraid if they don't fund these people with such inside info, and kids die, they'll be the ones the finger is pointed at.

 

And that's another thing, the amount of times I've seen tear filled youth workers on TV crying over the amount of kids dieing, younger and younger of heroin eachyear is amazing. I've never seen a dead kid on the streets, and statistically, there just aren't thatmany if you go by the beurea of statistics. So I don't know what the fuck they're on about. Hell, we even had a situation where two different groups discovered we never applied for funding, and so they both filed for funding, quoting they were repsonsible for the expenses of our "work". ! I was so pissed off I confronted the groups that did it.

 

It's a dirty lieing, sensationalistic game they play. I mean look at who is claiming all this stuff, a group called "oddessy", who is no doubt one of the groups I mentioned. It's not a report compiled by a hospital based upon admissions, or police arrests, just the word of a bunch of knw all prats, and believe me, the worse ones are the ones that don't show up on the street until funding time rolls around. They thik they know everything, and seem to have inside info that we haven't been able to find, which is odd considering we don't only encounter them at night as they do, but work with them through the day, helping them find housing, jobs and other odds and ends they want. Shit my place was the dropp off for needles at one point because they were too afraid to go to the sharos bins 'cause the cops were often hanging around it in our area. We wanted them to stop dropping needles, so I said to bring them to my place. But I swear, overwhelmingly it was booze. Cheap nasty booze that often is aimed squarely at kids by the sweet use of cordial, but potent as fuck in the drinks. But saying that doesn't sound so sensational to the funders.

 

cheers

rob

 

BTW, last year I was invited to join a group that was reforming to do stuff like I've outlined. We had only three meetings, and never hit the work because of a conflictthat rose over pot. We met to discuss targets and goals of the upcomming developments, when the subject of the "new and dangerous super hydroponic marijauna that's destroying lives". Knowing I couldn't admit to growing, knowing you lot and what-not as an evidence of knowing what they were worked up over was shit, Ihad to argue with one arm behind my back. People working these areas caught using drugs are prosecuted to within an inch of their lives, so we tend to keep it quiet. But these two guys were the area's leading people in this area of work, both with more degrees and so forth than you can hrdle. They hammered me that I might know about pot from y younger days by the new stuff, they assured me which is imported from Holland (wow, how's that for news) sends users crazy within a short time of taking it up. I did in fact end up completely arguing with these blokes and blurted out that I've been hip deep in the new scarey strains they waffle about and it's all fuckin BS. The end result? I wasn't welcome. See what happens when someone who actually does know al ittle on these subjects is involved? The fools making these incredible statements both know othing and look down on anyone who can guide them.