On the same day the Sydney Morning Herald reported the supposed ‘renaissance’ in warehouse parties in NSW following the governments introduced lockout laws comes another slightly more interesting pieces on drug prices and usage in Australia.

They report that Australians buck the trend with us bloody idiots within the top four countries paying the highest prices for cocaine, ecstasy, amphetamine, cannabis and more, doh!

You see in most other countries the higher the use, generally the cheaper the drugs but our great barren land, we actually rank “second for amphetamine, fourth for cocaine, fifth for methamphetamine and eighth for both ecstasy and cannabis”.

Usually this would result in a decrease of drug use in Australia but once again we have one of the world’s highest rates of illicit drug use per capita, “ranking first for ecstasy, second for opioids, third for amphetamines, fourth for cocaine and seventh for cannabis, according to the UN report.”

Put simply, a high percentage of people in Australia are using drugs and paying the exorbitant prices – hello drug cartells wanting to make money in Australia!

Why though? According to leading Australian researcher Alison Ritter it’s a ‘sensible’ economic choice when faced with an equally high price for alcohol.

Cameron Duff of Monash University’s School of Psychology and Psychiatry might be onto something when he’s believes youth can easily spend $100 at the bar without even trying and instead choosing illegal options including ecstasy that could set a punter and their friends back as little as $20-25 a tablet. 

Shockingly he also believes the higher education on the damages of alcohol is actually pushing people to using ecstasy and cannabis as an alternative. Currently the government essentially tells you, ‘take drugs and die’  – bit bleak right? Especially when this isn’t reflective of the high amount of users of cannabis and ecstasy in Australia?

This might all begin to highlight the governments failed stance on the war on drugs and a push towards an equal effort to educate people sensibly on using drugs and whats out there.

New Zealand who also top the list of price/usage recently launched a drug detection phone app for parents to know what kinds of drugs are out there and some tell tale signs.

It’s time to re-think Australia’s strategy on drug use…. In the meantime read up on what we learnt (and plurnt) from the Global Drug Survey.

source: smh