Criminalising drugs and drug-taking is out of step with contemporary culture, argued Gideon Warhaft at the APSAD conference

BASICS OF GETTING BUSTED

Whether you’re a drug user or not, getting busted by the police is a nightmare most of us would like to avoid. It’s a hassle, it’s costly and it can leave people feeling powerless and afraid — as it’s designed to. But with “law and order” so high on the political agenda these days, avoiding arrest can be difficult.

“When I was arrested, the cops made me feel like shit,” said Michelle of her recent experience in police custody. “I guess I was stupid, having a joint in a car with some friends. We were parked on the side of the road in an exclusive North Shore suburb. It was broad daylight but there was nobody around so we lit up. We’d almost finished smoking when a police car drove slowly past our car. I just freaked, put out the joint and opened the windows to try and air the car out. I had a bag of dope on me so I was hoping the cops would keep going but they turned their car around and parked right in front of us.

“One of the cops got out and walked over to us. I knew he’d probably be able to smell the dope but what could I do. I felt like I was trapped with nowhere to go. The cop told me to get out of the car. His partner joined him and even though they were both being really friendly, I knew I was gone. They searched the car, found my stash and that was it,” she adds.

Like many drug users, Michelle has discovered that zero tolerance policing policies are becoming the norm, particularly when it comes to the war against drug(-user)s. What that means is if people are caught with drugs, they’ll be arrested, charged and prosecuted with few, if any, extenuating circumstances taken into account.

In NSW, Australia, according to the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics, these new policies have seen drug arrests increase by 15% in the last three years, with around 18,600 people arrested in NSW on drug charges in 1998. While some drug arrests have decreased, namely the dealing, trafficking and cultivation of cannabis, most others have increased with charges for possession and use of cocaine increasing by a staggering 133% since 1996. Arrests for the possession and use of narcotics has increased by 93% during the same period while arrests for the possession and use of cannabis has only gone up by 14.5%.

With drug arrests so high, I thought it might be interesting to find out how police get their information on drug crimes. Unfortunately, the Police Media Liaison Unit were unable to provide me with these kinds of statistics.

“A lot of our information comes from the NOAH phone-ins,” was all the officer could tell me.
So I decided to look for some anecdotal evidence and asking people who had been arrested on drug charges to tell us how they got caught.

From what they said, it’s clear that police have derived a lot of their information from “anonymous informants”. Sometimes the information panned out and sometimes it didn’t — like the case of two politicians who were searched for drugs at an Australian airport. The information, which proved to be wrong, came from an anonymous informer, leading many people to criticise a system where the word of an informer can bring anyone unwelcome police attention.
While some tip-offs lead nowhere, the majority of drug arrests appear to come from tip-offs, though not always from anonymous informers. Sometimes tip-offs come from people who have also been arrested on drug charges and are trying to get a better deal for themselves by giving up their dealers.

“I’m sure it was one of my customers,” said Erik, recently parolled after serving time on drug charges. “The cops knew what they wanted when they came to my door. They had a warrant so there wasn’t much I could do.”

“When we got done, it was like the cops were waiting for us to turn up,” says RJ. “It was a total set-up. I found out later who dobbed us in, a pathetic low-life junkie I shouldn’t have dealt with.”
The next biggest cause for drug arrests seems to be dumb luck or bad luck. In the course of their regular duties, the police often have reason to knock on peoples’ doors and it’s amazing how many times that can lead to other charges.

“The cops came to my door one Saturday night. There was a party on next door and someone had complained about the noise. It was a back yard party so the cops couldn’t tell whose yard it was in, so they knocked on my door first,” says Janet. “I looked through my peephole, saw who it was and quickly grabbed the drugs off my coffee table and stashed them before answering the door.
“The cops started to hassle me immediately about why I didn’t let them straight in and I didn’t know what to say. When they established the noise was coming from next door and I thought they’d leave but one of them saw the bong on the table. In my rush, I’d forgotten to hide it and that led to my being arrested.”

Lastly, the other big way to get busted is self confession.

“I was beaten up by this guy in a local pub one night,” says Pete. “When I was giving my statement, I mentioned that I’d had a joint before going out that night. It was a stupid thing to say but I thought it would show that I wasn’t in the mood to be aggressive that night and that I was the victim. Anyway, after my interview, they charged me with cannabis use instead, even though I didn’t have anything on me. It was based entirely on what I’d said in the interview.”

As long as there are drug laws on the books, the police will have to enforce them and people will keep getting busted. There’s not much you can do about bad luck but you can keep a low profile and not volunteer incriminating information because when it comes to drug arrests, the best advice may be to deny everything.
This article is reprinted with permission from Users News, published in NSW, Australia, by NUAA. This article is reproduced with permission of NUAA. Previous editions of the magazine are available on line at www.nuaa.org.au

DRUG DESIDERATA

Many will be familiar with Desiderata written by Max Ehrmann in 1952. Here is an adapted version for illicit drug users, if your drug of choice, such as heroin, speed or cannabis is creating a bit of havoc in your life...

1. Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and as far as possible, be on good terms with all persons, not only your dealer, but friends, family and even the cops.
2. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.
3. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own place in society, however humble, it’s a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
4. Exercise caution in your affairs, for the drug world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, users of illicit substances included.
5. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
6. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.
7. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here, despite the advocates for war against illicit drug users. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
8. Therefore be at peace with all and keep peace in your soul. Despite the odd bad hit and hanging out, it is still a beautiful world.
9. Be cheerful. Strive to be blood aware. Shoot clean. And enjoy the highs.

Futuristic look at illicit drug use in the year 2100

DRUG ODYSSEY

So despite all the doomsday predictions from the prophets of overpopulation and environmental disaster, we made it to the year 2100. Everyone was right to some extent – the environmental fundamentalists got some things right, as we did lose a lot of species, although they are now being slowly replaced from DNA recreation projects as their habitats are restored. The eternal optimists were partly right, as human ingenuity and technology did come to the rescue to a large extent.

The sea levels did rise as predicted due to global warming. Low-lying islands and nations ejected their environmental refugees to Western nations, who were threatened with third world nuclear weapons for their lack of compassion. Weather patterns changed and as predicted, affected the equatorial developing nations most as diseases spread and agricultural output dropped. Again, they threatened to nuke the richer nations unless they reversed their fucking around with the thin envelope of air around this round rock.
Chill out or we'll kill you

It wasn’t just the threats either. A revival of the 1960s flower power occurred in the 2030s and jaded, cynical, self-interested, consumerist youth of the ‘yeah, like whatever, dude’ generation were replaced by an idealist globally-minded green power generation proclaiming ‘stop fucking with our planet’. A homegrown kind of militant Buddhism sprang up, with the Buddhas half-jokingly proclaiming ‘chill out, be one with the Earth, or we’ll kill you’.

It was amazing to see what could happen when people decide to do something about it. I guess if you keep shitting in your own backyard, you’ll do something about it as you get close to drowning in a pool of your own stinking body waste. Wind farms sprang up everywhere. All roof panels were replaced with photovoltaics to produce electricity from the sun. Coal-burning power stations and internal combustion engines were outlawed and electric vehicles became the cool thing. Iron seeding of the oceans not only stored carbon but restored depleted fish stocks. A massive sheet of alfoil was erected in space at the L1 point between the sun and Earth to regulate the sunlight precisely.

Constant change is here to stay

As everyone knows, the most amazing event since the Industrial Revolution took place in 2068, when fusion power finally got to a workable stage. Suddenly, all nations had access to the power potential of the sun, just using a glass of water. This clean, abundant cheap energy source saw the final decline of poverty, wars over oil, starvation and a host of other human ills. The enforced global cooperation to fight global warming saw a beefed-up United Nations that could actually enforce the peace, and most insurrections and wars didn’t seem worth fighting when you quickly had the armies of at least 26 nations gathering at your borders.

A common slogan is ‘constant change is here to stay’ and yet in some ways, ‘the more things change, the more they stay the same’. Parents are still horrified by teenagers manipulating their appearances for shock value or to follow the latest fashions seen on 3D vid – genetic modification of skin colour or growing an extra breast is common, but easily reversed.

Old school and new school drugs

Drugs are rife throughout society and many nations are happy with this state of affairs, although not all. The Nations of the Islamic Federation quickly became very moderate in their beliefs once fusion power saw the end of poverty and fundamentalists simply couldn’t find any converts. A grudging acceptance of drug use is growing although many nations still outlaw Radiance, Healium and of course, the old school drugs – heroin, speed and cannabis. A policy of harm reduction is in place so the flood of drugs into their lands is tolerated, if not approved of yet.

In the so-called Western nations, it is a free-for-all. As legal restrictions were lifted, laboratories began replacing harmful drugs like alcohol and nicotine with safer alternatives. Radiance is a synthetic opioid that you simply can’t overdose on. It engages feedback systems in the central nervous system and simply blocks opioid receptors when the heart rate slows too much. Dosage is extremely easy to control so it is quite a common drug for after dinner drinks for mellow conversation. Being legal, it is extremely cheap. A large recreational dose to keep you high for the day is only $2400, the price of a loaf of bread.

Say goodbye to physical dependence on drugs

Careful engineering eventually saw that no physical dependency could develop, and heavy use would eventually lead to very muted effects from the drug. Hard core users often tend to just move on to another drug then, like Healium.

Healium is the most common stimulant and is chemically similar to speed. Healium has almost replaced coffee now as the workplace stimulant. In low doses, it enhances mood, concentration and attention. In higher doses, it is similar to speed but has amplified the warmth of Ecstasy. The Buddhas use it for the popular love-in sessions of group sex or all night dance parties. Derivatives of Healium, such as Glow, are less manic and used for meditation and those romantic moments.

Psychogical dependency has been a tough nut to crack.

As with any drug, a small percentage of hard core users simply stay bombed out of their minds as much as possible. As the controlling chemical cascades set in, they simply rotate to the next drug until the chemical receptors in their brain begin to shut down on that one too. Health-wise, these users don’t suffer physically unless they forget to eat, but these level of dependence leads to a variety of emotional problems.

Growing a third penis

While growing a third eyeball or a larger penis is simple gene therapy, the incredible complexity of the human brain is one the last barriers to gene therapy. There are some experimental therapies for so-called ‘dependency-inclined personalities’ but they are not always effective. And of course, it comes down to choice. Some users simply prefer to get bombed all day and this is their chosen lifestyle. The beauty is that they aren’t judged or imprisoned for this choice in 2100, just seen as a bit odd when life has so much else to offer.

Funnily enough, the old school persists. Although illegal in most countries, heroin, cocaine and speed are still made or grown for the black market, although they cost much more than their legal offspring. The purists claim that you can’t really ‘connect’ with the new drugs because they have been overengineered in the lab.

Policing of production and distribution of the old school drugs is half-hearted at best. These old timers are much better educated about their drugs and overdoses are rare. In keeping with the old traditions, they often inject with the syringes that were a medical tool used until the 2020s. In keeping with harm reduction policies, these syringes are still made available for their use. Closed veins are easily treated nowadays with gene therapy.

Blood-borne viruses such as hepatitis C and HIV are almost non-existent except within this community. When they do spring up, a one-off treatment sees the problem gone with days.

Disease is only a state of mind

So a new century gets underway. We now live to around 120 years of age. Most countries have adopted the three day working week. The Mars colonies are thriving with fusion power-assisted space flights and industrial expansion, and terraforming of Venus is being researched. Disease is more a state of mind than a physical reality. Bob Hawke’s prediction was only out by about a century, but there is pretty much no child living in poverty nowadays.

But it isn’t all roses. Ten billion people crammed on a tiny planet means there isn’t much room to swing a cat, unless it is a very small one and it doesn’t mind a few knocks to the head. We are getting more forests back slowly, but it is hard to convince people to live underground, and the Martian colonies won’t be ready for mass immigration for decades.
Turn on and drop in

For those who need religion, the main choices are joining the Buddhas or the Islamists. Otherwise, everyone still faces that existential angst that can hit you late at night, when you realise you have pretty much everything you want, yet still feel strangely empty inside, till you swamp the feeling with Radiance, Healium or whatever you have in the bathroom cupboard.

Still it’s the life you make it. At least we’ve scrapped old ideas such as racism, poverty, terrorism/freedom fighting, aggression, non-renewable energy, military persuasion to convert to the one true religion, and forbidding biochemical alteration of our mood states. So as the young Buddhas would say, turn on, tune in and drop in.

A brave new world

A UK psychopharmacologist, David Nutt, believes it would be quite easy to create a batch of drugs that would give all the pleasurable aspects of drinking without the negative effects such as aggression, loss of coordination, hangovers and liver disease. Alcohol works by latching on to GABA-A receptors in our brain. The trick is to develop a drug cocktail that latches on to the receptors that give the pleasurable effects but ignore the receptors that cause the problems (and stop you being a complete dickhead too?).

There would be many hurdles to seeing a drug like this developed of course. But given our long history of using mind-altering substances, it can seem strange that not more work is being put into developing safer drugs to satisfy this all-too-human urge, whether it is for drinkers, sniffers, smokers or injectors.

Copyright © 2007 Safer Injecting: harm reduction for injecting drug users.

Many people are aware that the so-called “War on Drugs” isn’t working, but what are the alternatives?

DRUG SNIFFER DOGS

So you’re heading out on the town, you’re gonna meet your friends at a club and you’ve got your party favours stashed in your pocket. You’ve been waiting all week to let your hair down. You decided not to take your drugs before you went out because you wanted to relax first.

Instead you’ll take some of your drugs half an hour before your favorite DJ came on, and some a bit later at the next club. You’ve been taking drugs for quite a while and you know the sensible thing to do is to pace yourself so you can enjoy your night and keep in control.

You line up waiting to get into the club, and then all of a sudden, from out of nowhere, you see some police with a dog heading your way. You start to sweat because you are holding. You’re feeling intimidated, scared and completely paranoid. You are not only holding for yourself, but for your two friends who are already inside. Will the dog detect my stash? Will they think I’m a dealer? Your mind is racing. Everyone in the queue is getting edgy. The dog comes up to you and sits down beside your feet. The police approach you and ask you to turn out your pockets. Your night is about to end before it starts.

How you conduct yourself during this uncomfortable and sometimes scary situation will determine how many offences you can be charged with. If you are in this situation, and you are holding, chances are you are going to get busted. So it’s all a matter of just remaining calm and following directions from the police. Whatever you do, DON’T RUN, remain calm and be co-operative.

Are sniffer dogs effective?

A recent report by the NSW Ombudsman into the use of sniffer dogs in NSW, Australia, has found that “...despite the best efforts of police officers, the use of drug detection dogs has proven to be an ineffective tool for detecting drug dealers. Overwhelmingly, the use of drug detection dogs has led to public searches of individuals in which no drugs were found, or to the detection of (mostly young) adults in possession of very small amounts of cannabis for personal use.These findings have led us to question whether the Drug Dogs Act will ever provide a fair, efficacious and cost effective tool to target drug supply. Given this, we have recommended that the starting point, when considering this report, is to review whether the Drug Dogs Act should be retained at all”.*

The Queensland Council for Civil liberties believes that the use of sniffer dogs is nothing more than stunt policing, a gross waste of police resources and a gross violation of the right to privacy. As well, the 75% of people being searched who are innocent are being humiliated in public and having their privacy trashed for the sake of scoring cheap political points.

Sniffer dogs put the bite on harm reduction

A big concern that those of us in the health sector have, is that sniffer dogs actually work against the harm minimisation principles that drive our services. Particularly in the southern States of Australia, where the use of drug sniffer dogs is wide spread, some people are taking ALL of their drugs before they go out, therefore increasing the chances of having an overdose. If you are going to take your drugs out with you, just be aware that dogs maybe around. And also, don’t hold onto other people’s drugs to reduce the chances of getting charged with supply.

It is interesting to note that in NSW most of the people charged with supply were carrying for their friends. Please consider the risks of taking all your drugs at once before you leave the house. Getting arrested with a small quantity of drugs and having your night ruined, it could be argued, is better than overdosing and ending up in hospital, or even worse, the morgue.

* Review of the Police Powers (Drug Detection Dogs) Act 2001 by the NSW Ombudsman

Copyright © 2007 Safer Injecting: harm reduction for injecting drug users.

Happiness. life and illicit drugs

DRUGS & THE SECRET OF HAPPINESS

Remember Keanu Reeves in the Matrix films? Along with millions of other humans, he grew up in a pod as he was farmed by artificial intelligence. Initially the machines created what they thought was a paradise for humans, a fake world where happiness was the ideal, but they found humans simply died off.

They got it right when they created a fake world that also had suffering and frustration included, which, for an American block buster movie, showed a great deal of insight. We shouldn’t be happy all the time

According to evolution, happiness developed as part of ensuring we would enjoy doing the things that helped us survive as a species. It’s no surprise then, that we get such a kick from sex, eating and bonding together in groups.

However, suffering, or lack of happiness, is equally important. If we spent all day on the savannah having sex, we would have had very sore gentitals, and been easy targets for those sabre tooth tigers. If we spent all day eating around the camp fire, then ditto – there’d be little chance of outrunning that sabre tooth tiger lugging all that fat around. The key is that we didn’t evolve to be permanently happy, as depression and other negative emotions indicate we aren’t doing something right and need to change in some way.
Bad feelings as warning signs

How can this desire for permanent happiness be a bad thing? Let’s assume that most of the time, negative emotions such as depression and anxiety are meant to be sign posts that something is wrong in our lives – a destructive relationship, social isolation, poor health, low self-esteem or a job you hate. Instead of trying to set things right, we try to dull the pain and hang on to happiness through things like prescription medications, drinking, or other recreational drugs. While prescription medications can be useful in some situations, the fact still remains that we often look for short cuts to happiness, and avoid dealing with the causes of negative emotions.

It’s just a chemical thing

Our brain has around a billion neurons in it. These connect up with each other in many different ways, and little jolts of electricity fire away between them as we think, sleep, walk, talk and take the rubbish out. At a basic level, happiness is determined by how well all these little electric impulses are firing away. This is mainly regulated by two key chemicals in our brain – dopamine and endorphins.

Dopamine is a chemical that goes to the connections between neurons and helps those electric impulses to jump across the gap. It does a very good job of this in areas of the brain responsible for emotions and memories so the outcome is happiness. Not surprisingly, many recreational drugs temporarily boost levels of dopamine.

Endorphins are a kind of opioid, which means they are chemically similar to heroin, morphine, opium and pethidine. While dopamine encourages electrical messages between neurons that create pleasure, endorphins work differently – they discourage those signals that are pain signals.

For example, marathon runners find that endorphins flood their system and suppress feelings of pain and exhaustion, resulting in the ‘high’ that many runners enjoy. Again, some recreational drugs mimic this so heroin can produce an intense high as all negative emotions are temporarily suppressed in the brain. Other drugs, notably nicotine and alcohol, affect both dopamine and endorphins.

A potential problem with drugs

As mentioned, the brain has evolved a series of checks and balances to make sure we don’t spend the entire day making love or stuffing our face with chocolate, or even worse, both at the same time (unless that happens to turn you on). The same applies with drugs, whether they be legal ones such as alcohol and cigarettes, or illegal ones such as ecstasy, ice or marijuana. In physics, there is a rule which states that any force is met with an equal and opposite reaction.

The same roughly holds true with the brain. Each time we artificially manipulate our happiness levels with drugs, our brain seeks to counter this to keep a balance. For example, stimulating the brain with amphetamines like ice will usually lead to a corresponding emotional flatness after the effects wear off. With regular use, the brain adjusts itself to work normally in the presence of a foreign drug. This is why the regular drinker or smoker finds that the drug has less and less effect over time, so more is needed to get drunk or feel that buzz from a cigarette.

The problems really start when heavy use of a drug is stopped abruptly. The brain has altered its chemistry to stop the effects of the drug – now the opposite reaction sets in, and withdrawals occur. The effects tend to be the opposite of whatever effect the drug had. If it stimulated the brain, the central nervous system will now be in a depressed state until a new balance is found. If it was a depressant drug like alcohol or smack, the brain will now be in a stimulated state until it adjusts to life without the drug. Dependency sets in as our brains crave the drug simply to feel normal – the way we did before we got dependent on the drug.

Our brain has evolved over millions of years to ensure our survival by balancing our need to eat, reproduce and look out for each other. If we are into legal or illegal drugs, it pays to do so in a balanced way, and control our level of use to ensure it increases our happiness in the long run.

Copyright © 2007 Safer Injecting: harm reduction for injecting drug users.

The needle is an object that has been invested with enormous symbolic significance; it acts as a carrier of multiple social and cultural meanings

ENTER THE NEEDLE
a brief history of the syringe

The hypodermic syringe is one of those cultural artefacts that, while relatively mundane when considered in purely instrumental terms, nonetheless excites a range of passions: curiosity, desire and longing on the one hand; outrage, fear and loathing on the other.
Hypodermic morphine & the birth of addiction medicine- 1860

The needle is an object that has been invested with enormous symbolic significance; it acts as a carrier of multiple social and cultural meanings – as fetish and taboo. Although, considered in the abstract, it is merely a mechanism of drug delivery — a capacity it shares with the whiskey glass — one can hardly imagine a successful politician raising the syringe aloft to toast victory. Cheers!
Historians of medicine are in general agreement that Dr Alexander Wood of Edinburgh was the inventor of the syringe, building his work on that of others. Alexander Wood first used morphine in conjunction with a hollow needle syringe to treat neuralgia in 1853.
He published the results in the BMJ in 1855 and 1858, the latter date providing the breakthrough in terms of publicity. The syringe used by Wood was made by Fergusson’s medical instrument makers of Giltspur Street, London.

Charles Hunter

The instrument was refined by Dr Charles Hunter in 1860. Hunter also did much to popularise its use. He was the first to insist that the action of injected morphine was a systemic one, while Wood believed that the drug required to be injected locally to the pain in order to bring relief.
Wood and Hunter conducted a bitter argument in the medical press throughout the 1860s concerning the real action of morphia. Hunter attempted to found an entire theory and practice of medicine based on the use of the needle.

Dissemination

In the 1860s, the syringe rapidly became popular, its use spreading throughout Britain, continental Europe and the United States. It was put forward as cure for countless conditions.
A multitude of chemicals were injected into the hapless bodies of the clientele. The French physician, Dr Lafitte, treated patients by his new method of “les injections hydriques”; this treatment consisted of hypodermic injections of ordinary water. It was found to be most efficacious.

Hypodermic morphia

The most successful application of the syringe at this time entailed the rapid and measured delivery of opiates — specifically morphine — into the bodies of patients.
Though the morphine alkaloid had been isolated in 1804 by Friedrich Sertuerner, it was only when it was combined with the needle that its use became truly popular. It was believed that the habituating properties of opium were absent from this new drug and the scientific method of administering it. The hunger for opium was seen as an “appetite”, and the metaphor was deployed literally: it was believed that in by-passing the stomach, the syringe avoided the perils associated with addiction.

In 1868, Francis Anstie made the following claim in The Hypodermic Injection of Remedies...
“…of danger, there is absolutely none…The advantages of the hypodermic injection of morphia over its administration by mouth are immense…the majority of unpleasant symptoms which opiates can produce are entirely absent…its is certainly the fact that there is far less tendency with hypodermic than with gastric medication to rapid and large increase of the dose, when morphia is used for a long time together.”
Medical Men- the new priesthood

Control over drugs was a crucial element in the professionalisation of doctors and pharmacists. In 1856, the British Medical Association was founded. In 1858, the Medical Reform Act set up the General Medical Council, standardising medical training and establishing the medical register, which was published annually and listed all qualified practitioners.

Professionalization

During the decades following the mid 19th century, medicine established itself as a discipline grounded in scientific knowledge. Virchow, Koch, Lister, Bichat, Claude Barnard and others laid the foundations of germ theory, cellular pathology and so on. Anaesthesia and antisepsis became available, greatly reducing the horrors of the hospital experience.

However, most day-to-day medical practice was still concerned with the alleviation of symptoms. In addition, working-class people could not afford the services of physicians, and relied on self-medication, the apothecary’s shop and local rural healers.

Medicine men

For a range of practical purposes, doctors also took over many of the functions of the priesthood, which had in the pre-modern era provided much of the available healthcare.

As the medical profession grew in power and social status, it assumed not only the role of health care provision, but the charisma of scientific knowledge. An arcane language developed, which the laity could not understand, as well as uniforms, sacred instruments, control over institutional spaces, the power to define what was and was not real...

As the church had once controlled the instruments for altering consciousness (the sacrament, rituals, sacred texts and knowledges, specialised architectural spaces), the doctors now sought to control access to drugs.
The escaped syringe

The use of hypodermic morphine spread amongst the rich, since these were the clients of doctors. Many of these paying clients expected the doctor to leave the syringe and the morphine in the patient’s own hands, and the new technology was quickly diffused. Patients would be trained to inject themselves, or, often, to have their servants inject them, as and when they wished.
Many of the early morphia habits were the result of medical treatment, and it took some years for the realisation to set in that the initial optimism surrounding hypodermic opiates was to some extent misplaced – or, at least (for the relief of pain at this time was no small achievement in itself), that there was a price to pay for this fast route to tranquility.

Quotes from T.C. Allbutt in 1870 appeared in On the abuse of hypodermic injections of morphia...
“Among the numerous essays and records concerning the hypodermic use of morphia which have been published of late…I cannot call to mind one in which its possible dangers have been considered.”

“Gradually…the conviction began to force itself upon my notice, that injections of morphia, though free from the ordinary evils of opium eating, might, nevertheless, create the same artificial want and gain credit for assuaging a restlessness and depression of which it was itself the cause.”
Allbutt was a physician and MP, and his intervention was the first to widely publicise the addictive character of hypodermic morphia.

Drug cultures

Allbutt’s views were by no means universally held. Throughout the 1870s, the use of hypodermic morphine continued to proliferate. But the medical climate was changing. Since morphine was so much more concentrated than opium, withdrawal symptoms were correspondingly severe, and eventually became impossible to ignore.

Jewelled syringes cases were manufactured in order that cultured ladies might carry their beloved instruments with them when visiting the new shopping emporia in London, or visiting a country relative. The poor, meanwhile, continued for the most part to eat their opium and drink their laudanum.

Morphinomania

In 1878, the English edition of Die Morphiumsucht appeared. Written by Berlin physician Eduard Levinstein, the book was translated as The Morbid Craving for Morphia. It contained the first elaborated disease-theory of opiate addiction, with sections on aetiology, symptoms, treatment and prognosis.

Levinstein insisted that this “morbid craving” was a fully-fledged disease, comparable to dipsomania. This foundational text influenced a clutch of British and American doctors, and provided the basis for a new medical specialism – addiction medicine, or, as we would now call it, drug treatment.

The Society for the Study of Inebriety

One of the foremost of UK addiction doctors was Norman Kerr, who was a founding member of the Society for the Study of Inebriety when it formed in 1884. Author of Inebriety and Narcomania, Kerr was also a member of the Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade, a temperance pressure group which sought to use political means to end the Anglo-Indian opium trade to China.He regarded all forms of addiction as morbid, and sought to bring about legal changes which would allow the enforced incarceration of drunkards and narcomaniacs.

Norms and deviance

Dr Kerr’s conception of disease was that, in essence, a disease was constituted by a deviation from the norm. It should be apparent how readily this biological or physiological model can apply itself to what are, in fact, social, cultural and political norms.

This slippage of the disease model is precisely what occurred — and has continued to underpin our society’s responses to drugs ever since — whether the responses be clothed in the vocabulary of law or medicine. As Dr Thomas Clouston claimed during the late 19th century...

“Physicians are priests of the body and guardians of the physical and mental qualities of the race.”
“He (the addict) rejects all the adjuncts and supports of social life- orderliness, cleanliness, the appearance of his person and his clothes. He prefers to be among a class of society less moral, less educated, less refined and less evolved generally…How all the manias take the polish off a gentleman!”

This article is written by Christopher Hallam, a freelance writer and researcher who works closely with exchangesupplies.org in the field of drug policy reform.

A list of famous drug users

FAMOUS ILLICIT DRUG USERS

While most people keep their use of illegal drugs under wraps, famous people have more trouble than most, or simply don't bother trying to hide it.

Sherlock Holmes - opiates
The fictional super sleuth enjoyed his smack, as outlined in The Sign of Four. ‘With his long, white, nervous fingers he adjusted the delicate needle, and rolled back his left shirt cuff...the sinewy forearm and wrist, all dotted and scarred with innumerable puncture-marks... he sank back into the velvet lined armchair with a long sigh of satisfaction.’

Adolf Hitler - methamphetamine
Genocide and goose stepping can really take it out of you. Adolf had daily meth injections into his buttocks to get him psyched up for sauerkraut and rewriting European maps.

Bob Denver - cannabis
Famous character from Gilligan’s Island is a fan of grass, and was convicted of possessing marijuana and drug paraphernalia. No doubt the skipper would not be happy.

Sigmund Freud - cocaine
Psychiatrist responsible for the genital slip, I mean freudian slip. Wrote of cocaine’s euphoria and ‘stimulative effect on the genitalia’. Less keen after a friend died from overdose.

Courtney Love - heroin
“This is heroin. I love heroin. I do it all the time. Me and my boyfriend, we do heroin all the time”. Unfortunately, Kurt died from overdose but Courtney sings on.

Jim Morrisoin - LSD, booze, heroin, everything
Lead singer of The Doors was largely into LSD and booze, but would take anything he could get his hands on. Died of a probable heroin overdose in Paris. “Come on baby, light my pyre”.

Stephen King - cocaine
Horror novelist used to do a lot of cocaine and cannot remember writing some of his books. King claims that coke stopped him from drinking himself into an early death.

Many people are aware that the so-called “War on Drugs” isn’t working, but what are the alternatives?

HEROIN, SPEED OR COCAINE FOR KIDS?

The past few hundred years have seen some interesting medications up for grabs, particularly those marketed for use by children. Glyco-heroin (see left) was heroin with a bit of glycerin to take the edge of the bitter taste of the opiate.

Sold by a New York company, it was advertised as more effective than codeine or morphine for childhood coughs, asthma and bronchitis. It was claimed that its therapeutic value was rigorously tested (except perhaps its dependency-forming potential!).

Opium given to children

While many of these opiates were taken orally, others were, in effect, smoked. The opium was placed in a heated pan and the vapours then enhaled. What does seem quite incredible today is how these opiates were taken by children.

For example, Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup was used by mothers to calm their babies, and was promoted in recipe books and calendars. Advertising morphine today to help babies sleep would see pharmaceutical companies in a spot of bother with both governments and the public.

Opiates were very common medications, for their pain relief and constipation effects – the latter was particularly useful for dysentery. However, the twentieth century saw better public health measures and other pain relief medications emerge, and opiates gradually lost favour.

Today they are reserved medically for short-term use in pain management, and treatment of opiate dependency.

Cocaine and speed

Other drugs had their turn as well. Cocaine toothache drops were sold over the counter, and to this day, cocaine is used as a dental anaesthetic.

Amphetamines also gained popularity through the twentieth century – today they are best known medically for treatment of Attention Deficit Disorder in children.

Copyright © 2007 Safer Injecting: harm reduction for injecting drug users.

Research has shown that women are have a greater risk of blood-borne viruses such as hepatitis C and HIV

IN MY SKIN
interview with an ex-injecting sex worker

Angela Yin interviews Kate Holden about her experiences with heroin addiction, sex work and writing her new book.

This is your first book since you completed your first Arts degree all those years ago. It must be a dream come true!

It is! I’m kind of pinching myself. I’m delighted that I have it out there.

You’re very candid about your drug use and sex work. Was it difficult to go back and re-live all those painful memories?

I spent a year writing the book. I have been clean for five years, so there is a distance between me now and the story of that time. When I was writing it, I didn’t feel like I was dwelling on the pain, I just felt like a writer, drawing characters and stories, even though everything in the book is true. It’s actually doing interviews that I find more confronting because people are asking me questions and wanting to know stories that aren’t in the book. It’s one thing to write the book in the privacy of your own home, tapping away at a keyboard in your bedroom, and it’s another thing to publish it where everyone can read it.

Did you write much when you were using?

I didn’t write creatively, because I didn’t have the energy. I kept a journal, because I had a compulsion to chronicle what was happening in my life, and it’s just something that I’ve always done. I did feel the need to describe everything that was happening at the time.

Your book breaks a lot of stereotypes about drug users and sex workers. Have you ever felt trapped or stigmatised by them?

When I was using, nobody ever brushed me off as a ‘dirty junkie’. Except Centrelink, when you’re depending on payments and you have to be accountable to them. I guess I just had an internal confidence that I wasn’t a ‘junkie’, I was just a person who was addicted to heroin. And it wasn’t because I was a ‘bad’ person. For some reason I was never ashamed to say I was a heroin user or a sex worker. When I was upfront with people about what I did, I somehow diffused negative reactions.

Your book is very detailed about your life as a drug user and a sex worker, but it is not vulgar. Was that deliberate?

It was tricky getting that right. I wanted to write what was involved, but I didn’t want to do a hideous grunge-lit piece. I just didn’t want to shock people for the sake of shocking them, but it was important to retain the reality of situation and not gloss over anything. The style that came out didn’t lend itself to brutality.

You’re parents sound really amazing, how they coped with the knowledge of your life for the five years you were using.

My parents are just ordinary people. They weren’t hippies or anything. Like any parents, they were horrified that I was using and there was a really long time when my relationship with them was not great. It was a tough journey for them, as well as me. They went to a support group called Families Anonymous. They are very brave and loving and I am very lucky to have them.

You talked about accessing the needle exchange programs in St Kilda. What was your experience using those services?

I thought they were fantastic. It was great to be able to get clean fits and condoms. The staff never looked down on me. I was upset when they were considering charging for fits and condoms once clients exceeded their limit, especially for working girls who were trying to do the right thing. The staff at needle exchanges were surprisingly fantastic because they would even put up notices to help working girls identify “ugly mugs”.

I recently read a statistic that 70% of people who use drugs were abused in some way,1 yet that isn’t your story.

I know! Drugs are a kind of medication to help you feel better and cope with your problems, whether they be physical or psychological. I remember going to rehab and being with other drug users who had all these tragic stories of horrendous abuse, and I felt like an imposter… I was going to say that perhaps it would have almost been easier if I had been abused because I would have an excuse for going down the path I did, but it probably wouldn’t have been.

Whatever happened to Robbie, your boyfriend? When I read that you were doing sex work and supporting both yourself and him, I felt like slapping him!

Robbie’s well. I see him occasionally. He’s clean now. He’s living in housing commission. He has trouble finding work because he has really bad teeth, which is what heroin and methadone can do to you. No, I think he’s brave and that he loved me.

So this was your first book. What is the topic of your next book going to be based on?

It’s historical fiction. It will be very sexy and interesting. It’s rather in the infant stages because I’m still doing the publicity for the current book. I’m really looking forward to getting down to work on it over the summer.

You talked about your employment prospects at the time when you were using, how you had done your undergraduate degree in Classics and that your employment prospects weren’t that good. Are you making a living out of writing now?

I’m lucky that I am making a living out of writing. The world is populated with taxi drivers and bar workers who want to be professional writers, but I’m fortunate to write for newspapers, as well as having my book published.

In My Skin by Kate Holden

Kate grew up in a middle class family in Melbourne, Australia, with no major childhood dramas. Towards the end of her honours year, she experimented with heroin for the first time. What follows is a fascinating, disturbing and compelling insight into a five-year addiction — a chaotic descent from a classics degree graduate, to heroin addiction and sex work.

One factor was always constant — the unconditional love of her parents and sister. While the book does not romanticise any notions of approval, it does illustrate the pragmatic and jovial response of her parents.
In My Skin is a candid revelation about drug addiction and prostitution. The book does not resort to shock tactics, but approaches heroin addiction and sex work with a certain modesty but not ignoring the realities.

Copyright © 2007 Safer Injecting: harm reduction for injecting drug users.

There is good news, with the policy of harm minimisation being adopted around the world

INJECTING DRUG USERS ARE HUMANS!

Why are illicit drug users still treated like second class citizens by various governments, services and the public? Why does injecting of speed or heroin degrade one's humanity?

I’ve got this interest in humans as a species, in terms of how we’ve developed over the millennia. It’s always kind of trendy to talk about how bad things are – pollution, terrorism, global warming, wars and so on. But taking the long perspective, we are getting there, bit by bit. I figure civilisation is simply a matter of needing to acknowledge others are human beings too, and therefore worthy of basic respects and rights.

Take war as an example. Until recent times, a stronger tribe or country could kill, enslave or demand tribute from anyone weaker. It was simply the law of the jungle. Nowadays, this is a comparatively rare attitude and we have the United Nations, international law, treaties and diplomats to minimise this dog-eat-dog attitude.

As for slavery, this barbaric custom was widely practised around the world by Western powers. Anti-slavery advocates were regarded as dickheads by all, but now of course, we look back and wonder why it took so long for the world to catch on.

Throughout history, women were often regarded as little more than animals, traded, abused and enslaved. While this still occurs in many countries, it has been on the decline for centuries now as feminism has led to women having equal rights to men.

However, illicit drugs is one of those areas where it is taking a long time to get a commonsense approach based on valuing people. The USA has long pushed for a war on illicit drugs, and encouraged this approach in the United Nations and other countries 1. Many have argued that this approach is the same that demonised witches in the 17th century and communists in the 20th century — now illicit drug users are the new demons. Thailand police killed 600 drug dealers (in self defence apparently) in the first two weeks of an anti-drug campaign 2. Hepatitis C and HIV are running amok in Russia because the government refuses to distribute needles and syringes 3.

Simplistic, knee-jerk reactions from the conservative end of politics will always seek quick fixes to complex issues. This same conservatism insists that illicit drugs are treated as a criminal issue instead of a health issue. A war on drugs? You’d think having to use the word ‘war’ would give a hint to the primitive, aggressive nature of this strategy. Do policy makers have such a short memory that they can’t remember prohibition, the ‘war on alcohol’ earlier in the last century? That resulted in a huge increase in crime, did nothing to stop those who insisted on their drug, and resulted in serious health issues due to poor distillation? Does this sound somewhat similar to today’s situation with illicit drugs?

There is good news, with the policy of harm minimisation being adopted around the world. Australia is miles ahead of most countries in this regard. Our Health departments have recognised the need for this practical approach, so we now have needle and syringe programs, information on safe injecting, and support for those who want to reduce their use or quit. But democracies being what they are, some areas of public policy still reflect the conservative reaction of the general public who think users of illicit drugs should be jailed. Our legal system is still struggling to catch up in terms of developing a practical response.

Still I am hopeful, as most of the time we are still moving forward. In decades to come, we may look back on today as a very backward time when users were still treated as second class citizens by the criminal justice system and the Government still had a long way to go in terms of getting its policy together.

1. http://www.worldpolicy.org/globalrights/samerica/2000-0320-JOC.html
2. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/02/24/1046063961035.html
3. http://hrw.org/reports/2004/russia0404/1.htm

Copyright © 2007 Safer Injecting: harm reduction for injecting drug users.

The Miss Heroin poem, author unknown

THINK YOU KNOW YOUR DRUGS?
try this little drug test!

Know your drugs? Wanna put it to the test? Read the following detox stories and see if you can pick that drug! Answers are at the bottom of the page, but don't cheat! See if you can guess all three before checking the answers...

Drug number 1

Talk about the revolving door syndrome when it comes to getting off... this is the seventh bloody time I’ve tried to go clean. It’s not as if I’m a heavy user, but within a few hours I’m getting anxious, edgy, having trouble concentrating... a black wave of depression settles on me during the evening.

Sleep that night is disturbed by waking up for no reason several times and I struggle to get back to sleep, fighting off cravings, which are that much tougher coz I could just wake up my flat mate who is a user too. To my surprise, I start to fart a lot, although I manage to hold on until there’s nobody around.

A bitch of a headache sets in and aspirin only takes some of the edge away. Surprisingly, I manage to last a week, but the withdrawal symptoms just don’t let up and I finally give in, not willing to face another week of this — I wake my flat mate up at 2am to get a hit. He tells me there is an average relapse rate of 95% on any given attempt to get off this drug, and I can see why....

Drug number 2

I took the last of my stash six hours ago and the withdrawals are on the way. Over the next few hours I start to get the shakes, the sweats, anxiety, rapid heart beat, a thumping headache, and to top it off, nausea. This was a pretty impulsive decision to go cold turkey, so I cruise the internet and find out that with my level of heavy use, going cold turkey can actually be life threatening! But I’ve started this now and I’ll see it through.

A sleepless night and things just keep getting worse and it’s so tempting to forget this, anything to get rid of these symptoms. The day wears on and my head really gets messed up — confusion, disorientation and hyperactivity. My skin starts crawling and some kind of hallucinations set in, as if the shadows in the room are turning into some kind of demons ready to pounce on me.

I’ve had enough. I ring an understanding mate to bring me the medicine I need and hate, to get me back to normal, whatever that is.

Drug number 3

I didn’t figure I had a problem until a mate challenged me to go cold turkey for a few days. Most of my mates are into it and we all hold down jobs, function as reasonably together human beings so taking a week’s break looked easy, especially with a $50 bet in place!

It was a walk in the park initially. I had a bit of a craving but no withdrawals as such. But 12 hours later, I realised I was sliding into a drowsy kind of fatigue and getting bugger all done at work. When people come to my desk, I fight the urge to tell them to piss off, which is definitely not me!

That night, a nasty headache sets in and the next morning it feels like I’m coming down with the flu; muscle pain, foggy head. Things peak about 48 hours after my last hit and start to taper off. It’s actually really hard to fight the urge even then, but I make it through the week and claim my $50. I go straight out and use it to score, as a celebration of my strong fucking willpower!


Get the answers >>

Research has shown that women are have a greater risk of blood-borne viruses such as hepatitis C and HIV

MEN, WOMEN & INJECTING DRUGS
Men control more but know less

Research has shown that women are have a greater risk of blood-borne viruses such as hepatitis C and HIV, as the person who holds the drugs holds the power, therefore having the right to inject first, and the person with the power is usually the man (Marsh and Loxley :1994: 82). Research conducted by QuIVAA several years ago also found that men are often in control of women’s drug use.

This sometimes related to a lack of contacts to dealers, but most commonly was associated with male partners controlling the buying and the mixing up. Disturbingly, women often commented upon men’s lack of knowledge in relation to hep C and HIV, as well as unevenly dividing the mix. Yes you read correctly, research has now proven men can be greedy when it comes to drugs!

Women more likely to share

Sharing fits and injecting equipment (tourniquets, spoons and filters) is a major risk for contracting hep C. However women are more likely to share injecting equipment. Research asking people for reasons why they share, found that women think of sharing as social and relate it to situations such as sharing with a lover; men’s reasons for sharing relate to being intoxicated, ‘hanging out’ or caring less about potential dangers and report using alone more often, while women tend to use in groups, and the younger the woman is, the more people who are likely to have used the syringe before them (Marsh and Loxley: 1994: 88 & 82).

The research at QuIVAA had similar findings when it came to why people share. Women commented upon sharing ‘with partners’ as a form of intimacy, as part of the relationship. Women often assumed that because they were sexual partners, they had ‘shared everything already’, despite the fact that hep C is only transmitted by blood-to-blood contact and not considered a sexually transmitted infection. While some men did share with partners, they associated it with not having enough fits, rather than intimacy.

Women handle withdrawals better

When it came to men and women hanging out on heroin, women without a doubt were able to better manage their withdrawal (and not generally take it out on everyone around them). Men became very angry or stressed without heroin and often ‘did anything to get it’. Women were more likely to use pills or pot to manage or distract themselves from thinking about drugs. Women were often the ones left to manage both their own and their male partner’s emotional stress, and were often expected to carry on, while men generally indicated they either got angry or sulked in their rooms. This is where you act surprised like you didn’t already know this!

Crime to support habits

When it came to involvement in crime, men and women were markedly different. The majority of women had never been arrested (despite having engaged in drug use and often dealing, sex work and some opportunistic theft). Only two women identified having posession charges. More commonly, women used legal means to access drugs (work pay) or used the sex industry or partnerships with men who had access to drugs. Men, in contrast, often used illegal means to access drugs and had a high level of police contact, and some men had served lengthy prison sentences. Charges varied with importing, trafficking, break and enter, armed robberies, grievous bodily harm, ‘fail to appears’, shoplifting and possession.

Women have better contacts

The way in which men and women bought their gear was also quite different. When buying heroin, men used a variety of sources and liked to keep many contacts, who they considered to be simply ‘someone to buy from or acquaintances’ preferring ‘big dealers’ whom they often commented upon having problems with relating to violence.

Women, on the other hand, often had one regular dealer, particularly bought from a woman at her home, who was a person they valued as a friend, and whose opinion they felt they could trust if the gear was strong or badly cut. This places women at an advantage when buying, for they are less likely to get ripped off by a street dealer or business dealer, and are less likely to be seen by police when scoring in public and are exposed to a lower level of violence.

Take control

So while women may be taking unnecessary risks when it comes to sharing equipment and letting others mix up for them (especially partners), they are controlling risk when it comes to police contact and buying from a stable, safe source and therefore having a good understanding of exactly what they are buying. So no matter how much you may love someone, stay safe, take control of your drug use and have control of your health and your life.
Jodie Walton 2004

Copyright © 2007 Safer Injecting: harm reduction for injecting drug users.

MISS HEROIN

This is possibly the most famous heroin poem of all time. Many have claimed to be its author, over two decades, with some likelihood the author was a cop in England in the 1980s who personally saw some of the havoc created by heavy smack use.

So now little man, you’ve grown tired of grass
All that damn acid, that cocaine and hash
And someone pretending that he is your friend,
Said “I’ve introduced you to Miss Heroin”.

Well honey, before you start fooling with me
Just let me tell you of how it will be.
For I will seduce you and make you my slave,
Believe me I’ve sent stronger men to the grave.

You think you could never become a disgrace,
And end up addicted to poppy seed waste.
You start experimenting one afternoon,
And end asleep in my arms very soon.

Then once I have entered deep in your veins,
The craving will drive you nearly insane.
You’ll need lots of money as you have been told,
For darling I’m more expensive than gold.

You’ll swindle your mother, just for a buck,
And turn into someone who’s vile and corrupt.
You’ll mug and you’ll steal for the narcotic charms,
Then feel so content when I’m in your arms.

Then you’ll realise the monster inside you has grown,
And you’ll solemnly swear to leave me alone.
But if you think that it’s easy and you’ve got the knack,
Then sweetie, try getting me off your back.

The vomit, the cramps, your guts in a knot,
The jangling nerves screaming for just one more shot.
The hot chill, the cold sweat, the withdrawal pains,
Can only be sawed by my white little grains.

So now you return (just as I foretold),
And I know that you’ll give me your body and soul.
You’ll give me your morals, your conscience, your heart,
And now you are mine till death do us part!

- Source unknown

Here is the advanced explanation for physical dependency on drugs, based on what many biologists call “pleasure pathways” in our brains which evolved to make sure we get into things like sex and food that keep our species going.

PHYSICAL DEPENDENCY FOR NERDS

Were you a chemistry geek at school? Have you always gone for the complicated explanation? Then here is the advanced explanation for physical dependency on drugs, based on what many biologists call “pleasure pathways” in our brains which evolved to make sure we get into things like sex and food that keep our species going.

Endorphins and dopamine

Endorphin pathways have even been found in insects. Endorphins are natural hormones that reduce pain and make us feel good. They like to bind with ‘opiate receptors’ in our brain which then stimulate production of dopamine which keeps all those electrical signals going from one brain cell to the next.

Increased dopamine activity is often met by a decrease in the number of receptors sensitive to dopamine, as the brain, like the rest of our body, loves to keep things in balance (or homeostasis if you like the big words).

Tolerance

This down-regulation, or decreased number of receptors, tends to result in reduced electrical activity along post-synaptic nerve pathways, unless some behaviour or substance causes a continued high level of dopaminergic stimulation. The absence of a pleasurable sensation in conditions that were formally sufficient can cause a mild feeling of let-down after receptors have been down-regulated. The increased requirement for dopamine to maintain the same electrical activity is the basis of both physiological tolerance and withdrawal associated with addiction.

The result? Your body adapts to the drug with frequent use, so you don’t get the same effect anymore. Also, you feel like crap when you stop using.

The middle striatal reward pathway has been most strongly linked with addictive and reward behaviour. This pathway uses dopamine as a neurotransmitter and receives presynaptic input (from earlier in the circuit — it gets signals from these earlier in the circuit cells) from cells that respond to cannabinoids, nicotine (receptor subtype is nicotinic), and from cells that respond to endogenous opioid substances such as endorphins or enkephalins. Cells that are said to respond to a particular neurotransmitter contain, at the postsynaptic end (receiving area of the cell) receptors for that neurotransmitter. Many scientific boffins believe more neurotransmitters are involved with addiction than just dopamine; such as serotonin, norepinephrine, and the endocannabinoid anandamide.

Withdrawal

In cases of physical dependency on depressants of the central nervous system such as opioids, barbiturates, or alcohol, the absence of the substance can lead to symptoms of severe physical discomfort. Withdrawal from alcohol or sedatives such as barbiturates or benzodiazepines (valium-family) can result in seizures and even death. By contrast, withdrawal from opioids, which can be extremely uncomfortable, is rarely if ever life-threatening. In cases of dependence and withdrawal, the body has become so dependent on high concentrations of the particular chemical that it has stopped producing its own natural versions (endogenous ligands) and instead produces opposing chemicals. When the addictive substance is withdrawn, the effects of the opposing chemicals can become overwhelming. For example, chronic use of sedatives (alcohol, barbiturates, or benzodiazepines) results in higher chronic levels of stimulating neurotransmitters such as glutamate. Very high levels of glutamate kill nerve cells (called excitatory neurotoxicity).

Why opiates can be tough

Opioids like heroin and morphine present higher risks of dependency because they are chemically similar to endorphins, causing an up-regulation of dopaminergic receptors without stimulation of the endorphin systems. Cocaine and amphetamines also pose risks associated with physical attenuation, in both cases because they cause increases in the levels of the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine which acts indirectly to stimulate dopaminergic pathways in the brain. So where possible, try to balance your use with the risks of dependency!

Copyright © 2007 Safer Injecting: harm reduction for injecting drug users.

Human beings like to feel good and drugs are used to help this happen. It can be legally done with a range of drugs such as alcohol, caffeine, nicotine and anti-depressants. Nano-engineered detectors in the needle tip prevent injection if hepatitis C, HIV or harmful bacteria are present.

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Nano-engineered detectors in the needle tip prevent injection if hepatitis C, HIV or harmful bacteria are present. DNA is also sampled to prevent anyone other than the owner using the Injectulator ®.The Injectulator ® automatically shuts down if you try to reuse a needle.
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Copyright © 2007 Safer Injecting: harm reduction for injecting drug users.

A possible philosophy of drug use for injecting drug users

TOWARD A PHILOSOPHY OF DRUG USE

For and against drugs

"Why do we use drugs? It can be for medical, recreational, creative or spiritual purposes. They don’t always interfere in other parts of our life. There are easy ways to reduce risk of immediate danger to ourselves or others. Legal or otherwise, recreational drugs can be used to simply feel on top of the world, even if for just a few moments."

"No way! I speak up for the conservative public who enjoy alcohol and nicotine but are against ‘real’ drugs. I’m not sure why, and I don’t really want to think about it, but illicit drug use just seems irresponsible, because those drugs are dangerous and often very addictive. Why should we legalise harmful substances that are just a fruitless escape from reality?"

"Interesting point, my friend! Take this glass of gin and my Marlboro here. Addictive? Yes. Harmful? Yes. How do we draw the line on acceptable drugs or otherwise? And who makes these decisions for us? Many argue that humans will always use various drugs to feel good, and making certain ones illegal simply increases the cost, impurity and stigma. The result? Crime, health problems and a lot of people trying not to drop the soap in the prison showers."
A harm reduction approach

Regardless of arguments, most people will use some kind of drugs to alter their mood. If I want to maximise my health, I can say “no”. Otherwise, I can say “know”... learn how to use my drugs responsibly, whether they are legal or not. In a nutshell, I can:

• Know my drug, and strategies for its safe use and infection control
• Test and dose myself carefully to avoid overdose, and not use alone
• Avoid driving or operating machinery if I’m off my face
• Avoid encouraging non-users to get into my thing
• Balance my use with other bits of life; family, friends, work, diet, exercise, nose picking, overthrow of the existing regime, and so on.

A proposed oath for responsible drug use

Only in America! Some recreational drug users got together and created this oath for responsible drug use. They say it is intended for recreational drug users who wish to use drugs in a relatively responsible manner, as opposed to doing so in the “stereotype of a lifeless, ethically bankrupt, hedonistic and self-destructive “junkie”.

The document suggests that drug use should be considered a legitimate personal choice, not a crime, personal failure, or societal illness...

I swear or affirm that:

• I understand the effects of all recreational drugs I take, to the best of my ability. I shall research the neurochemical, psychological, physiological, spirituality effects, the legal issues surrounding the drug and its use.
• When taking a drug I am inexperienced with, I shall begin with the lowest dose suggested to be psychoactive by the aforementioned research before progressing to higher dosages. I will measure the drug carefully, with an accurate scale.
• If it is possible that the drug may contain harmful adulterants or in fact be a different drug altogether, I shall have the drug chemically analysed for purity and content.
• I will learn the overdose limits for my own body weight and adjust them for any possible synergistic effects due to diet, prescription or other drugs. I will also adjust for dangerous side effects and my own health condition. After calculating my personal limit, I will stay under 75% of this limit, to minimise risk.
• While under the effects of a drug, I shall not take physical risks such as driving, climbing, swimming, or any other physical activity in which my actions may cause harm to myself or others.
• When first using a drug I am inexperienced with, I shall take it in the company of an experienced user, also known as a spotter. The spotter will remain sober during this experience, and will also have fully researched the drug.
• I shall not attempt to sway, force, trick, or otherwise coerce another person to take any drug; rather, I shall discuss previous drug experiences and research frankly and honestly, allowing all people to make their own personal decisions about drug use.
• I shall defend the rights of others to make educated, responsible decisions about drug use. I shall not support any person or movement that attempts to remove or abridge said rights.
• I shall not allow my drug use to overshadow or disrupt the other important aspects of my life, including social interaction, employment or even other personal pursuits.
• I will also take responsibility for the drug use of friends and relatives, if their drug use becomes dangerous to their health or personal relationships.
• I understand the effects of habituation, and therefore I shall exercise caution and significantly reduce the quantity of any familiar drug I use when taking the drug in a new and different environment for the first time.
• As a drug consumer, I will embrace responsible drug production and distribution methods, such as growing or pharming your own, and shun suppliers who use violence when not necessary for their self-defense.

I swear this with the hope of creating a society in which safe, responsible drug use is a personal decision, not a criminal offense.

Zen philosophy

• If you lend someone $20, and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
• Don’t squat with your spurs on.
• If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.
• If you drink, don’t park; accidents cause people.
• Some days you’re the bug, some days you’re the windshield.
• No one is listening until you fart.
• Don’t worry, it only seems kinky the first time.
• Good judgement comes from bad experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgement.
• The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.
• Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.
• A closed mouth gathers no foot.
• Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side and a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
• Generally speaking, you aren’t learning much when your mouth is moving.
• We are born naked, wet, and hungry. Then things get worse.
• Always remember you’re unique. Just like everyone else.
• Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me, either. Just leave me the hell alone.
• The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and a flat tyre.
• It’s always darkest before dawn. So if you’re going to steal your neighbour’s newspaper, that’s the time to do it.
• Sex is like air. It’s not important until you suddenly realise that you aren’t getting any.
• It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
• It is far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help.
• If you think nobody cares if you’re alive, try missing a couple of car payments.
• Before you criticise someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes.That way, when you criticise them, you’re a mile away and you have their shoes.
• If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you.
• Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

Copyright © 2007 Safer Injecting: harm reduction for injecting drug users.

Marijuana inevitably leads to ‘hard’ drug use. One taste of heroin and you are hooked. Drugs are destroying our nation. Ecstasy is killing our youth.

TRUE LIES, DRUGS & THE MEDIA

Marijuana inevitably leads to ‘hard’ drug use. One taste of heroin and you are hooked. Drugs are destroying our nation. Ecstasy is killing our youth. Blah blah blah.

The media and general public often sensationalize and demonize illicit drug use, mostly to no real purpose. I can still remember when the anti-heroin ads came out years ago... angst-ridden teenagers on the verge of death, huge bags painted under their eyes. It was a great joke to many of us injectors as we didn’t know anyone like that! Sure, some of us were hooked, but most of us still looked after ourselves and the images were good comedy value but little else.

A similar approach is still in play. The newspapers talk about ecstasy and speed killing today’s youth. The problem is most teenagers know plenty of mates using these drugs and see a huge gap between the horror portrayed by the media, and the actual reality. Of course, illicit drugs can kill people. Licit drugs kill people too, and in far greater numbers. Everyone is familiar with alcohol and nicotine, so shock tactics don’t tend to work, therefore the media and government tend to give realistic information on socially acceptable drugs.

Emotionally based scare campaigns may give middle class families a chance to shake their heads at others and feel self-righteous, but they do bugger all to actually help anyone. If we are doing illicit drugs, we can get informed from the right sources. We can hang on to user magazines like this one for reference, or pass them on. Remember that too much of any kind of drug is going to mess us up, and a few of us may not be able to handle any drug well, booze included. So we can figure out what we want in life and try to balance our drug use with everything else. Or stop using them. Whatever works for each person.

Although the media usually over dramatises the dangers of injecting, it is still a high-risk activity. There’s plenty of info at our NSP things that will reduce the risks. We can also try alternatives like snorting, smoking, shafting or swallowing depending on which is our fave drug. The media may treat us as though we are brainless, but we can stand tall, get educated and use illicit drugs more safely. So let’s give a shit and get educated!

Some interesting statistics

The proportion of Australians who have used illicit substances decreased from 16.9% in 2001 to 15.3% in 2004. While cannabis remains the most widely used illicit drug, the proportion of people using it between 2003 and 2004 dropped from 12.9% to 11.3%.
- National Drug Household Survey

Recent use of cannabis among 14 to 19 year old Australians has almost halved from 1998 to 2004, and has dropped from 44% among 20-29 year olds in 1998 to 32% in 2004. Adult usage rates are higher in Australia (15%) than in all other English-speaking countries including New Zealand (13.4%), Britain (10.6%) and the US (9.3%). Australia also has higher usage levels than the Netherlands, which has much more liberal drug laws.
- The Centre for Youth Drug Studies at the Australian Drug Foundation

Copyright © 2007 Safer Injecting: harm reduction for injecting drug users.

We’re constantly bombarded with stories about how terrible drug use is, and presented with exceedingly negative views of people that use drugs

WHERE ARE THE RICH DRUG DEALERS?

It appears the stereotype of all drug dealers rolling in the cash is mostly an urban myth...

A new book by Steven Levitt, Freakonomics, asks some of the questions you were possibly too scared or apathetic, to ask. One of these questions is why so many drug dealers in the USA are still living with their parents if they are supposed to be making so much money.

Like any good economist, he backs his data with hard evidence. In this case, the author, looked into the accounting books of a Chicago based crack gang. It turns out that most of the dealers made less than the minimum wage (which in the USA is truly abysmal) and only plied their trade on the off chance they might eventually work their way to the top where are few made the really big bucks. The author suggests that this is pretty much in line with wages across America — the huddled masses slaving away in legal jobs for a pittance while the fat cats are a definite minority.

Anyone with experience in the illicit drug scene knows that the vast majority of “dealers” aren’t wallowing in cash — they are usually just supporting their own habit, supplying a few close friends for the weekend party, or supplementing their main income, legal or otherwise.

The profits start to increase dramatically as you move up the distribution pyramid, but even here the police system can create false impressions of huge wealth. If a big heroin or speed bust is made, its net worth is usually based on street prices. The thing is the original importers get nowhere near the street price, as everyone picks up their profit down the distribution pyramid — just like any business. That IKEA lounge suite may retail for $1000 but chances are its Swedish creators will only collect a small fraction of that!

Copyright © 2007 Safer Injecting: harm reduction for injecting drug users.