r/australia • u/[deleted] • Jun 26 '12
Aussies the biggest recreational drug users in the world.
http://www.news.com.au/national/aussies-the-biggest-recreational-drug-users-in-the-world-report/story-e6frfkvr-122640974523533
Jun 27 '12
I almost feel patriotic.
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u/EuroraT Jun 27 '12
Yeah... I get the feeling this is more of a proud Aussie subreddit moment.. the article is pretty weak:
"The report also indicated that Australia may be a victim of its own high reporting standards, especially in regards to cocaine, because countries such as China and India did not provide information for the report."
I'd also like to know from the Sth American countries how 'honest' their report cards are... pfffff
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u/CoinSlot Jun 27 '12
The report also found that most Australians who used more than one drug also used cannabis, but the majority of cannabis users – 61 per cent – did not use any other drug.
So much for the "gateway drug" bullshit.
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Jun 27 '12
gate way to drive thru?
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u/LOLSTRALIA Jun 27 '12
gateway to dominos.com.au more likely...
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u/Kar98 Jun 27 '12
40% did though
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u/lordriffington Jun 27 '12
But what proof is there that they started with cannabis?
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Jun 27 '12
Technically 100% of drug users started on breast milk, so we should ban that.
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u/Reddit-Incarnate Jun 27 '12
My mother in law could not produce breast milk, my g/f has never once had breast milk but she has smoked a decent amount of weed.
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u/insideman83 Jun 27 '12
Cocaine is a douchebag drug. I'm going to be a snob and assume it's being consumed by cashed up bogans.
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Jun 27 '12
The price of coke in Australia pretty much prices out all but the most cashed up tradies, who typically aren't your average cocaine users.
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u/CozmoNz Jun 27 '12
Who is then? Cashed up miners? Cashed up business men?
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u/ThunderCuntAU Jun 27 '12
Coke is the footballer's drug of choice (other than weed, of course), so I'd say there are plenty of cashed up tradies using it.
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u/flukus Jun 27 '12
I think you'll find bankers, lawyers and business men make up the majority of cocaine users.
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Jun 26 '12
Maybe we should try to have 100m white line sprints in the next Olympics... Cousins is already in great shape ;)
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Jun 27 '12
I'd rather have access to LSD than Cocaine.
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u/Talie5in Jun 27 '12
LSD is still very much around in Australia
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u/Reddit-Incarnate Jun 27 '12
I have a hard enough time getting weed.... i need more friends, its kind of pathetic being in sydney and not knowing where to get weed -_-.
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Jun 27 '12
I've been to Sydney 4 times, and every time I was offered weed just walking down the street.
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u/whipnil "something funny" Jun 27 '12
I feel so proud to be part of this amazing achievement by Australia.
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u/LiamNeesonAteMyBaby Jun 27 '12
Pill use is down because of the wide availability of high-quality MDMA. Drug seizures have never been shown to have an effect on usage - though they can certainly effect price.
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Jun 27 '12
I hear the opposite is true of MDMA. High quality pills are hard to come by lately. Where do you live?
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u/LiamNeesonAteMyBaby Jun 27 '12
Pills are bullshit. Full of other crap. Pure MDMA is the way to go. I live in Sydney.
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Jun 27 '12
See in Adelaide I hear we haven't had good pills since 06/07 at the very latest. Getting any MDMA (pure) down here has been a pain in the ass despite our huge drug culture.
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u/LiamNeesonAteMyBaby Jun 27 '12
I stopped taking pills years ago because they're just too hit and miss. When you get those clean clear crystals though, you know you've got good stuff.
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u/truenatureschild Jun 27 '12
Probably around mid 2009 the MDMA dried up. I live in tassie but most of my shit came from SA, once meph and other rcs took off, good old MDMA died a sudden death. Sad.
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u/Talie5in Jun 27 '12
Totally agree, RC's are everywhere and have become the norm, in fact I have seen 5APB & 6APB coming in pill form as opposed to powder form (capped or not) lately.
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u/thesearmsshootlasers Jun 27 '12
I've not seen pure MDMA in Sydney. I met a guy who claimed he had it mailed to him from overseas (via website, no less) about two weeks ago, but I've only ever seen it in person overseas. We paid 50 euros for a gram in Barcelona, I can't imagine what it costs here.
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u/LiamNeesonAteMyBaby Jun 27 '12
Probably about $300 a gram. If I had any idea about these sort of things.
edit: which I totally don't.
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u/thesearmsshootlasers Jun 27 '12
Yeah me neither. I made everything in that previous comment up.
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u/LiamNeesonAteMyBaby Jun 27 '12
We are a couple of ignorant, naive, innocent motherfuckers, with excellent speculation skills.
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Jun 27 '12
[deleted]
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u/LiamNeesonAteMyBaby Jun 27 '12 edited Jun 27 '12
I didn't say that I could get it. I just know that it's out there.
Ahem.
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u/Joakal Jun 27 '12
And the crime rates are going down too. As a conservative who refuses to change, I demand more criminalisation and more funding to the police to raise crime rates!
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u/snootybird Jun 27 '12
ive used drugs for the last 15 years or so- and i HATE weed- always have. so i call the "gateway" theory bullshit.
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u/south-of-the-river Jun 27 '12
Why do you hate it? Honest question. Affects your mental state too much?
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u/snootybird Jun 27 '12
no its not that, i have generally always found that it pretty much a downer drug, and doesnt make me want to hang around and party with my friends as much as other drugs. it doesnt really effect me mentally, compared to other drugs, i just find it kind of boring
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u/bugarit Jun 27 '12
- Australians, New Zealanders world's biggest drug users
Bullshit.
I cannot believe those statistics. Who did the survey and who did they survey?
Possibly they stopped people at random in Nimbin, Darlinghurst Rd Kings Cross or Grey St St Kilda. But not in ordinary Aussie towns and suburbs.
The report, which mostly relies from statistics gathered in 2010
If someone can provide a url to the source documents I'd like to see the sample size and methodology.
Yes we have a drug problem in this country, but world's worst? You've got to be kidding. Travel to the USA, Mexico, Amsterdam, almost any bloody place and you will encounter far worse than here.
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u/meAndb Jun 28 '12
You're not comparing us to Mexico are you? The country with massive drug cartels and extremely frequent gang murders over drugs?
Seems like you're equating recreational drug use with, like you said, a "drug problem" which isn't really what this is about.
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u/bugarit Jun 28 '12
The article set the rules, not I. It made the claim that we are the biggest users in the world.
- Australians, New Zealanders world's biggest drug users
- Use of cannabis, cocaine on the rise, ecstasy use down
- Globally, cannabis remains the most widely used drug
AUSTRALIANS and New Zealanders are the biggest recreational drug users in the world, according to the 2012 United Nations World Drug Report.
I mentioned some places I've travelled to where I saw drugs, including cannabis and cocaine and variants of coke among others, being openly traded and used in public. Even Nimbin (I've been there too) pales by comparison with Amsterdam.
I dispute their claim based on my own knowledge of the people I know and my past experience. I have never used them myself, but you can't drive a cab on the night shift in Melbourne for nearly twenty years without having a knowledge of the drug scene.
So I would like to see their source data, or at least a link to the paper. The factors mentioned in the report appear to be a reflection of more efficient action by Aussie anti-drug agencies than of actual usage. And how on earth do they arrive at exact numbers like this:
Ecstasy use in Australian declined from 3.7 per cent to 3.0 percent between 2007 and 2010, but this might be explained by the fact Australia reported more ecstasy lab busts than any other country.
Who measured that and how do you measure the use of a substance that is illegally distributed and consumed?
This is one of the few points I agree with:
The report also indicated that Australia may be a victim of its own high reporting standards, especially in regards to cocaine, because countries such as China and India did not provide information for the report.
Nor would I expect accurate or honest reporting from Central or South America or the Middle East.
I am in favour of legalisation. This sort of alarmist report could be used by those who want to increase the "war on drugs"; I see that as counter-productive.
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u/notformeplz Jun 27 '12
What a surprise...
The fact we have a team of 'famous' criminals in Mick Gatto, Carl Williams, Tony Mokbel to name but a few is eerily reminiscent of The USA in the 1920's prohibition era (Lucky Luciano, Al Capone and Bugsy Siegel).
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u/whipnil "something funny" Jun 27 '12
Yeah I doubt there'd be any gangsters in the US anymore...
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u/notformeplz Jun 27 '12
I am sure there are, but do they get TV series made about them?
The fact we have criminal celebrities says a lot about the amount of power they wield.
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u/They_call_me_skippa Jun 27 '12
prohibition works!!