Huge numbers of you have been completing this year's Global Drug Survey which, with the government green lighting supervised injecting rooms and generally moving towards a Portuguese decriminalisation model, is more relevant than ever.

Following last December's revelation that 387 people died from overdoses in 2013, we're especially interested in lifting the lid on poly drug use in Ireland.

With 2C-P being blamed for the hospitalisation of seven young people in Cork City, we also want to know how many of you have knowingly taken the designer psychedelic, and what the effects were. In last year's GDS, 11.9% of respondents admitted taking 'mystery white powders', some of which are highly likely to have been 2C-P.
GDS coordinator Dr. Adam Winstock will be talking to hotpress.com about 2C-P, AKA 'Molly', and other designer psychedelics over the weekend.

The biggest online survey of its kind - over 100,000 people participated in 2015 - GDS 2016 is running in 19 countries with The Guardian, Zeit Online, La Liberation, Stuff, Vice, Dazed & Confused and Mixmag among the other international media partners.

Once crunched, the GDS 2016 numbers will provide the most accurate assessment yet of who’s taking what, where, why and for how much.

“The vast majority of people who take drugs are socially well-adjusted, otherwise law abiding and neither seeking, nor in need of, medical treatment,” reflects Dr. Winstock, who co-ordinates the GDS. “Sometimes, though, they overdo it or make bad choices which endanger themselves and/or others. One of the main functions of the Global Drug Survey is alerting them to those dangers, as well as suggesting safer practices and generally promoting harm reduction.”

It’s a leaner, meaner but just as comprehensive GDS this year, which will take 15-20 minutes to complete at www.globaldrugsurvey.com

Will there be further increases in the number of Irish people buying drugs online and using dangerous synthetic cannabis? Is our herbal weed still the most expensive in the world? Have people woken up to the dangers of taking mystery white powders? Is our relationship with alcohol starting to change? All these and many more questions will be definitively answered.

The GDS 2015 findings were presented to Aodhán Ó Ríordáin as part of our extensive interview with the Minister with Responsibility for Drug Strategy in which he revealed he was pressing for the introduction of heroin injecting rooms in Ireland, and was in favour of adopting the Portuguese model for decriminalising all drugs here.

We’ll be going back to the Minister - or whoever succeeds him - with the 2016 findings, so make sure to have your say!

Read the GDS 2015 findings:

[link]www.hotpress.com/archive/14470167.html[/link]

Our interview with Aodhán Ó Ríordáin:

[link]www.hotpress.com/Aodhan-O-Riordain/features/interviews/Interview-with-Minister-Aodhn--Rordin/14470526.html[/link]

Stay tuned to hotpress.com for regular GDS 2016 updates.