Frontlines: Back In The High Life Again

Hot Press is delighted to once again be joining the likes of Vice, Cosmopolitan, San Francisco Chronicle, The Huffington Post, The Guardian, Liberation, Men’s Health and Zeit in supporting the Global Drug Survey, which last year included Ireland in its findings for the first time.

By crunching the data contributed anonymously online by 832 Irish respondents, we were able to form an accurate picture of who’s taking what, where and for how much here.
It turned out that at an average €25 per gram, Ireland has the most expensive cannabis in the world. The good news for marijuana users though was that in the majority of cases the Gardai are not cautioning or prosecuting people caught with small amounts of the drug. 48% said they’d be more comfortable seeking medical advice were drugs to be legalised across the board; 10.5% reported ‘following the Silk Road’ and buying designer drugs online; 9.2% purchased ‘mystery white powders’ with MDMA deemed to be the best value for money drug with a 7.5 out of 10 cost approval rating.
A lot has changed, though, in the past 12 months says Dr. Adam Winstock, the London-based Consultant Psychiatrist and Addiction Specialist who coordinates the GDS.
“The butane hash oil that has been put out by the legal marijuana industry in Colorado has started to arrive here,” he tells Hot Press. “It’s a higher, far more potent preparation which has been predictably described in some quarters as the ‘crack cocaine of weed.’ People who take it for medicinal purposes don’t want to be smoking lots of marijuana. Fine, but the truth is that every time you mess with Mother Nature, you end up with more problems. I’ve seen two patients who’ve used butane hash oil in the UK, one of whom ate 10 grams of it and not surprisingly became psychotic.
“My guess is that because there’s a fortune to be made out of it, it’ll be floating around Ireland sooner rather than later. It’s being knocked up, Breaking Bad-style, using lots of butane which has led to people in the US blowing themselves up.
“Then there’s synthetic cannabis, which I thought was going to go away, but it hasn’t. In fact, there’s a group of people who are probably running into problems with it. I want to find out why and what those problems are. The cannabis market, which had been stable for quite a long time, has suddenly gone off in two significant new directions.”
As comprehensive as ever in its scope, the GDS 2015 will also be looking at “the use of prescription drugs, and particularly cognitive enhancers and steroids. It’s entering the mainstream – you know, university kids using Modafanil to stay up so that they can beat the competition and rugby players, some in their teens still, taking steroids. We’re asking them, ‘Are you running into problems or are you getting the benefit you want without any discernible side-effects?’ Again, my hunch is that if you’re taking a drug that keeps you up for three nights without sleep, you’re going to run into some sort of difficulty.
“We’re also going to ask something we’ve never asked before, which is, ‘If you’ve stopped using drugs, why?’ Is it a health thing, money related or you just got bored with them?’ Rather than having some terrible life-changing event, most people get jobs, a wife and kids – they get old and start cutting down on the chemicals.”
Dr. Winstock anticipates a sharp increase in the number of people buying their drugs online.
“I can’t imagine the Irish figure being as low as 10.5% this year,” he resumes. “Everyone’s saying, ‘Oh, the Silk Road and the Tor have been shut down’, but we reckon that’s bollocks. I think we’re going to see the Darknet explode and will be asking, ‘How does it alter people’s shopping and drug use patterns?’ The Darknet is basically an alternative Amazon. If you’ve been on it before and bought some MDMA and LSD, your online supplier might go, ‘Maybe you’d like some 2CB?’ People are filling their shopping baskets with stuff they haven’t previously thought about using, which I think is potentially risky but, equally, you might find that people’s drug use patterns are becoming more sensible because they don’t have to go out and buy lots of dodgy pills and coke. Anyway, we’ll find out.”
Having previously tended to focus on recreational substances, the GDS 2015 will have a section dedicated to intravenous drug use.
“We had complaints last year from people saying, ‘What’s wrong with us? Just because we use needles you don’t think we can fill in your survey?’ Fair point, so the injecting community have developed this section, which is about mapping the availability of naloxone around the world, heroin of course and access to clean needles.”
As well as providing users, the medical community and law enforcement with reliable stats and data, the GDS 2015 findings will also be used to develop the world’s first Safer Drug-Using Guidelines.
“We’re getting respondents to vote on, ‘How much drugs is associated with a little bit of risk/medium risk/lots of risk?’ We’re also doing it with alcohol. Last year, Ireland came out as the most delusional country in the world with 46% of drinkers who were basically dependent thinking their drinking was average or less than average. This year, we’re asking, ‘How much do you need to get as drunk as you want to be; what’s the tipping point and how often do you reach it?’ I’m hoping Ireland and Scotland aren’t going to fulfil the stereotypes, but let’s find out.”
Complete the Global Drug Survey 2015 by clicking on to hotpress.com, and discover what politicians and healthcare experts have to say about it in the Hot Press Annual, in shops on Thursday December 11.