I guess my question would be how to get through to your teen who is already on the trail of drug useage. There is a story below of a young lady who waited until she was 18 to try smoko, at the request of her parents. This young lady would be one in a hundred. Most young ones these days are exposed to marijuana from year 7 (sometimes earlier) and if they choose to try this drug, chances are that they will go on to try other drugs. Kind of like a spiral effect. No, I am not saying it is "the gateway drug", I'm simply stating a simple fact. We desperately need good, accurate information on what sort of drugs our children are being exposed to. And, yes, it's a fact that professionals in their forties and fifties are taking recreational drugs as pointed out in one of the comments below. How is any adult who is not constantly exposed to these things supposed to keep abreast of what is going on out there? Let me give you an example. Ecstacy or 'E' may contain MDMA (this is the pure 'E') or MDA, it may contain amphetamine, it may be mixed with heroin or it may be a mixture of chemicals that will take the user by surprise.

ALERT : One of the latest drugs going about in the Penrith area of NSW contains two chemicals and is being sold as 'E' - the links to the two chemicals are http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzylpiperazine and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3-Trifluoromethylphenylpiperazine. The first chemical link is the one which kicks in first and then, a couple of hours later, the second chemical link kicks in. Nice (not). How do I know? I don't feel obliged to release that information except to say that it was not personal experience but it WAS personally witnessed.

Unfortunately, I do not see a way where we can monitor what our kids are taking when the sources for obtaining these drugs remain so secretive and unreliable. I do remember seeing a documentary on the ABC late one night on exactly what the government IS NOT doing to keep these drugs out of our society ... perhaps someone else has seen it. There are ways and means of stopping these home cooks but the government will not do anything as it would (somehow, I don't quite remember how it worked) affect the big business boys and corporations in a financially negative way and shareholders would suffer - ergo, nothing practical is done. (How many times has the Fauldings pharmaceutical company in SA been raided and ransacked due to lax security? Too many times to be accidental - criminals simply aren't that clever without help from either a company insider or protection from the authorities.)

However I put those links there to try to emphasise exactly how dangerous these substances are to our youth. This is Gen Y doing all this stuff, buying all this lethal crap, and they are destroying themselves systematically. Gen X are barely any better, whether in a suit and tie or not - the only difference is they generally won't be parents if they are still 'partying'. Look at those links - try to imagine your under-age child experiencing these symptoms. Then, someone, please tell me how we get through to the young ones and get them to understand that they are playing russian roulette everytime someone hands them a disco bikkie.

As a side note, you will find that Wikipedia is a minefield of information which is backed up by references should you care to check the credentials of same.

A good start to an article.  Adding in more drugs and maybe some help lines for those wanting to learn more would be good.

Dionn said this earlier: "you cant get addicted from trying anything once, its not physically let alone mentally possible for your body to become dependent on it from once"

Sorry fella, I have to disagree here. Heroin and crystal meth are two substances that do hook a lot of people the very fist time they try it.

Heroin is very bad for getting people addicted. This is why dealers used to patrol schools and offer $5 trial hit kits. Each kit contained a needle, spoon, a lighter, sterilized medical water and enough heroin for a taste....for a sampler. These kits were well known for creating long term heroin users, that went from the one $5 kit to a few hundred dollars a pop junkies.

Crystal meth has similar addictive properties, but is far far worse than heroin. The big hook for crystal meth is the way it makes a person feel. Not only does it have sedative properties like Heroin, it also make people feel on top of the world and feel like they can do anything.

Both create an addiction very rapidly, with as many as 60% of first time users being totally hooked after the first taste.

Heroin is the "softer" drug in this case, because after overdosing, an addict can be injected with a certain drug that counteracts the effects of heroin for long enough to begin appropriate recovery treatment. There is no known treatment for Meth, and because of the rages that the meth users get into, it makes it nearly impossible to hold them down for treatment. Most people who overdose on Meth die.....as do a large number of users, due to a total disinterest in doing things to look after themselves like eating and drinking.

Dionn, just because you have been lucky, does not mean that a particular drug is safe to use or non addictive. Keep up the drug use and you will get bitten eventually......once you do well I guess you won't be about to argue the point!

I am a former party girl and i took these drugs (mostly smoked but did have a few drinks spiked!) I want to add two other drugs to your list.

1 red mistibushy (sorry about spelling) This drug is a dangerous form of GHB and will kill. There have been many deaths attributed to this "party" drug. It dehydrates the body causing a massive organ shut down and death. death occurs 3 to 12 hrs after consumming and permant brain damage if your lucky enough to recieve medical treatment within the first 2hrs after.

2 crystal meyth. This causes pyschotic episodes and is highly addictive. Addicts are recognised by pox marks on their face and bodies. Excess scarring from scratching. The inability to recognise reality from fantasy when high. Addicts die within 2 to 3 yrs depending on their level of addiction. Some live much longer. Drying out is a long an painful process. There was some youtube footage of a young high on this drug. There was also a show (aired on Austar and Foxtel) about crystal meth. It was very informative.

Raven

good to hear a teenagers point of view but doesn't mean it is right  I wonder how their health will be 20 years down the track I would say not looking to good. Some people just simply do not have the maturity to realise what they are doing to themselves.

Time for me to open up and say a few things here.....

I grew up around drugs. My Mum was a drug addict (although she will never admit it) and I witnessed lots of different emotions and reactions with the different drugs that people use. I watched my Mum's friends come and go, after getting high or stoned....Something that put me off any drugs for life...heck I struggle to take painkillers these days, simply because of my childhood memories of my Mum and her friends.

Marijuana is usually regarded as the "safe" drug. People who use it believe that there are no long term side effects from its consumption....Well I can say without bias or over inflated ideals......the long term effects vary from person to person as do the immediate effects. Here is a short list of the most commonly occurring long term effects (Most often people only suffer from one or two effects and don't realize they have them):

• Short temper
• Reliance on Marijuana to help keep "calm" or to Relax
• Paranoia
• Mild Schizophrenia like episodes
• Inability to hold a decent conversation, due to their minds being seriously slowed
• Looking at life from an unrealistic view point
• Depression
• Anxiety
• No longer able to trust even closest friends and family, for fear of being ripped off

There are more of these common, long term effects but I don't need to list them all.

Yes lots of people suffer similar things as a result of life in general, but the drug users symptoms are more pronounced or to a greater extreme.

Ecstasy or MDMA and a whole host of other representative names is the most common party drug going around. This is made in backyard labs, often to a really bad quality (although recent times overdoses because of a pure product have been happening with amazing regularity lately). These home made drugs are often cut with products like baking soda, icing sugar and even drain cleaner to make the mixture go a little further and make more profit when it is sold. About 6 months ago, a young girl (14) years old, dropped dead at a friends party after taking 1/2 an ecstasy tablet. The tablet turned out to contain drain cleaner, and it killed her within 5 minutes of her swallowing the tablet. This is a very dangerous drug because of the way it works on the human body, both stimulating and sedating at the same time.

Because of the way that MDMA is made, it is highly dangerous. One simple "good time" pill might take you to your grave......depending on what it is cut with, you don't even know if it is cut with something that you are allergic to.....you just wouldn't know.

Speed is a particularly nasty drug, just like MDMA it is often made in backyard labs, and cut with undesirable powders. Speed can be injected, snorted or swallowed. Speed hypes up your body and makes you feel like you have energy to burn. You rarely will feel hungry or thirsty and often will over extend your bodies stored energy reserves and if using for long enough periods can cause irreparable damage. Liver damage is a common problem here.

Most people who use drugs will tell us that there are no side effects to these fun time products...but the physical, attitudinal, emotional and mental differences/changes we see as we watch from the outside as the drug use goes on, prove to us that these drugs are no good. I have watched good friends change into human wastepiles after years on drugs. None of them believe anything has happened to them, yet they have gone from decent upstanding citizens who were proud of their appearance and made good efforts to be decent people and are now broke all the time, poorly dressed and beg me for money often so they can "score" tonight....

I'm sorry if people disagree with me, but Drugs are nothing but trouble. Anyone needing drugs to enjoy life (with the exception of people needing prescription drugs for legit reasons), are not worth the trouble of getting to know. If you have watched friends steadily lose their health and quality of life, because of their drug abuse...you would be against drugs too. Who here has witnessed the horror of an overdose, or the absolute mess that is a withdrawal episode?

I have witnessed many of both....Overdoses are so bad, because the people overdosing don't know they are...they just think they are getting an ultimate rush from the good gear they took. Often choking on their own vomit after passing out and some  have a massive heart attacks or strokes. Marijuana is a drug/plant that you can't really overdose on, but you can have too much, which will either make you feel sick and throw up, or simply pass out and sleep for a while. Either way, it is not something you want to put your body or yourself through.

Withdrawals are worse than overdoses....because of the way the body chemically bonds with the active part of the drugs, your body gets to the point where it will cause you physical and mental pain just to get you to feed the craving. Those suffering from withdrawals often are the peopl who are likely to rob someone or commit a crime to pay for their next fix. Withdrawals are so bad that if the body is not given its fix, it will simply cause more pain and bad feeling until its needs are met. This is why it very difficult for a user or addict to stop taking the drugs....they can't face the pain, and the harshness of the reality of their lives. Instead opting to stay "numb" in an altered state, just to feel "normal".

The horrible thing is...most people who become addicts know the pain they are causing others, are often still very nice people...but when the drug craving gets too much, they are no longer able to function until they have their fix.

The party drugs our kids are exposed to are just the tip of the iceberg......the danger is high, the fallout great and the downward spiral begins.......that is unless the teen can stand up and say no...

We can't totally shield our kids from drugs, as they are everywhere...even in our kids schools. We can try to teach our kids to resist the temptation and hope that they remember what we teach them when they find themselves facing drugs....I only hope that my kids have the strength and confidence to say no......

You people are so biased, i'm an 18 year old male and im gonna set a lot of your stupid facts straight. i have tried weed, ecstasy, ice, mushies, ketamine, and speed and i have never had anything wrong happen  to me. i believe that everyone should try drugs at least once because it opens your mind and if you are speaking about teenagers being ignorant maybe you parents should look at yourselves for a change and actually listen to someone with experience. you cant get addicted from trying anything once, its not physically let alone mentally possible for your body to become dependent on it from once. i have a great group of mates who we take drugs here and there, we went through a stage where we started to get bad and we all noticed it so we stopped now we just do it at events. personally trying drugs opens up your mind to the world and many other things. when you hear about people dying from pills, its not the actual pill that kills them, its because they have not drank enough water or drank to much. your actually more likely to die from choking on a cabbage leaf than from a pill. thats why i believe instead of all you parents telling your kids drugs are bad and trying to stop them from making decisions because really there going to try something eventually whether you like it or not you cant stop them from making choices, therefore you should give them the right information on how to be safe when taking certain drugs. such as every hour on ecstasy it is advised to drink no more than a 500mL bottle of water when not dancing and not to drink more than 600mL when dancing. i am glad that i have taken these drugs and will continue to do so on the rare occasion because they are fun and they aren't bad there just stereotyped to be by ignorant people such as yourselves who havnt tried them yet you say there bad. wouldnt you rather your kid tell you they are starting to get reliant on a certain drug to have a good time because they can feel comfortable about talking about their drug using experiences with you rather than your child getting dependent on you without you having a clue if he or she is even taking drugs. think about parents.

good to hear a  younger persons view  druggieoneone   this is all scary stuff that's for sure.

 um where to start first.

I am an 18 year old college student and let me just tell any parents reading this that a lot of this is not true...

If you are reading this and you don't like what you are reading than i urge you to keep reading cause this is a teenagers view on this drug culture. its not pretty and its not G rated. so suffer through it and grow a pair or dont read this and keep libing in your sheltered little bubble that you call life.

the names are not right or out dated, many of the reasons why people do these drugs are not listed. and the ones that are listed are weak and non specific. 

Many of the side effects are extreme and will not happen if your kid does do these drugs.  

i have done "E" and yes in northern california Ecstasy is called "E"

and as far as mr i'm 21 so i know my stuff down here below me, even you don't know how things work.

Weed can be laced with any drug from melted down asprin, to give you a more relaxing high, to heroine, which is fatal.  Which does not mean that all of it is, it just means that it can be. So you need to be smart about if and not go telling your kid how completely horrible weed is.   

and the long term risks are known, it destroys brain cells

the best way to look at it is for every 10 pills that a person does, a hole about the size of a quarter is killed.

basicly if you are a parent and you read this and try to go talk to your kids thinking that you know your shit.... don't you WILL make a fool of yourself and loose any attention that your kid may be giving you at the time.

And as far as keeping your kids away from drugs... is to be good parents, and i don't mean a parents version of a good parent i mean you need to trust your kid and only not trust them when they do something that goes against you trust...

actually that is a load of bull, there is no way to keep your kid from getiing exposed to drugs. they will and then its at that moment where you have to let go and hope that you "little ray of sunshine" chooses to say no. cause you wont be there the whole time, and when you aren't there its all down to what they want. not what you want.

So my response to this may not be a popular one.

First of all, I'm 21, which is about as close to being a teenager and being an adult that you can be.  It wasn't long ago at all for me since I was a teenager.  I'm also a TA at a local private Montessori school.    I also am a frequent cannabis user.

While I agree that these drugs are NOT things that any teens should be using, as their brains aren't mature enough yet to handle the chemical or make well thought out decisions,  I saw a lot on here regarding the specific drug that I know for a fact to either be absolutely false or not disclosing all the information.  

For example, a bong and a pipe are two different things.   A glass pipe requires no water.  A bong requires water and is usually much bigger and is designed to take the impurities out of the smoke before it's inhaled.  This may seem a petty thing to you, but to your child it only proves how much you DON'T know about the subject. 

When I was a child, I went through the drugs and violence program at school.  I ate up everything they had to say to me.  As I began to mature, however, I discovered a great deal of information that they gave me was exactly what I read above.  Either misleading or lacking full disclosure.   As a teenager, that sort of discovery makes you wonder.  How much else are they lying to us about?    This can encourage a teen to run out and try other harder substances, believing that everything they were told was a lie.  

I encourage many of you to do your own research on unbiased sites regarding drug use, specifically cannibis.  I think you'll find that the specific drug isn't really as harmful as what this article states.  Being bipolar, with a history of mental illness as well as familial problems I can tell you that I have NEVER experienced any sort of psychotic symptoms associated with my marijuana use.   If anything, for the past two years that I've been using cannibis regularly, in conjunction with my mood stabilizer,  I haven't felt so sane in quite sometime.  It does for me, medicinally, what my mood stabilizer does.  Only better.   

Teens are smart.  They lack decision making skills of adults, but they are smart, and they talk.  They will soon find out if the information on these drugs you're giving them is false or if you're mistaken. 

My parents were hippies.  They never did any drugs around me but informed me when I was younger that they had and that it was fun.  Because lets face it.  It is.  I've had my negative experiences with a few, but in large...drugs are fun.  Or people wouldn't take them.  However, they also explained to me that they wouldn't appreciate me trying them until I was at least 18.  And because they were so ridiculously honest with me, I honored their request.   Now, I am a regular pot user.  However, I think without their honesty and supervision, I would have tried it sooner and with more irresponsibility than I did.  

Some people may not agree that drug use is okay at any age, but let's face it.  You only have control of your children until they're 18.  Then they make their own choices.  Give them the information they need to keep those choices from destroying them.  Without my parent's support and honesty I would probably be a no good stoner, but that isn't the case.   I work 35 hours a week with children and I would never do drugs before or during work.   I sing with a choir, and am going to college.  I am a great example of how cannibis use will not destroy your child's life. 

I also encourage you to do a little research as to WHY cannibis was made illegal in the first place.  It was done more for political reasons than for any concern for American citizens.   It is nearly impossible to become PHYSICALLY addicted to the stuff, which is more than I can say for alcohol, though it can be mentally addictive for those who have addictive personalities.   It will not give you liver problems.  I have never found any information on anyone overdosing or dying from cannibis use.  

Truthfully, your kid could be getting into things much worse than cannibis.   And a few of those things that are worse are actually *gasp* legal!   If  your child is doing acid, extacy, pcp, speed, coke or crack, I'd be concerned.   These can have instant and long term consequences that at their age, they would not be able to handle.   The info I saw for extasy on this article was about spot on.  Personally, I would never try the stuff.  It's not regulated or natural so it could be cut with all sorts of nasty things.  Marijuana however, can only really be laced with PCP without the buyer noticing. 

Choose your battles parents.

As a teenager, i have seen and heard of a lot of drugs that are available throughout not only home use but also at parties and other events. It is sad to see that all teenagers are going to be offered some kind of drug in their lives and that the majority of them will say yes and they will take them. i never have agreed with any kind of drugs, because i have seen the affects that it has on people. it takes somones life by the handles and tips it upside down. i think the important question that we have to ask ourselves is, are our parents using the right psychology. Although i have never done drugs and i am not a parent, i have noticed that parents can be overprotective when it comes down to talking to their kids about drugs. As some parents will notice, sometimes you tell you what oppinion you have on things and your chld wil go against what you have said. i think it is important to tell your children what drugs there are out there, what affects they can have on people and not to take them when they are offered to you, but keeping them indoors as much as possible and trying to keep them away from the temptations that are out there will only make them more anxious to experiment and try drugs. also the more you mention drugs the more it becomes interesting, so after you have had a discussion with your children about drugs try not to bring the topic up so much. It is important to know that know matter how much you tell your children about drugs and how they should avoid them, it is your child descision wheather or not to take them or not, not the parents. The best thing parents can do is prepare their children, becuase when it comes time, it is the childs choice. it depends on how much inner strength your child has to say NO!

I've heard many people of all ages comment that marajuana isn't bad for you, or at least it's not as bad as tobacco, and isn't addictive. Bolloks!  I'll write more on that later.  I haven't time to go into it now.

Damned great writing Ang - I love to know your secret! . . . . . . .

Great article...........

Thankfully my communication lines are open with my teenager, and she has told me of what a lot of teenagers get upto on the weekends  and not all of it is drug related.

I can't even get my girl to take a panadol for pain relief let alone her taking any other drug, so I'm grateful I  have nothing to worry about........yet  

I didn't comment on this article angie SORRY mwah

 Lexi xxx

P.S great article