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Drunk Ladettes alarm - Young women black out in soaring numbers!
Herald Sun, 4th of Sept 2010
In 2009, the Victorian Drug and Alcohol Prevention Council (VDAPC) conducted a Victorian Youth and Alcohol and Drug Survey through interviews with 5001 Victorian 16 to 24 year olds to measure their attitudes to and use of drugs.
The report published by the Victorian Department of Health in May 2010** provides comparative data with similar surveys conducted in 2002 and 2004.
Comparing data from 2002, the 2009 survey showed a reduction in use of cannabis (down from 28.2% in 2002 to 20.5% in 2009), ecstasy (down from 10.5% to 9%) and amphetamines (down from 8.3% to 6.6%). There has been a small increase in cocaine use (up from 3.4% to 4.1% in 2009).
While recent use of alcohol is down slightly from 89.5% in 2002 to 87.3% in 2009, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of youth binge drinking (consuming more than 20 standard drinks in one session) – up from 26% to 42% in 2009.
The average age for a first drink remains at 15 years. The survey showed that teenagers taking up drinking before turning 15 often turned out to be more likely to drink to excess and take illegal drugs later.
The fastest growth in binge drinking was among women in the 18 -21 age bracket increasing from only 18% in 2002 to 37% in 2009.
Almost half of 16 to 17 year old girls admitted being served alcohol in a pub or club in the past year, despite the State Government's crackdown on underage drinking.
The highest frequency of binge drinking was among 18 – 21 year old men with 33% binge drinking at least once a month.
More than one-third (37%) of young people who had recently used alcohol had also tried to cut down their use. By contrast, approximately half of those who had recently used each type of drug had also tried to cut down in the past year.
Slightly less than half (46%) of those who had tried to reduce or stop their alcohol consumption felt they had been 'very successful' in their attempt. By contrast, the majority of young people who reported having tried to cut down their use of cannabis (79%), ecstasy (72%), amphetamines (69%), analgesics (65%) or tranquillisers (77%) felt they had been 'very successful' in doing so.
(reprinted for eductional purposes only)
** The 2009 Victorian Youth Alcohol and Drug Survey - Final Report can be downloaded as an 82 page document from the VDAPC web site at:
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"Why We Keep Dying"
"Just what the hell are you rebelling against?" "I dunno, whaddya got?" - Brando, 'The Wild One'
For the last five years I've been a father, and I increasingly see the world from that vantage point. When Dash Snow died last week, I became so angry I couldn't think straight; I just kept thinking of his 2yo daughter, like Heath Ledger's daughter, and Kurt Cobain's daughter, and "even" Michael Jackson's kids. My gut reaction was that Dash had been a selfish, infantile **** who had left his daughter dadless while the art world jacked off…
When Dash died, my first instinct was the desire to bulldoze his spot. I didn't want him to be lionized for his death - I didn't want to watch him get the same treatment that gave Heath Ledger an Oscar and put Michael Jackson back into the top 40. I'm sick of people selfishly dying and leaving their little girls to grow up fatherless; I'm sick of rewarding this behavior by making these guys into legends.
I wished there was something I could do to make him look horrible - to bulldoze his whole ****** place so that future dads would be so goddamn scared of how they'd look if they pulled that **** - so scared of DESTROYING their legacy, rather than becoming more powerful than any of us could imagine - that they'd be too scared to listen to Lou Reed, let alone shoot up.
But I don't have that kind of power.
So Dash wasn't selfish - he was just ill. Not ill meaning "off the hook" or "crazy cool," but ill meaning sick - diseased, like anyone else who tries Heroin and happens to have the right brain chemistry to get addicted.
The very first time I smoked weed, I found out that my mom and Nancy Reagan were full of ****. The Just Say No campaign was one big pack of McCarthyistic hysterical bull**** lies. I swore I'd never ******* believe anti-drug propaganda (or the government, or my parents) again.
But nonetheless I look around, and damn, drugs are what killed all of my friends. I don't have any real friends that died of terror attacks or car accidents or plane crashes or aids - all my friends that are dead died of drug overdoses. 4 smack, 1 crack, and now Dash Snow.
The problem is this: Trying smack once, if you're the right person, is a death sentence. So why the **** do people ever do it? For the answer to this, you need to look at our culture: As a culture, and I'm talking about so-called hipster culture - YOU: The Cool Kids. Different cultures have different values, and our core value is the aspiration to "be hardcore." That's why:
We hold aloft our core value of "being hardcore" just as plainly as Christianity holds aloft its value of "being holy."
Shooting heroin is the pinnacle of what is hardcore. There's nothing more hardcore in the world - it's so hardcore that the most hardcore of us say not to do it because it's too hardcore. We see it as the forbidden fruit in the boring- *** garden of eden.
And that's the only reason people in our scene **** with it the first time. After that, you're hooked, and there's nothing you can do to stop. Rehab shmeehab, you'll still go back to it - and if you forget THE TRICK the way Dash did, then you can be dead.
99.99% of us don't have the pain of Michael Jackson's burn trauma…so there's no excuse for trying smack even once. ANY pain you have can be quelled by love…
My friends are Dash's friends, and some of them are still on dope. Some of them are gonna die. I was discussing this with one of them yesterday, and here was his response:
"Whatever, Safety Fag." Ok. I know. I get it. Just keep going and do your thing.
I'm a gay faggot: I don't value what's Hardcore. I value love and family and health and art... Laugh it up, punkboy.
WE value being Hardcore, and that's why WE keep dying young, and leaving our toddlers behind. WE rebel against a culture that worships the Jonas Brothers or Will Smith or Amerikkka or Money - but as long as we worship being hardcore, we're going to see smack as the ultimate in hardcore, and WE are going to keep testing it, getting addicted, and dying.
Taken from 'Street Carnage' (all rights reserved reproduced for educational purposed only)