More people are buying recreational drugs such as ecstasy and cocaine online, partly because it is much cheaper than buying them on the street, where the price of drugs in Australia is more than double the global average. An international survey on drug habits has detected a rapid increase over the past six years in the number of people who buy their drugs online using sites such as Silk Road, whose founder was jailed for life last month. The Global Drug Survey 2015, which was conducted in partnership with global media organisations including Fairfax Media, polled 102,000 people from 50 countries, including 4030 from Australia, about their patterns of drug use. [continues 495 words]
THE mystery of long-term heroin users dying by overdose despite experience with the drug may have been solved by a study linking overdoses with liver disease. Researchers have puzzled for years about why heroin users defy the laws of experience and mortality that apply to others who practise risky activities - the older and wilier you become, the more likely you are to survive. Instead, heroin overdoses are more likely to occur among people who have used the drug in a similar way for many years. [continues 239 words]
