Policy on drugs endangers youth

By Vivienne Moxham-Hall. First published in The Sydney Morning Herald.

21 May 2012

Drugs have become so normalised in today's youth culture the penalties just don't matter as much, writes Vivienne Moxham-Hall.

When you get to high school, you are taught that drugs are ''bad''. The teachers show you pictures and tell you the horror stories about drugs, but at that age, you can never really believe that something which looks like a sugar pill can wreak all that damage and the stories never really quench any curiosity.

The kids at my high school, and others, started experimenting with drugs about the age of 16, when most of us were in year 9. It was mainly cannabis that they would smoke after school and it was usually the ''cool'' kids.

But in years 10 and up, the appeal of drugs widened. Whole groups of friends were made around the rave culture and moved towards harder drug experimentation.

Raving is where large groups of young adults of varying ages would dance to electronic beats while ''pinging''. The locations of these raves were often released the same day they occurred to avoid detection.

These kids would practice their rave moves in their lunch break and were very open about what they did if you asked. Other groups would experiment at parties or within their group of friends.

High school is very much a time of social experimentation and drugs seemed to become an integral component of the high school experience for some people. The criminalisation of drugs means experimentation can be harder and riskier. Often kids won't know what they are taking or can take very dangerous risks in mixing their drugs. If something goes wrong, the fear of their parents, of the police and what they might do, often stops them from calling an ambulance. It was understood that you didn't call an ambulance if something went wrong.

I personally have never taken any drugs besides alcohol for my own reasons. People often don't believe me, and whenever I decline an offer of drugs it can be met with incredulity.

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Policy on drugs endangers youth