Fresh orange juice squeezes its way up the straw and into my nostril. Well, sort of my nostril…
Eyes widen, jaws drop as my best friend and I pass through the markets and clamber onto the city free bus.
Dripping with sweat, I’m a smelly mess under the rubber suit but I’m also deliriously happy.
My thick, lush hair and large, rotten teeth are attracting much curiosity …
Gorillas in our midst!!
In September 2006, the first Australasian Amphetamine Conference was held in Sydney. It focused on the increasing use of crystal methamphetamine hydrochloride, commonly known as ‘ice’.
Ice is a powerful, synthetic, stimulant drug that speeds up the messages to and from the brain. It’s cheap and very addictive—an estimated 12,000 young people in Sydney alone are dependent on it—and its potential for harm is such that NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney, speaking at the conference, named it ahead of terrorism and race issues as the number one challenge facing NSW police. It could claim a generation, he added.
Since the conference, there has been a media explosion about ice and how bad it is. So much so that it’s now consuming my every thought.
Why, would someone so young, someone like me, with their whole life to look forward to, take drugs?
Admittedly, I’m high as I’m writing this.
At 9am this morning a loud, thumping at my bedroom door demanded me out of bed. As the door eased open, a giant gorilla leaped toward me. As I’m rolling on the floor in hysterics, a gorilla suit is placed in front of me. My gorilla friend reveals their identity, smiles and says, “Happy Birthday! Guess what we’re doing today?!?”
Oh, I’m high alright. High on life.
As I paraded around the city, with my identity hidden within my hairy suit, I realised how nice it is to escape the pressures of everyday life—to escape being myself, at least momentarily. No wonder young people take drugs.
We’re feeling the pressure; the pressure to live up to societies ideals. Drug rehabilitation Manager Mark Ferry from the Ted Noffs Foundation said that “young men like it (ice) because it makes them big and brave and tough and invincible—with the girls there can be a link with weight loss.”
We’ve had theses ideas pounded into us since we were children, just watch a Walt Disney Film. The men are tough and heroic, the women generally submissive and always THIN. Either we’re trying to achieve society’s ideals through using ice or we’re trying to escape all this damn pressure.
The sad irony is that the side effects of chronic use and overdose of ice are erectile dysfunction, tooth decay, sensation of flesh crawling with bugs often leading to compulsive picking and infected sores… Not attractive. Add to this, psychological addition, withdrawal-related depression, paranoia, delusions, hallucinations…
But we’re young and we’re invincible, right? “I’ll just try it once…” begins the slippery slope to addiction.
The authorities it seems have had their wake up call and now it’s time for action. They need to put a face to the facts. Stop us feeling invincible by showing us the reality of ice.
Today is my 20th birthday. Initially, this freaked me out. I’m feeling the pressure to fulfil society’s ideals and I’m still clueless about who I am or what I want to do with this little ole life of mine. I want to escape these pressures but I also want to be around for my 40th birthday, my 80th birthday…. High on life and perhaps even sharing a little monkey love.
How do I know this?
Drug Info Clearinghouse, www.druginfo.adf.org.au
Four Corners 2006, The Ice Age (web special),
http://abc.net.au/4corners/special_eds/20060320/
Guest, A 2006, ‘'Ice' could claim a generation, warns Moroney’, PM, 26 September,
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2006/s1748335.htm
Kearney, S 2006, ‘Ice becoming teen party drug’, The Australian, 27 September,
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20482023-421,...
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