STUDENTS AT RISK OF OVERDOSES BY MIXING DRINK AND CANNABIS

ALCOHOL and cannabis are the most popular combination of drugs for
school students, but users are unaware that mixing the two
substantially increases the risk of overdose, experts warn.

Using data drawn from a study of 12,805 high school students aged 12
to 17, researchers found a little more than 3000 had used cannabis,
most of them in the older age range.

Of those, 68 per cent had combined it with alcohol, putting
themselves in danger of overdosing, also known as greening out, said
Paul Dillon, of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre.

"We talk about drugs in isolation but what this clearly shows is that
people do not use one drug in isolation, a very large percentage,
including young drug users, are mixing and the effects are totally
unpredictable," he said.

"Alcohol allows THC - the active ingredient in cannabis - to be
absorbed faster. As a result, you may be having exactly the same
amount of cannabis as you usually do, but it is essentially an overdose."

More and more young people were reporting to be greening out, so
named because people become nauseous, vomit and experience head
spins, he said, adding: "When someone has greened out it can often
put them off cannabis, if not forever, for a long time - it is
extremely unpleasant."

Among adult Australians, almost 90 per cent of cannabis users
reported using alcohol and cannabis on the same occasion. The report
Australian Secondary School Students' Use of Over-the-Counter and
Illicit Substances in 2005 and the 2004 National Drug Strategy
Household Survey found high school students mixed other drugs with
alcohol as well. Of those who used amphetamine, 61 per cent had
combined it with alcohol and 37 per cent with ecstasy, while of those
who took ecstasy, 66 per cent also drank alcohol and 39 per cent
combined it with cannabis.

"People appear to mix drugs under the assumption that this practice
will increase the perceived positive benefits of each drug taken," Mr
Dillon said. "However, the only guarantee with polydrug use is that
you increase the risk of something going wrong."