ALTERED STATES 'ANCIENT HUMAN HOBBY'

For Shane Warne, it was a couple of Red Bull drinks that gave him a
buzz and the little lift he needed to work some magic with a cricket
bat.

Nobody commented on the dangers of a role model loading up on caffeine
and heading out into the sun -- or the fact that the spin king had
three years ago been suspended from play because of imbibing a banned
substance. Instead, at the Sydney Test match last week, there was a
larrikin tone to the reporting of Warney and his little liquid helpers
in a can.

Why not? This is where we live: land of the quick chemical fix.

The three girls moving along Chapel Street just after daybreak
yesterday morning -- licking their lips and grinding their teeth,
wild-eyed -- had been fuelled by tabs of ecstasy through the night and
were now hoping to score some Valium from a friend so they could come
down easy.

Minutes later, in Coles supermarket, I met two young men looking for
headache pills because the speed and booze had left them dehydrated in
the dog-breath heat.

Stop just about anyone in the street -- save for the Mormons -- and
you'll find they use a little something to help them get by, even if
it's a cup of tea in the morning. And, while Australians are emerging
as world leaders in consuming consciousness-altering substances --
particularly amphetamines such as speed and ecstasy -- the enthusiasm
for chemically enhanced living is "an ancient human hobby".

Says anthropologist and psychiatrist David Mitchell: "Every society,
going back to hunter-gatherer days, uses drugs that affect the mental
state."

The Andean Indians chew coca leaves to stave off hunger and give them
the energy to travel far at high altitudes, Native Americans use
peyote to seek spiritual knowledge, and Aborigines have used
nicotine-like plants for long-distance endurance. Most famously,
Amazonian Indians used the entire rainforest as a pharmacy. For at
least 40 years, international drug companies have been profitably
exploiting that knowledge.

Much of Dr Mitchell's research has been in Indonesia, where the betel
nut is chewed to stave off hunger, keep alert, lubricate social
meetings and, when taken in larger doses, aid sleep.

"It doesn't have terribly deleterious effects on personality. It
doesn't make you all that mad. But it turns your mouth red, increases
saliva flow and makes the face warm -- and, more seriously, rots the
teeth and gives you mouth cancer," says Dr Mitchell.

While just about every social group in the world "has their favourite
drugs of social importance, there are always rules that govern
acceptable use that are always deeply embedded in the culture", he
says, including rules on behaviour when intoxicated.

On illicit drugs, Dr Mitchell says: "A lot of people do know the rules
of using ecstasy sensibly and safely, where, with the ice (crystal
methamphetamine) epidemic, the rules of safe usage haven't yet been
worked out."

Vic Health chief executive Rob Moodie says Australia's pill-popping
culture is being enabled by our relatively high disposable income.

"A lot of people want to change the reality they're living in. That's
always been the case. Now our capacity to pay has never been better

"This is coupled with our huge dependency on the short-term fix. Our
approach to environmental and obesity issues represents this on the
larger scale."

Where the high incidences of depression and anxiety have led to
widespread prescription-drug use (with booze and illicit drugs as
crutches), Dr Moodie says people's lives often would be better
improved by "increasing physical activity or paying more attention to
one's relationships than seeking a pharmaceutical solution

"We also know that bullying, discrimination and domestic violence are
huge generators of anxiety, depression and illness. Changing how we
treat each other is what we need to be working on" -- and sitting down
and working out what we want in life.

Dr Moodie notes: "There are other prosperous societies who aren't
popping as many pills as we are. In amphetamine use, we are among the
global leaders. I'm not quite sure why that is. Are we just good-time
charlies? Or maybe we're just bored."