ST OSWALD: 'PATRON SAINT' OF ADDICTS

A researcher at the Australian National University has uncovered an
organised group of more than 40 illegal drug enthusiasts in Canberra The
Oswaldians who actively defend "recreational" heroin use.

Taking their name from a fictitious "patron saint" of drugs St Oswald they
volunteered for a major research project to prove they were "different"
from the average drug user.

They told PhD researcher Phyll Dance they were delighted to be involved.
One member said, "All anyone has done so far is research addicts and we're
not addicts."

After 10 years' study of The Oswaldians, however, Dr Dance found that they
were just as susceptible to addiction as the rest of the drug-taking community.

Indeed, a similar proportion are now heroin addicts.

The revelations are from the most penetrating study of the Canberra drug.

It was assisted by ACT Health Minister Michael Moore in his role as MLA
with a special interest in the illegal drug issue.

Mr Moore arranged for the project to be covered by the ACT Epidemiological
Studies Confidentially Act.

The research began in 1989. Through the next decade the group celebrated
its devotion to a wide range of illegal drugs.

Members are still in Canberra and many remain devoted to their "patron saint".

They created "hymns" to St Oswald. These included a parody of the Sunday
school favourite, All Things Bright And Beautiful: All drinks alcoholic,

All pills both great and small

All illegal substances,

St Oswald took them all.

They also parodied the Australian national anthem in a song traditionally
sung at the height of the group's annual celebrations in a Canberra hall
hired for a bacchanal.

Oswaldians let us rejoice

For we are off our face,

With golden oil,

And lots of foils,

Our brains are out of place.

Our kid-enys and lung-eys too

Are really rather sick,

We'll scoff some pills

Feel rather ill,

Then try to buy a stick.

In Oswald's name let us indulge

We'll do it for The Kick!

According to Dr Dance and her then ANU supervisor, Stephen Mugford, St
Oswald was invented by three friends, then in their late teens, in 1982.
One of them explained, "We decided to invent a patron saint of parties,
brain distension and distortion. Oswald was after Lee Harvey Oswald."

Another said, "We have it in November because of Embers-Nova, the
celebration of the end of winter and the begining of spring."

Dr Dance and Mr Mugford reported, "There is a party the evening before the
designated day where, we are informed, a lot of 'speed' is used.

"At 12pm there is often a 'midnight mass'. St Oswald's day starts with a
dawn service in a secluded part of the Canberra bush. Twenty to 40 group
members congregate, many dressed 'traditionally' for St Oswald's Day in
loud and garish clothes, the less extrovert in everyday casual clothes.

"A 'hymn sheet' has been prepared, photocopied and distributed and one of
the organisers leads the ceremonies . . .

"During the months until the next St Oswald's Day, Oswald is not forgotten.
Toasts are drunk to him and there are frequent other references to him at
the parties and other gatherings that occur throughout the year.

"Although the most enthusiastic 'worshippers' are those closest to the
inventors, illicit drug users well outside the confines of the group, even
those in other cities, are aware of his existence."

One female member of the group said, "We all know everything about each
other, do things together and we all sleep together and we all sleep with
each other.

"We have to get away sometimes, but we all come back."

As drug use increased among the group, however, the formal "celebrations"
took a different form. By 1998 the public hall had been abandoned in favour
of private homes.

Dr Dance's just published thesis, Scene Changes, Experienced Changes a
Longitudinal and Comparative Study of Canberrans who use Illegal Drugs
records her 10-year research into a comparison of the group with a similar
number of drug users from the rest of the community.

She interviewed Oswaldians and the general drug community on two separate
occasions 1989 and 1994. There were 139 participants in the first sample
and 97 in the second. She has continued to observe them.

She says, "I hypothesised that not only was the invention of 'St Oswald'
unique to the group, The Oswaldians would be different from other illegal
drug users I studied in variables such as their education, their extensive
polydrug use, their strong friendship links and their marginal involvement
with serious crime.

"I hypothesised that The Oswaldians who used heroin would be able to
maintain their use at a non-dependent level.

"As the research progressed [however] I learnt of several respondents whose
heroin use was increasing and of several who had entered into treatment.
These changes affected both Oswaldians and non-Oswaldians."

In her conclusions she says, "I found very little evidence to support my
hypothesis that The Oswaldians were different from other users of illegal
drugs.

"Findings from both Oswaldians and non-Oswaldians lead me to question
previously held wisdom about the ratios of dependent and non-dependent
heroin users.

"I suggest that in contemporary Australia, long-term non-dependent heroin
use may be possible for only a minority."