BLEAK FUTURE FOR 'HERE AND NOWS'

Medical authorities have warned about the pyschological damage
associated with the use of illegal drugs by young people in Sydney.

Doctors report an increase in symptoms associated with long-term abuse
of ecstasy, amphetamines and cocaine - so-called polymorphic use - in
the Sydney club scene.

These include depression, memory loss, pyschosis, lethargy,
sleepiness, poor health from a lack of eating and sleeping, and an
inability to relate to family and friends.

A doctor from the Northside Clinic, a private hospital in St Leonards
that looks after drug addicts, said: "We see a lot of young people
who've got problems with poly drug use.Really the psychostimulants, if
they take over, they really distort people's aim in life."

He documented ongoing problems with family, friends and continued drug
use and said the people with drug problems came from "disturbed
backgrounds".

"Both parents work, they're often quite affluent, they can get money
quite easily," he said.

"A lot of the teenagers and young people I see - the poly drug users -
have got really no or very little sense of spiritual identity at
all.Life is about the here and now."

Teenage users in Australia generally started off smoking cannabis,
then moved onto ecstasy and speed. Some move onto opiates, he said. In
their 20s, some continued with opiates and others drank, taking
cocaine, speed and ecstasy for party occasions.

The detoxification process from cocaine and psychostimulant withdrawal
was "very depressing and unpleasant", he said.

While detox units were located in the Royal North Shore Hospital,
Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Rozelle Hospital, and new units had been
established in Fairfield and Newcastle, there was a serious shortage
in rural areas.

"Say you went to Coonabarabran, there would be nowhere.Say you went to
Wagga, there's a place there but it's not as fully staffed as it should be."

A policy adviser for the Minister for Health, MrKnowles, said:"We will
be announcing an expansion of rehab and detoxification services across
the State. Every area health service with an unmet demand for drug
treatment services will receive an enhancement."

British studies have linked ecstasy with forgetfulness, poor
concentration and post-use depression.

The drug has also been linked to possible birth defects in babies if
taken by pregnant women.

The New England Journal of Medicine published a letter documenting the
story of a 29-year-old man who had taken the drug 10 times over two
years and exhibited signs of Parkinson's disease.

But much of the information anecdotal, the research inconclusive and
confined to small samples studies at universities in Europe and the
United States. Research is also hampered by the fact that the drug
clubbers take has varying levels of purity.