TIME FOR A REALITY CHECK

"SARAH" sometimes likes to do a line of cocaine with friends after a
nice glass of red wine. Occasionally the 28-year-old Brisbane-based
university lecturer will drop some ecstasy.

She has tried ice, but says she didn't like it. She has dabbled in
heroin, and now and again she'll smoke some weed. She doesn't view
her occasional drug use as a problem - she says she doesn't see it as
anybody's business but her own - and she has absolutely no intention
of stopping.

"It's just something I do. It is part of my life, but it's not a big
deal," says the attractive, dark-haired woman.

"I sometimes like to take a pill or do some speed if I am going to go out.

"To be honest, as I've got older, alcohol makes me kind of tired.

"I'd rather do a line of speed instead. A lot of my friends feel the
same way as I do. One girl is a scientist, there's an architect,
graphic designer, teachers and," she laughs, "journalists, for sure."

Sarah is a successful academic, who by most people's standards seems
to have her life in good order.

She doesn't suffer from depression and she isn't bipolar. She says
she doesn't have a mental illness or emotional problems. She doesn't
fit into the stereotype of a drug user but the confronting fact is,
experts say, that most drug users in Queensland and the rest of
Australia don't.

"Andrew" is in his 40s but his hobby of bodybuilding makes him look
much younger. Yet the Brisbane primary school teacher occasionally
uses speed and ecstasy. "It knocks you around sometimes but I feel
far worse after a big weekend on bourbon and Coke, the normal kind of
Coke. Alcohol affects my training far more," he says.

"I'd lose my job if they (his school) found out and the truth is I
have missed a few Monday mornings. But how many of us can say we
haven't called in sick after a big night out?"

There are very few studies into "white collar" drug use in Australia.
Researchers say it is difficult to gather information in surveys
because there is no value in responding to it for the professional
who doesn't feel he or she has a problem. But most experts agree
there are many "recreational" drug users in Australia who manage
their habit, do not develop any serious health problems and continue
to be useful members of society.

The confession by rugby league star Andrew Johns that he regularly
used "party drugs" throughout his 12-year NRL career shocked people
who struggled to understand how a professional athlete could be a
"druggie" and still function at the highest physical level. Johns,
regarded by many as a great player, admitted to more than a decade of
recreational drug use after London police caught him with an ecstasy tablet.

The recent controversy in Melbourne with Channel 7 seeking to report
on the stolen medical records of two AFL players would seem to
confirm that "party drug" use among athletes is widespread.

Last week a defensive Brisbane Broncos NRL coach Wayne Bennett said
sports people were unfairly held to standards not expected of the
rest of the community.

"If you are a doctor or solicitor or politician or whatever, no one
else gets paraded like our people do," he told The Sunday Mail.

"That's a real downside to me personally. The problem is society's
problem, it's not our problem. We are doing something about it. That
makes us absolutely stand out."

Bennett's comments may have been dismissed as a typical closing of
NRL ranks. But does the normally tightlipped coach have a valid point?

Many social scientists and drug counsellors believe the time has come
to present to the public a more realistic view of drug use.

Geoff Manu is manager of the Queensland Injectors Health Network
(QuIHN), a government-funded facility to provide information and
services on illicit drug use within a harm-reduction philosophy.

"The majority of people we see here do not fit the stereotypical view
of a drug user. We don't ask people about their backgrounds because
that is not what we are about here," he says.

"But we see people pull up in good cars and be neatly dressed.
Well-spoken, intelligent people who obviously have jobs and lives
beyond their drug use.

"Substance abuse can create havoc, but it is different for every
person. Everyone who picks up a drink doesn't become an alcoholic,
and to a certain extent drug use is the same."

QuIHN is working on an advertising campaign which will feature a
poster with pictures of 100 people and the tagline: "Pick the Drug User."

"Sometimes I can't even tell if someone is a drug user or not," Manu says.

"The stereotype of a user is someone whose life is out of control but
the truth is they are probably in the minority.

"We don't condone or condemn drug use but there are recreational
users. People will make their own choices and we need to be
presenting a more balanced view so at least it can be an informed one."

NE police officer who worked in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley
entertainment precinct said drug use was much more widespread than
many people realised.

"With some of the clubs there might be a queue of 100 people and 99
of them will be on something," he said.

"People with good jobs, law students from good families, all types of people.

"If he's from Woodridge he might be smoking ice, if he's a
middle-class student from Paddington he's probably on ecstasy. But
they're all on something."

The police officer admitted that some drug users, particularly those
on marijuana or ecstasy, were often less trouble than alcohol or
amphetamine abusers.

"But as far as we are concerned, we'll be policing them in 10 years'
time when they develop depression and bipolar disorders," he said.

The State Government's Queensland Drug Strategy 2006-2010 contains
some uncomfortable facts for those who argue drug use is inherently
"wrong" while alcohol and tobacco use are acceptable.

"Despite the widely held perception that drug-related problems are
mainly caused by the use of illicit drugs, tobacco and alcohol are
responsible for the most harm associated with drugs in our
community," reads the report.

In Queensland, it is estimated that tobacco smoking and alcohol
consumption account for 93 per cent of all drug-related deaths and illnesses.

Each year an estimated 812 deaths and 20,900 hospital admissions are
due to alcohol misuse, while an estimated 90 deaths and 4100 hospital
admissions in Queensland are due to illicit drug use.

Of course there are more alcohol users than illicit drug users but,
statistically at least, alcohol is still more dangerous than other drugs.

Government figures show about 80 per cent of Queenslanders drink
alcohol, while at least 12 per cent use drugs of some description.

That means about seven times more people drink than take drugs, but
about nine times as many deaths are attributed to alcohol than to
illicit drug use.

It is this apparent hypocrisy in our attitude to drugs and alcohol
which is often seized upon by young drug users.

"James" is a 22-year-old final-year science student who intends to
study for his medical degree following a gap year overseas.

He is strikingly articulate and comes from a wealthy and close-knit
Queensland family.

During his years as a student at the University of Queensland, he
says, he smoked marijuana almost every day, often took ecstasy, tried
cocaine and smoked ice on two occasions.

"Ice is maybe a bit different. I could tell that could be really
addictive but the only one that I ever felt was getting a bit out of
control was the weed," he says.

"That was affecting my personal relationships but I smoked for years
and I never had any problems with my grades.

"I would wait until after dinner before I started smoking and try to
get all my work done during the day."

The young man says a shocking amount of his peers shared his attitude to drugs.

"I would say that a third to a half of the people I studied with took
drugs. Nobody sees it as a big deal," he said.

"It is the same as drinking. Alcohol is probably worse than most of
the stuff I have tried. Nobody wants to be around a sloppy drunk."

James says ecstasy tablets are getting cheaper, from about $40 a pill
two years ago, to about $25 to $30 now.

"Cocaine is expensive, around $300 a gram and you could easily go
through half a gram in a night. That's a big night . . . a treat," he says.

Marijuana, or weed, is bought in "sticks", which are a 16th of an
ounce, for $25 and a heavy smoker might use two sticks in a night.

"I never bought ice . . . I don't really know how much that is," says
James, who adds that drugs are normally bought from friends or acquaintances.

The young man admits his marijuana smoking did start to worry him
this year and says he stopped using the drug about two months ago.

But he is critical of campaigns to stop young people using drugs and
says most of his peers regard government advertising with derision.

"They tell you that if you take ecstasy there is a danger that you
are going to overheat in a club and die. But you look around you and
you see people taking it every week and they are not dying," he says.

"They try to scare you into not trying stuff but you just end up not
believing any of the things they tell you."

Paul Dillon, of Drug and Alcohol Research Training Australia, says a
Federal Government television campaign last year, which targeted
marijuana, amphetamines and ecstasy, had mixed results.

"The ads for marijuana and amphetamines had a relatively moderate
message. They warned that the drugs can affect different people in
different ways," he said.

"There was some really positive feedback for them, but the ads for
ecstasy showed a young girl collapsing in a club and dying and there
was some really negative feedback from that."

Dillon accepts that the Government must walk a tightrope between
deterrence and credible information in its education programs.

But he warns that many of the conventional scare tactics in the war
against drugs are being rejected by young people.

"If the Government continues to project a message that is not seen as
credible that could do more harm than good," he says.

"There are some really serious potential consequences of drug use and
we need to get that message out in a way that is going to be accepted."

Dr James Rowe is a lecturer at the School of Global Studies, Social
Science and Planning, at RMIT University Melbourne.

He gained his doctorate while he was a heroin user (something he says
he has now ceased) and has sharply criticised government drug
campaigns in the past.

"You see these exaggerated representations based on a few individual
cases and what it does is rob them of their credibility," he says.

"There are many people for whom drug use becomes a problem and I was
one of them. But there are many for whom drug use doesn't become a
lifelong habit or addiction.

"I would never encourage anyone to use an illicit drug because there
is that risk that there is a price that you will have to pay, but we
need to present a more balanced view."

The Howard Government has recently launched its Tough on Drugs
campaign and a booklet titled Talking With Your Kids About Drugs was
distributed to thousands of Queensland homes this week.

The publication, with an accompanying television advertising
campaign, has received some tentative support from academics.

Rowe has praised the scheme for its focus on honest communication
between parents and their children.

"There is a line on Page 5 of that booklet that says when parents
talk to their children they should not exaggerate or make false
claims because if they do their children will not accept their
advice," he says. "That is a lesson the Government would do well to
listen to itself."

There is no doubt drug use can lead to serious physical and mental
health problems. AMA Queensland president Dr Ross Cartmill warned
drug users that they may be harming their health despite feeling they
are in control of their drug use.

"All of the evidence shows that people steadily increase dosage to
get the same effect. People may think they are managing their usage
but it is the insidious nature of drugs that is their most dangerous
aspect," Cartmill said.

"The first problems that people experience will be in their brain -
mood swings, depression - we don't even fully understand all of them yet.

"The second organ that will be affected is the liver. The liver has
to process all the toxins and the stress on the liver will depend on
how many toxins it has to process.

"There is also the fact that we don't know what a lot of these drugs
will do over time because they haven't been around long enough. It
seems likely that people are storing up problems for themselves that
we don't yet know about."

But "Sarah" says these are risks she is willing to take.

"I know some people crack up on drugs, but to be honest I think those
cracks were there already," she says.

"We've all heard horror stories. We've seen the headlines about evil
drugs and, as far as most of us are concerned, it's just a lopsided
representation that hardly anyone believes."