Hello GYC members, I am a long time member, but I usually peruse the forums more than post in them. But there is one thing that has been on my mind and I wanted to rack all of your brains to, and that is substance abuse among teenagers.
I have noticed a trend in my city (Perth, Western Australia, AKA Dullsville)of gay youths abusing multiple substances, be it alcohol or stronger. Now I will give you a bit of background on me and my world, so you can see where I am coming from and the people that surround me.
My name is Sam, I am 18 and I am a DJ. A popular pastime in this state for under-age people is attending "All Ages Raves" essentially a group of kids in a warehouse with some of the states finest DJ's (and quite often major international DJ's as well. These events are quite major, but still underground). There is security and bouncers, and cops have been known to put officers in undercover, pretending to be part of the crowd. As you can imagine this is a well known haven for drug taking, even though they are advertised as drug and alcohol free events.
I came into the scene in late 2007- 2008. My first rave was the first time I tried extacy. I was a rather unhappy teenager, and up until that first pill I had NEVER experienced emotions of love that strong, I had never felt so amazing. Most ravers used extacy, some used LSD and a minority (mainly the over 18's) used speed pressed into a pill form.
Now, if you have never been to an event like that before, you may think that sounds horrible/stupid/dangerous. Quite the contrary, every one new each other, was able to talk to a person they didn't know without fear of being shunned. Most attendees were social misfits, but here they fit in.
That said, it wasn't an uncommon occurrence to see kids between the ages of 13-15 (including myself) lying to there parents to go to these events, and dosing up on these chemicals, due to the ease of access.
The bigger problem though, was that these kids were not confining there drug use to just this one night a month. It became a weekly, for some a daily occurrence. For kids this young, with brains that aren't fully developed yet, this is seriously a worrying situation.
Then late 2009 beginning of 2010 extacy went away. All the pills going around were fake. At this point in time extremely high quality Ice (Meth-amphetamine/Crystal Meth) started coming into the state. When you first start using Ice, it feels very very similar to extacy. So people started to turn to ice. And the scumbags that were selling it were selling to people as young as 14 years old.
Ice is that main chemical that was abused, however it is just as easy to attain Pot, LSD or even Heroin.
Now there are a lot of scare tactics employed by governments about Ice, let me dispel some rumours, 1. Meth will not make you go crazy and start attacking everyone. To be honest you are more likely to feel feelings of love towards them and want to sit down and listen to their life story. 2. Meth isn't addictive in the way it is described. Meth is addictive in its moorish-ness. You know when you're like, "I will just have one piece of candy" and then you eat the whole box? Well that's what this is like. But a hell-of-a-lot more expensive. And when you start coming off it, the cravings are horrible. You don't start scratching yourself or anything like that, but you will do what you have to do to get more.
More and more people were turning to this horrible drug, myself included. I am a recovering amphetamines addict. Now I don't throw that word around lightly, I had a $350 dollar a day habit, over a period of 7 months. That is approximately 0.75g of 80% pure, (that is EXTREMELY potent) meth-amphetamine per day. I would often go days/weeks without sleep. I fucked up friendships, because I became a synical, grumpy person who no one (apart from other meth-heads) wanted to hang out with. My relationship with my parents deteriorated. I stole money from friends/family. I was only 16/17 years old at this time.
I wish I could say that I was the only person stupid enough to do this, but I wasn't. All around me my friends were becoming the same fiend that I was. Become a vain, pompous, shell of a person.
Obviously we couldn't support our habits with our menial jobs,(I worked in fast food at the beginning, then got a lucrative job within the government that did, in fact, pay very well, but I am an exception, not the rule), so a lot of us turned to selling the product.
Now the reason I bring this up is that most of the people that went down this path are homosexuals. Now, that isn't because I hang around alot of homosexuals, (to be honest with the genre of music I have dedicated the last few years of my life to bringing to people, I usually hang out with hetro's in their mid-20's), but an observation I have made through my many conversations with people at these events, on facebook and through personal contact.
And I think I know why. Being a teenager is hard, but being a gay teenager is sometimes a hell of a lot harder. Typically, gay teenagers are rife with questions about who they are, will they be accepted by their peers, ect. Alot of the time being different can leed to a low self worth, depression, and just generally not being happy about you as a person.
These drugs, all of them, exctacy, ice, cocaine (especially cocaine), and to a lesser extent LSD, pot and alcohol, make you feel better about yourself, make you feel like the person you desperately want to be. That is why I started abusing drugs, I can tell you that. Personally I am now 3 months sober (from meth), still DJing (much better now that I am not high all the time
) and working a great job (I am a high school drop-out earning 37k at 18).
A lot of my peers weren't so lucky. A vast number of them still use everyday, living each day in extreme unhappiness. A couple went to rehab. One is currently in jail for possession with intent to sell amphetamines.
My question to you community members is: is it like this anywhere else in the world? Do you think homosexual youths are more likely to abuse drugs?
Please feel free to ask any questions/relay any comments about my above story. I know it was a bit long-winded, but I just hope that someone reads through it, and may be able to help someone going down the same path.
I have noticed a trend in my city (Perth, Western Australia, AKA Dullsville)of gay youths abusing multiple substances, be it alcohol or stronger. Now I will give you a bit of background on me and my world, so you can see where I am coming from and the people that surround me.
My name is Sam, I am 18 and I am a DJ. A popular pastime in this state for under-age people is attending "All Ages Raves" essentially a group of kids in a warehouse with some of the states finest DJ's (and quite often major international DJ's as well. These events are quite major, but still underground). There is security and bouncers, and cops have been known to put officers in undercover, pretending to be part of the crowd. As you can imagine this is a well known haven for drug taking, even though they are advertised as drug and alcohol free events.
I came into the scene in late 2007- 2008. My first rave was the first time I tried extacy. I was a rather unhappy teenager, and up until that first pill I had NEVER experienced emotions of love that strong, I had never felt so amazing. Most ravers used extacy, some used LSD and a minority (mainly the over 18's) used speed pressed into a pill form.
Now, if you have never been to an event like that before, you may think that sounds horrible/stupid/dangerous. Quite the contrary, every one new each other, was able to talk to a person they didn't know without fear of being shunned. Most attendees were social misfits, but here they fit in.
That said, it wasn't an uncommon occurrence to see kids between the ages of 13-15 (including myself) lying to there parents to go to these events, and dosing up on these chemicals, due to the ease of access.
The bigger problem though, was that these kids were not confining there drug use to just this one night a month. It became a weekly, for some a daily occurrence. For kids this young, with brains that aren't fully developed yet, this is seriously a worrying situation.
Then late 2009 beginning of 2010 extacy went away. All the pills going around were fake. At this point in time extremely high quality Ice (Meth-amphetamine/Crystal Meth) started coming into the state. When you first start using Ice, it feels very very similar to extacy. So people started to turn to ice. And the scumbags that were selling it were selling to people as young as 14 years old.
Ice is that main chemical that was abused, however it is just as easy to attain Pot, LSD or even Heroin.
Now there are a lot of scare tactics employed by governments about Ice, let me dispel some rumours, 1. Meth will not make you go crazy and start attacking everyone. To be honest you are more likely to feel feelings of love towards them and want to sit down and listen to their life story. 2. Meth isn't addictive in the way it is described. Meth is addictive in its moorish-ness. You know when you're like, "I will just have one piece of candy" and then you eat the whole box? Well that's what this is like. But a hell-of-a-lot more expensive. And when you start coming off it, the cravings are horrible. You don't start scratching yourself or anything like that, but you will do what you have to do to get more.
More and more people were turning to this horrible drug, myself included. I am a recovering amphetamines addict. Now I don't throw that word around lightly, I had a $350 dollar a day habit, over a period of 7 months. That is approximately 0.75g of 80% pure, (that is EXTREMELY potent) meth-amphetamine per day. I would often go days/weeks without sleep. I fucked up friendships, because I became a synical, grumpy person who no one (apart from other meth-heads) wanted to hang out with. My relationship with my parents deteriorated. I stole money from friends/family. I was only 16/17 years old at this time.
I wish I could say that I was the only person stupid enough to do this, but I wasn't. All around me my friends were becoming the same fiend that I was. Become a vain, pompous, shell of a person.
Obviously we couldn't support our habits with our menial jobs,(I worked in fast food at the beginning, then got a lucrative job within the government that did, in fact, pay very well, but I am an exception, not the rule), so a lot of us turned to selling the product.
Now the reason I bring this up is that most of the people that went down this path are homosexuals. Now, that isn't because I hang around alot of homosexuals, (to be honest with the genre of music I have dedicated the last few years of my life to bringing to people, I usually hang out with hetro's in their mid-20's), but an observation I have made through my many conversations with people at these events, on facebook and through personal contact.
And I think I know why. Being a teenager is hard, but being a gay teenager is sometimes a hell of a lot harder. Typically, gay teenagers are rife with questions about who they are, will they be accepted by their peers, ect. Alot of the time being different can leed to a low self worth, depression, and just generally not being happy about you as a person.
These drugs, all of them, exctacy, ice, cocaine (especially cocaine), and to a lesser extent LSD, pot and alcohol, make you feel better about yourself, make you feel like the person you desperately want to be. That is why I started abusing drugs, I can tell you that. Personally I am now 3 months sober (from meth), still DJing (much better now that I am not high all the time
) and working a great job (I am a high school drop-out earning 37k at 18).A lot of my peers weren't so lucky. A vast number of them still use everyday, living each day in extreme unhappiness. A couple went to rehab. One is currently in jail for possession with intent to sell amphetamines.
My question to you community members is: is it like this anywhere else in the world? Do you think homosexual youths are more likely to abuse drugs?
Please feel free to ask any questions/relay any comments about my above story. I know it was a bit long-winded, but I just hope that someone reads through it, and may be able to help someone going down the same path.
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