Escaping insanity

I am one of the growing numbers of Australians who struggles to maintain sanity in the midst of a world that’s gone mad.

One way to maintain that sanity is to ingest various substances -licit and illicit - to take the edge off things and help us get through each week.

I smoke pot every day (unless of course I am in a place like the USA or Brunei), and I regularly use other illicit drugs.

Living in Darwin, I have a choice of substances with which I can escape. Imagine living in some remote Indigenous communities.

Some have prohibited alcohol, so that’s not an option and thanks to the NT Police Remote Area Drug Desk, the price of one ‘stick’ (1.2 -1.4g) of cannabis can be up to $100. That’s four times what we pay here in Darwin. The ridiculously high cost of cannabis out bush makes petrol sniffing a whole lot more attractive to young people who see no way out from their current circumstances. This is another negative consequence of Clare Martin’s war on cannabis.

Gary Meyerhoff, NAPNT
Rapid Creek

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org/petrol.html
Pubdate: Thur, 29 September 2005
Source: National Indigenous Times (Australia)
Author: Gary Meyerhoff (letter to the editor)
Contact: http://www.nit.com.au/contactus/
Email: mail@nit.com.au
Copyright: 2005 National Indigenous Times
Website: http://www.nit.com.au/
Url: http://www.nit.com.au/opinion/story.aspx?id=5695