By Jen Crothers On October 24, 15-year-old Anna Wood died. She had an allergic reaction to something, probably heroin, cut into the ecstasy she'd taken days before. NSW premier Bob Carr and the media have launched a hypocritical hype festival over this sad event. Accusations have been flying -- at the wrong people. Someone had to be blamed. By now, everyone from dance party promoters, the Phoenician Club licensees, and music newspapers have been implicated. Yet, despite evidence of the close working relationship between the police and drug dealers now emerging from the NSW Royal Commission Against Police Corruption, no fingers have been pointed in that direction. The establishment media responded to Wood's death in its typically sensationalist way. The
Telegraph Mirror was the worst offender; it even ran with the headline, "Gay community led the way". For instance the statement, "the secret language of drug imagery, indecipherable to parents, is being used to lure teenagers to dance parties" is nothing more than an attempt to persuade society that young people cannot take responsibility for their own actions. Is the unfortunate drug-related death of a young woman in Sydney more important than the deaths from drug overdoses of numerous street kids? And what is Carr doing about the latter? While the media barons profit from their own whipped-up hysteria and hypocritical politicians use the opportunity to look as though they are doing something about the illegal drug trade, the drug bosses and corrupt police continue to make money, and young people continue to do "bad" things like experiment with drugs. Clearly legislation doesn't stop people taking drugs, no matter how old they are. What anti-drug laws do do is create a black market. This is the most dangerous part of doing drugs, because you can never be sure as to what you're buying. Illegal drugs are probably the only consumables these days without some listing of what's in them. For example, there is a glut of heroin on the market in Sydney at the moment, and so heroin is being cut into everything. Dealers will cut anything with their deals, including talcum powder and Ratsak, to make bigger profits. Young people need to be trusted to make informed decisions about our lives. The facts are that young people will take drugs, but only a small minority will try "hard" drugs. Experimentation and risk taking are normal. We find ourselves alienated in a racist and sexist society, where the hope of getting a job is often just that -- a hope. Young people will take hard drugs for the same reasons we binge drink -- 40% of teenagers do this every weekend -- to escape, to feel different, to give us confidence. A "just say no" policy push is merely a simplistic slogan that avoids reality. The promotion of abstinence in the absence of a comprehensive education campaign and real life choices for young people is pointless and irresponsible.
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