In the video above (take the source link), Australian woman discovers how ecstasy is affecting her brain.(https://images.7news.com.au/publication/C-506787/e1b24129198c0210f93d573a843a44a8a037bcef.jpg?imwidth=650&impolicy=sevennews_v2)
Music festivals were a common place to take party drugs, the survey found.Young Australians who regularly take the party drug ecstasy have "significantly increased" their use of cocaine and ketamine in recent times, an annual survey shows.
The major survey of 797 regular ecstasy and MDMA users from every state capital also found amyl nitrite "poppers" and e-cigarettes were becoming more popular among this group.
The Ecstasy and Related Drugs Reporting System's interviewees, who had an average age of 22 and mostly held post-school qualifications, revealed details about their drug use in 2019.
Program leader Dr Amy Peacock said a key finding was the "significant" rise in cocaine use among this group, with 67 per cent taking it in the past six months.
That is up from 59 per cent the year prior and is the highest percentage since the survey began in 2003.
'Very easy' to findOf those who could comment, 70 per cent said cocaine, which costs more than $300 per gram, was "easy" or "very easy" to obtain.
The EDRS also found ketamine use was also rising among ecstasy takers, with 41 per cent reporting recent use.
"However most people in this sample who had used (cocaine and ketamine) reported infrequent use,” Dr Peacock said.
The use of inhaled amyl nitrite, a prescription relaxant sometimes bought under the counter at sex shops, was also rising, as was e-cigarette smoking.
Forty per cent of the 2019 survey had used e-cigarettes in the past six months, which is the highest level since monitoring began in 2014.
The survey also looked at the hotly-debated topic of ecstasy testing and found 45 per cent of regular users had tested their party drugs, mostly using personal kits.
“These findings reinforce previous research that people who use illicit drugs want information about the content of their substances,” Dr Peacock said.
But she said information that these testing kits provide is limited in terms of showing the range of substances contained.
It was common for interview subjects to have used drugs at music festivals, which Dr Peacock said provided a unique opportunity to offer information on drug use and harm reduction.
"There is an opportunity to increase access to and awareness of these services at festivals,” she said.
The survey was conducted by the University of NSW's National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre.