OUTSIDE FRONT COVER 2015 81 WINTER What ice issue? www.usersnews.com.au UsersNews-no81-cover2.4.indd 1 12/06/2015 8:54 pm NO MATTER HOW YOU CHOOSE TO USE, USE YOUR OWN EQUIPMENT. EVERY PUFF, EVERY SHOT. It’s the only way to be sure that you don’t end up lIvIng wIth hepatItIs b, hepatItIs C or hIv UsersNews-no81-cover2.4.indd 2 5/06/2015 5:49 pm User’s News 2015 81 READ UN ONLINE! MOBILE & DEVICE FRIENDLY! WINTER WWW.USERSNEWS.COM.AU FROM THE UN EDITOR: What ice issue? .................................................................................................. 2 GUEST EDITORIAL BY BOBBY DRAKE: A time for reflection..................................................................... 3 NEWS DOSE: Meth pipes at Seattle NSP; E” placebos in play shop; A drug arrest every 5 minutes, A seizure every 6 minutes; Hepatitis C fix could yield huge economic benefit; HIV meds from your local pharmacy ................. 4 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Ice sensationalism; Bupe for phantom pain; Suboxone and surgery ..................... 8 METH-ODOLOGY: Things We Know About Meth (Ice); Early findings from a NUAA / Positive Life meth use survey ............................................................................. 10 QUOTABLE QUOTES: Bouquets & Buckets .............................................................................................. 12 ICE CUBES: Cool stories from the freezer ................................................................................................... 14 ICE CUBES: Isadore’s Winter Tale ............................................................................................................. 18 ICE CUBES: Positive Partying Gay men living with HIV talk about their meth use............................................. 20 DEAR DOCTOR: Allergy reaction; Blood borne viruses and pipes; Smoking versus injecting ............................ 22 NUAA KNOWS HOW: ASK A PEER ANYTHING:Stimulant terms; Mid-week ice use; First timer; GRANDMA INTERVENES: another one from on high ..................................................................................... 24 MIXING IN BAGGIES .............................................................................................................................. 27 TIPS FOR SAFER ICE USE:Almost 20 handy hints .................................................................................. 28 DOING ICE THE HARM REDUCTION WAY: People tell their top tips. ....................................................... 30 TREATMENT OPTIONS: Will a medicated replacement therapy ever be an option for people who use ice? ...... 32 COMIC: Stay Clear of the Ice Terror by Tony Sawrey ..................................................................................... 39 6 THINGS ABOUT SLEEP ...................................................................................................................... 40 NUTRITION FOR Nice PEOPLE: Pre-loading; On the go; Coming down .................................................... 42 RESOURCES & SERVICE ...................................................................................................................... 46 SCORING FITS ...................................................................................................................................... 48 EDITOR: CONTACT: Leah McLeod PO Box 350, Strawberry Hills, NSW 2012. Call/ SMS the UN Editor on 0406 422 267 or P: (02) 8354 7300 or 1800 644 413 (toll free) 02 8354 7300 to discuss submitting writing F: (02) 8354 7350 or artwork for UN; being interviewed; or E: [email protected] being on the Editorial Board. ADVERTISING: COMMUNICATIONS ADVISORY Approved advertisements will be relevant to the objectives and aims of NUAA. In special circumstances, COMMITTEE: advertisements will be accepted if they are perceived to be of general interest to User’s News’ Bonny Briggs, Joanne Brown, Jason readership. takes no responsibility with respect to the claims made by advertisers. The Grebely, Sam Liebelt, Leah McLeod, User’s News Kate Pinnock, Jack Rance, Kylie Valentine, publication of an advertisement in User’s News is not an endorsement of the advertisers, the products Dr Hester Wilson and/or services featured. To advertise in User’s News, please contact the editor on (02) 8354 7300, or at [email protected]. COMMUNICATIONS TECHNICAL COMMITTEE: DISCLAIMER: A/Prof Nadine Ezard, Dr Robert Graham, Dr The contents of this magazine do not necessarily represent the views of the NSW Users & AIDS William Huang, Denis Leahy, Andrew Tryst, Association, Inc. (NUAA). NUAA does not judge people who choose to use drugs illicitly, and User’s Dr.Hester Wilsom News welcomes contributions which express opinions and raise issues of concern to drug users – past, present, and potential. In light of current laws on self-administration of drugs, however, it should be USER’S NEWS BOARD FOR UN#81 clear that by publishing the contents of this magazine NUAA does not encourage anyone to do anything Lazarus, Maurice, Rodd, Sara, Tony, Tracy illegal. While not intending to censor or change their meaning, User’s News reserves the right to edit If you would like to be involved in the User’s articles for length, grammar, and clarity. User’s News allows credited reprinting by community-based News Board, please call Leah groups and other user groups with prior approval, available by contacting NUAA. Information in this on 8354 7300 or email her on magazine cannot be guaranteed for accuracy by the editor, writers, or NUAA. User’s News takes no [email protected] responsibility for any misfortunes which may result from any actions taken based on materials within its LAYOUT DESIGN: Nada Téknekat pages and does not indemnify readers against any harms incurred. The distribution of this publication is targeted. User’s News is not intended for general distribution. ISSN #1440-4753. NUAA would like to show respect and acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation as the traditional owners of the land on which User’s News is published. We respectfully acknowledge all Aboriginal nations within NSW where this magazine is distributed. UserNews81.5.indd 1 19/06/2015 4:17 pm FROM THE UN EDITOR: WHAT ICE ISSUE??? If you are someone who uses meth- Most people have rules in place amphetamine aka ice, meth, crys- around their use to help them tal, tina, shabu and P (in NZ) manage their ice use. then you will identify with the stories in this edition There are harms and and pick up some useful risks that come along tips. If you don’t use ice I with using any drug. We hope this opens your eyes a constantly need to be self- little (and of course not everything aware and risk assess to make in the mag is about ice - there is still sure our drug use is working for us stuff for everybody). and staying fun. In this edition, people who use ice speak frankly about the ways We cannot help but be influenced by the me- they reduce the harms associated with using dia. There are currently dozens of wordsmiths ice so they can care for their bodies and minds and influential folk churning out vitriol designed while enjoying their substance use. We have to make us respond emotionally to the “ice pan- included some stories from people who have found demic”. We are hearing that ice users are crazed, they needed to take a step away from ice. Other violent individuals with super-human strength and tips are about how to not get to that point! Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) who pull Staying focused on our health, wealth and happi- out their eyeballs and eat them. That they are a ness is often easier said than done. But the great menace and financial drain to society, a wailing part of being in a community like NUAA is that we wall for their terrified families and an evil influence can share our problems and solutions. We need out to destroy the scones-and-cuppa-tea realm to support each other, whether we like slow or go. of the Country Women’s Association (CWA) that The media game is a game of stigma and discrim- we are told is rural Australia. If we were to believe ination and we need to not buy into that. It really news media, ice is moving fast; think of the cryoke- upsets me to hear people who use drugs disre- netic powers of Frozen’s Princess Elsa, Batman’s specting each other. You know the sort of thing: “At Mr Freeze or the X-men’s Iceman. Thousands of least I don’t inject my methadone”; “At least I don’t men, women and children are hooked from the use benzos”; “At least I don’t drink alcohol” and first shot and spiral downhill into psychosis. Soon of course “Those ice users, they’re crazy!”. This Australia will be enveloped in an ice age that will is the third time the media has latched onto ice in freeze all the love and goodness out of this fine this way: it happened in 1998 and 2006 too. Other and noble nation. times heroin, or prescription opioids, or even can- It takes a while for statistics to be analysed, so we nabis has been hailed as the latest scourge wreck- don’t have current info. What we do know is that it ing the fabric of our society. Next time, it could be looks like stimulant use hasn’t increased, it’s just your drug that is in the spotlight. Don’t buy into it that ice/meth has taken over the stimulant market, and ask yourself... Who gains from a fracturing of and people who do ice do it a bit more regularly the community of people who use drugs? Certainly than speed users did. And we know that stereo- not us. We are strongest when we stand together, types are irrelevant, whether you’re talking about when we support