Get Tough

GetToughonDrugs was started because of the "Talking with your kids about drugs" booklet which was distributed to all Australian homes recently. The National Drugs Campaign's aim is to reduce young Australians' motivation to use illicit drugs by increasing their knowledge about the potential negative consequences of drug use.

The campaign also encourages parents to talk with their children about drugs by providing them with practical and up-to-date information about drugs.

The National Drugs Campaign youth website has information on drugs, support services and more.

People can become dependent on (addicted to) drugs. This can include having trouble controlling their use of drugs and still using them even when they realise it is causing them problems. Drugs can become central to a person’s life and can affect personal relationships, their ability to study and work, their mental health and quality of life. People can also develop a tolerance to drugs—this is when a person needs to use more of the drug to get the same effect. People can also become physically dependent on some of these drugs. This means that they will experience physical symptoms (withdrawal) when they try to stop using them.

People who use drugs, including alcohol, do so because they like what the drugs do to their brains. All drugs of abuse, from alcohol to nicotine to heroin, cause a series of temporary changes in the brain that produce the "high." One of these changes is the rise in available levels of certain neurotransmitters associated with feelings of pleasure. The key among these is dopamine, a naturally occurring neurotransmitter that some scientists now think is implicated in most of the basic human experiences of pleasure. More on dopamine here

This is a list of the common drug types that too many have access to.
Amphetamine-type stimulants, Amphetamine/methamphetamines, Ice, Speed and Base, Ecstasy, Cannabis (Marijuana), Cocaine and crack cocaine, Depressants, GHB, Ketamine, Hallucinogens, Inhalants and Opioids

We go into more detail on them starting here