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Party safe - alcohol and drugs

Alcohol and drugs affect the way your brain operates and your behaviour. Being under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs can reduce your ability to protect yourself, play with your emotions and change how you behave sexually. Think ahead about how you are going to stay safe in terms of sex.

People react to alcohol and/or drugs in different ways. Some people might experience emotions and behaviours that are not their normal responses. Some become very sad and cry a lot, others appear to be over the top with excitement. Some people just get violent and want to fight.

The decisions people make and the things that they do when they are affected by alcohol or other drugs are often not always the same decisions that they would make when they are sober. This includes decisions about sexual activity. If your thinking is distorted, you could make a decision that puts you at risk.

You may have the best plans to look after yourself and your friends by planning only safe behaviours, but those plans can just evaporate when you've been drinking alcohol or using drugs. They can cloud your mind and lead you to take risks you might not otherwise take. You can lose control when alcohol or drugs are involved.

Drinking and drugs

Alcohol has become a part of many people's social life, but it is a recreational drug that is often associated with not only physical illness (eg. liver and brain damage) but also high risk behaviour (eg. unprotected sex, rape and car accidents).

In Australia, as in most countries, there are laws about alcohol consumption like the one that says you have to be 18 years or older to be able to purchase alcohol or drink alcohol in a licensed premises. Some families allow older children and young people under the age of 18 years to drink small amounts of alcoholic drinks at home, like a glass of wine with dinner. As this alcohol consumption occurs at home, it is not unlawful.

Some people use other recreational drugs. They can be taken in different forms like pills or injections.

Safer injecting

Injecting drugs is a very risky business. If you’re injecting yourself, it’s difficult to make sure it’s done safely. If the equipment or substance used is not totally clean, you could get an infection in your bloodstream and become very sick. This could lead to having your arm or leg removed by surgery or you could die. Even the smallest amount of infected blood that gets into your bloodstream could be enough to give you a virus that can make you very seriously ill, like HIV, hepatitis B or hepatitis C.

 Read about Lisa's experience with injecting drugs

If you choose to inject drugs, there are things that you can do to try and make it safer but you can never be sure that you are not doing harm to yourself.

Here are some tips:

  • Injecting drugs is very risky and can lead to long term vein damage, even gangrene and amputation.
  • Visit the Needle and Syringe Program to find out more information about injecting drug use and the dangers.
  • If you do decide to inject drugs, use sterile equipment every time.
  • Never share any equipment.
  • If your drug use is causing problems, talk to someone at the Needle and Syringe Program (NSP), your GP or another professional you trust.
  • Don’t keep your problems to yourself. It’s good to talk.
  • Don’t be fooled by bad advice. Sometimes, others think there are no risks.
  • Hands can carry tiny particles of blood and can transfer a virus from one person to another. Make sure everything is clean and never share anything used whilst injecting - not even clothing (eg. belt or scarf used as a tourniquet).
  • Wash your hands and all preparation surfaces. Tiny particles of blood that you cannot see are enough to transfer viruses from one person to another.

Tips for partying safe

 Just one risky action can have life-long consequences.
  • If you don't intend to drink or use drugs when you go out, make plans that include a strategy for dealing with situations where alcohol or drugs are offered to you.
  • If you intend to drink alcohol or use other recreational drugs, think through the consequences. Make sure you consider the risks and aim to be as safe as possible if injecting drugs.
  • If it's your party, plan some strategies that will lessen the chances of you and your friends getting involved in risky behaviour you might regret later. This could include having some friends or family members who won't be drinking alcohol or using drugs there to look after people.
  • If you tend not to use condoms after drinking alcohol or taking other drugs, think about the risks involved. There are many ways of staying in control and making sure you make more sensible choices about sex. One way is to drink non-alcoholic drinks (soft drinks) or space out your alcoholic drinks by drinking non-alcoholic drinks in between. You can also drink low-alcohol options.
  • Serve your own drinks so you can keep track of how much alcohol you are drinking. Open your own containers if you are drinking canned or bottled drinks. Count how many standard drinks you have each hour. Some drinks come pre-mixed in cans and bottles. If you allow others to ‘top up’ your drink, you might not know how much alcohol you have had.
  • Keeping control of your own drinks makes it less likely that someone can ‘spike’ your drink. Spiking is the practice of secretly putting other alcohol or drugs in a drink. Sometimes people do this to get someone else drunk as they think this is funny. A person could have a more dangerous intention, such as getting a person drunk or making them pass out so that they can rape that person.

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