1. Psychonauts are Changing the Drug Distribution Model
Have you heard of psychonauts? Chances are the answer is “no” because they are
people who are doing things sensible people would not even consider attempting.
Psychonauts is modern vernacular for
people who test illicit designer drugs,
justifying their actions in one of two
ways. Some say they test the drugs so
they can document and describe the
effects and then let others know in online
forums how it went in terms of physical
and mental effects. The rest of the
psychonauts admit they just want to
experience
new
“mind
blowing”
experiences. In either case, they are sad
people who are risking their lives to take
dangerous drugs just for the fun of it.
What does this have to do with employers and the workplace? First, there is no
doubt there are psychonauts who are employed since the majority of Australian
drug users work. However, another important fact learned from psychonauts is the
fact they are very modern drug users and dealers utilising a new drug distribution
model. The psychonauts operate entirely online, buying and selling drugs on the
internet and reporting the results of drug use in forums and chat rooms. They
bypass traditional distribution systems like buying from street dealers. The only
positive thing that comes out of their use of online forums and chat rooms is that it
gives law enforcement opportunities to gain insights into the illicit drug market that
they could not get otherwise. Law enforcement regularly monitors social media to
detect new trends in drug use.
Not Who You May Think They Are
In reality, there are mixed stories on the extent of online drug purchases by
Australians. Some studies indicate a growing problem, whilst others report the
market has stabilised. Last month, a senior lecturer in epidemiology at the
University of New South Wales and a Research Officer at the National Drug and
Alcohol Research Centre, also at the University of New South Wales, conducted a
survey on the topic. It found that the number of online drug retailers is growing,
but a small percentage, only 3 percent, of Australians purchase their illicit drugs
online. The researchers conducted the survey of online drug marketplaces during
the period August 2012 to February 2013. 1 The percentage is believed to be small
because of Australia’s location and difficulties associated with shipping illicit drugs
into the country without detection.
Despite education programs, many people continue to assume that drug addicts are
easily identifiable and likely to be more like a street person than a professional
working in an office. That assumption is wrong, which is why it is so important to

2. have drug testing programs in place in the work setting. There is no such thing as a
typical drug user anymore. In fact, the psychonauts tend to be university-educated,
young people who are good at understanding chemical combinations. They often
buy synthetic drug ingredients and compounds through the post. 2 The government
move to ban all synthetic drugs that are psychoactive is changing once-legal
purchases into illegal ones. However, either way it is safe to say that people
enjoying the highs of synthetic drugs will eventually use traditional illicit drugs.
Once again, employers need random drug and alcohol testing in the workplace
because drug users commonly use more than one illicit drug.
Bypassing the Street
In the traditional drug testing model, the drug ingredients are grown by farmers
and sold to manufacturers. The manufacturer finds exporters who have a delivery
system in place for getting the drugs into various countries. The importers have
groups of upper-echelon dealers who have established a system of street dealers.
The street dealers are the people actually selling to the end-users. The psychonauts
are skipping most of the steps simply by using the post to buy drugs directly from
manufacturers.
Psychonauts are supremely confident, which is why they feel free to report illegal
activities online. They seem to have forgotten they are human and subject to the
same addictions as other people, no matter how many fastidious records they keep
on synthetic compounds. Banning synthetic drugs and making them illegal will at
least give the legal system the right to prosecute when the psychonauts get caught.
In the meantime, employers need to continue religiously using high-quality drug
and alcohol test supplies like those CMM Technology (cmm.com.au) has designed
specifically for workplace applications.
This article has been taken from : http://www.cmm.com.au/articles/psychonautsare-changing-the-drug-distribution-model/