We mix it up more these days! Increase in polydrug use.

[Creeping Death]

Several years ago drug users would mostly choose a single drug. Heroin users would only take heroin. And amphetamine users would only use amphetamines generally.

But nowadays drug people mix all drugs. It is common method to mix your weed with your painkillers, and take cocaine or amphetamines with your ecstasy. And everybody sprinkles benzos on top of pretty much anything, and uses drugs to help come down from other drugs...

This is how most people do it commonly. Way back when I was a kid learning about the dangers of drugs in school this type of drug use was known as "multiple addictions". I had the impression that a "multiple drug addict" was much rare/unusual, and using multiple drugs was definately only for the most lost and far-gone addicts with no hope at all. I am now 20 years old and from what i can see this is how every drug user around me gets down to buisness.

But it wasn't like this before. Why this change of attitudes between the previous generation and now? Why do we think differently now?

Reputation Comments on this post:

	good point
	Nice comment - I've made similar observations. I really engaged in mixing after my first few years of neuroscience. In...

[NextLineIsMine]

I dunno how addicts do it over there in Europe, but I think in America its the norm to dabble in everything.

I was taught about this kind of concept in treatment. They called it cross-addiction, you can be addicted to a drug you've never even tried, its about being addicted to all drugs, not one specific drug, or drug type (uppers, downers, etc.).

[moda00]

Well, I think it is important to distinguish addiction from use and abuse. Use tends to be non-problematic, for recreation or a specific need. Abuse is problem use without dependence, and addiction is problem use with dependence.

I think mixing of drugs for fun, at parties, and whatnot is very common here in America- not sure if things are different elsewhere or if this is a new trend, but as far as use and abuse, it tends to be the norm to some extent in my opinion.

As far as actual dependence/addiction, we call it polysubtance dependence, meaning dependence on more than one substance- i.e. this is a different concept from being addicted to heroin and also using occasional alcohol or weed or benzos to enhance the effects or seek different effects or stave off a come down or withdrawal- polysubstance dependence means one has an actual addiction to more than one substance. But, barring polysubstance dependence, many addicts do seem to use other non-DOC substances for various specific purposes like those listed- often to boost the high of their DOC or to prevent come downs or withdrawals- using another substance as sort of an adjunct to the DOC. But it seems less likely/common to me that one would use it for it's own sake- when swim was dealing with addiction, she might use a substance for a purpose or high related to abusing her DOC, but she would not, for example, spend the time or money to smoke marijuana or get drunk recreationally- any other use was in conjunction with her DOC and for purposes relating to that, since the drug of addiction becomes central to the addict.

I don't know if polydrug use, abuse, and/or addiction are more common (any research?) now than at other times past, but if so I would surmise it is likely due to social and cultural factors- perhaps increased availability of various drugs, increased overlap of the drug subculture, ??

[~lostgurl~]

I knew a bunch of heroin addicts a few years back in America and their DOC was actually cocaine. At first they were just using the heroin for the cocaine comedown but eventually they became physically dependent on the heroin. So heroin use became daily and cocaine was only bought as a treat.

[dogzz]

in the 60's 70's and 80's in California,....with the people swim ran with, the general consensus was....."if you liked that, you gotta try this!" Swim's seen many a person get too baked and down...do a buttload of meth to get a bit of a picker upper,....then to be too far up,...do anything/whatever was available to get back to whatever "zone" said person was trying to hit.....
Other times it was simply sharin what ya had, and in a large group of party animals,...there was usually a large variety of "highs" Lookin back at it now, swim is really surprised at the lack of heart failures and overdoses.....must be why swim's drug of choice quickly became meth,.....never pass out or fall asleep around party animals like that.........
For swim, quitting every drug was easy except for meth,....Meth was a substance that held a death grip on swim's soul.....that addiction alone lasted a good 15+ years past all the other substances.....it took becoming 50 years old and realizing ones own mortality to finally stop. Swim's got 3 years clean now.....actually 4 but there was a slip on the one year anniversary....one last lesson to be learned.
As to the original question asked,....as long as swim remembers,...very few people in swims circles stuck to just their one DOC....

[scored]

A few years ago, say the 70's as my fox tells me there seemed a lot more choice, reliable choice that is as common sports where hitting doctors for the lovelies, and for the more affluent or creative the private doctor scene, unsecured chemists where also good sport.

My fox tells me in his warren back in the the young bucks would dabble with allsorts, uppers downers, trips etc some aged out of this process, some became addicts most of my fox's peer group found opiates and generally stuck with opiates, in a neighbouring warren diconal mixed with ritalin was very popular, but generally heroin addicts had enough of a task to maintain thier habit..... untill the mid 80's when crack came about...then things got messy.