From the prevalence – or otherwise – of new forms of cannabis to our relationship with alcohol, the Hot Press-assisted online survey will lift the lid on Ireland's substance use and abuse.

Take part in the Global Drug Survey 2015 now at Global Drug Survey

Note that all submissions are made anonymously to the encrypted site, which does not collect ISP addresses.

Hot Press is delighted to once again be joining the likes of Vice, Cosmopolitan, San Francisco Chronicle, The Huffington Post, The Guardian, Liberation, Men's Health and Zeit in supporting the Global Drug Survey, which last year included Ireland in its findings for the first time.

An overview of the GDS 2014 can be found at [link]www.hotpress.com/archive/11413817.html[/link] with a full report at [link]www.hotpress.com/archive/11447301.html?new_layout=1&page_no=3&show_comments=1[/link]

Talking in the Hot Press Christmas Special, in shops on Thursday November 27, Global Drug Survey coordinator Dr. Adam Winstock outlines some of this year's key areas of interest.

"The butane hash oil that has been put out by the legal marijuana industry in Colorado has started to arrive here," the London-based Consultant Psychiatrist and Addiction Specialist. "It's a higher, far more potent preparation which has been predictably described in some quarters as the 'crack cocaine of weed.' People who take it for medicinal purposes don't want to be smoking lots of marijuana. Fine, but the truth is that every time you mess with Mother Nature, you end up with more problems.

"My guess is that because there's a fortune to be made out of it, it'll be floating around Ireland sooner rather than later.

"Then there's synthetic cannabis, which I thought was going to go away, but it hasn't. In fact, there's a group of people who are probably running into problems with it. I want to find out why and what those problems are."

As comprehensive as ever in its scope, the GDS 2015 will also be looking at "the use of prescription drugs, and particularly cognitive enhancers and steroids. It's entering the mainstream - you know, university kids using Modafanil to stay up so that they can beat the competition and rugby players, some in their teens still, taking steroids."

Dr. Winstock anticipates a sharp increase in the number of people buying their drugs online ("I can't imagine the Irish figure being as low as 10.5% this year") and wants to determine the precise nature of our relationship with alcohol ("Last year, Ireland came out as the most delusional country in the world with 46% of drinkers who were basically dependent thinking their drinking was average or less than average").

Stay tuned to hotpress.com for regular updates.


* Global Drug Survey runs the world's biggest drug survey