Hot Press joins the likes of The Huffington Post, The Guardian and more in the Global Drug Survey 2014, which for the first time is including Ireland in its fact-finding brief.

With Luke Flanagan TD’s recent Cannabis Regulation Bill debate highlighting the lack of official data available here, the Survey will offer a unique insight into the Republic’s pharmaceutical habits, whether it be the occasional spliff, a pre-going-to-the-pub naggin of vodka, some uppers or downers from your GP, a recreational weekend gram of coke or a full-blown heroin habit.

Conducted anonymously online, the findings will not only be of interest to consumers, but also to the medical practitioners and members of law enforcement who for too long have been forced to guess about the precise nature of the drug trades here, both legal and illegal.

“I’m really chuffed that Hot Press has come on board as our official Irish media partner,” enthuses Dr. Adam Winstock, the Consultant Psychiatrist and Addiction Medicine Specialist responsible for crunching the GDS numbers, which Hot Press will exclusively be publishing in March next year. “We did the first Drug Survey in 1999 with Mixmag at the height of the dance music explosion. We took a bit of a break, and were then up and running again in 2011. Originally just a UK thing, we’re going international this year with eight languages, 17 countries and 27 media partners who include The Guardian, The Huffington Post, The Australian, Stuff.Co.NZ, Zeit Online, La Liberacion and yourselves.

“We’ve three big focuses – one of them being cannabis. How dominant or otherwise is skunk and what’s ‘the perfect weed’? The second is Acceptability and Adoption of Harm Reduction Strategies, which is a fancy way of saying, ‘What do people in the real world do to keep themselves safe when they take coke, pills, ketamine, acid, meth, heroin, valium, mephedrone, alcohol etc. etc.’ Thirdly, we’ve got a whole section on workplace drug testing and how that influences people’s use of drugs. It’s becoming a big issue in the UK – and will, I’m sure, rear its head here in the very near future.”

No skimming of the surface, the 2014 Global Drug Survey takes roughly 20 minutes to complete, and includes such nitty-gritty questions as, “If you could create the perfect cannabis how would it make you feel?”; “How many lines do you get out a gram of cocaine?”; “Does anyone take notice of drinking guidelines?” and “What’s the safest way of using drugs without reducing the buzz you get?”

“To be of value it has to be that detailed,” Winstock stresses. “It’s also important to get as many respondents as possible so I’d ask all your readers to spread the word through whatever means – Twitter, Facebook, Reddit etc. etc. – they have at their disposal. Let’s pull together the data that’s needed to formulate a coherent Irish drug policy.”

Read the full interview with Dr. Adam Winstock in the new issue of Hot Press, which is out on Thursday November 21 and also contains the latest news on Luke Flanaga’s Cannabis Regulation Bill.

To participate in the Global Drug Survey, visit [link]www.globaldrugsurvey.com/GDS2014 [/link] before December 20 and, like the good Doctor says, please spread the word!