BUT BESIDES VEGEMITE ...

News from Australia strongly indicates that backpackers are not like you and me, but are, in fact, disconnected from the harsh realities of a cruel world. Either that or European. Five French people, two Germans, an Italian, and a Moroccan. Between 21 and 25 years of age.
All nine were hospitalized for being stupid.


CITE:

They were staying at a property in the city's Victoria Park district when a package arrived in the post addressed to a previous occupant, one of the victims told the West Australian newspaper.

They decided to open the package and found a white powder inside, wrapped in a piece of paper bearing the word "scoop".

Believing the powder to be cocaine, they divided it into nine doses and snorted it up their noses.

END CITE.


[SOURCE: BBC - Australia drugs: Backpackers in hospital after snorting white powder.]


I'll grant that this small group may not be a representative sample of the genus, but will never the less argue that their giddy optimism is typical.

Normal people do not put unidentified chemicals in their nostrils. Marbles and peas, perhaps. Even the attractive digits of random strangers.

Not crystalline substances of unknown provenance.


I have been normal for a long time, and I have never done anything like that.
Many things. Draino, no. Salt or sugar, no. Illicit substances, no. Granulated instant coffee in hopes that it would get me high, no.

Finely ground tobacco (snuff) to alleviate nasal distress caused by people on the bus or backpackers, yes. I always have a small container of snuff with me when I am away from the apartment.



Never once have I regretted not arduously hiking across exotic locales in an unwashed state and breaking local drug laws while having irresponsible sex with stringy blondes. Australia, for instance.

My favourite substances are caffeine, nicotine, and capsaicin.
Plus highly refined sugar and theobromine.




LAGNIAPPE: IRUKANDJI JELLIES

From Wikipedia:

Contrary to belief, researchers from James Cook University and Cairns hospital in far north Queensland have found that vinegar promotes the discharge of jellyfish venom. "You can increase the venom load in your victim by 50 per cent," says Associate Professor Jamie Seymour from the Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine at the university. "That's a big amount, and that's enough to make the difference, we think, between someone surviving and somebody dying." However, other research indicates that while vinegar may increase the discharge from triggered stingers, it also prevents untriggered stingers from discharging; since the majority of stingers do not trigger immediately, the Australian Resuscitation Council continues to recommend using vinegar.

Treatment is symptomatic, with antihistamines and anti-hypertensive drugs used to control inflammation and hypertension; intravenous opiates, such as morphine and fentanyl, are used to control the pain. Magnesium sulfate has been used to reduce pain and hypertension in Irukandji syndrome, although it has had no effect in other cases.


Cramps, burning sensations, headaches, nausea.
Psychosis, vomiting, and death.
Australia.




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