The 2020
Sex & Drugs Survey 11.02.20
Editorial The Sex and Drugs Survey: a helping hand
.
Chris Matthews Editor-in-Chief
I'm delighted to welcome you to Concrete’s 2020 Sex and Drugs Survey. Firstly, here’s a little bit of background information for you. We have had a record number of responses this year, with over 1,400 UEA students taking part in the survey. That means the margin of error is only plus or minus 2.67%. This supplement is the result of tireless work from the Concrete team, from promoting the survey on social media to turning all the facts and figures into digestible charts. A special mention must go to our new Lead Photographer, Harry Chapman, for taking all these wonderful photos of Gormley. But now, here’s an idea of what you’re in store for… The issue is packed with the results of our 87-question survey, covering everything from UEA’s fantasies, kinks and fetishes to whether you’ve ever catfished someone and how many people you’ve slept with, we have a number of fascinating articles to excite you. All quotes, such as the ones on the back cover, are answers respondents have given. Personally I’d really like a bit more context to that horse-box one - whoever submitted that one, you really made my day. But beyond the pages teeming with statistics and quotes we have a number of fascinating articles to excite you. From Deputy Editor Jess Barrett’s low-down on the 5Ls to Sarah Duffy’s article on long distance relationships, we’ve got it all. Faking orgasms? Cheating? Wonder what the life of a drug dealer is like? Have a browse, it’s all inside, and we can’t wait to hear what you think. Remember to tweet us your thoughts @ ConcreteUEA! If you’ve made it this far, cheers for reading, and enjoy this year’s Sex and Drugs Survey!
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All Gormley photos throughout the supplement: Concrete/ Harry Chapman
What's inside? 2-3 Editorial and contents, Sex for money 4-5 The ultimate guide: kinks and fetishes 6-7 Faking orgasm, a lowdown of the 5Ls 8-9 The devil is in the detail 10-11 Your comments: good sex and bad sex 12-13 Long distance relationships, the places we go to pick up people 14-15 Your best sexual experiences, everything about porn 16-17 Why it's okay to cheat, hooking up in hostels 18-19 Edging closer: what else does UEA do? 20-21 The one for all the lovers 22-23 How about some drugs?
Sex for money "Worked as an escort... not with uni students"
3% of people have exchanged sex for financial or material gain
"Sugar daddy"
2% have participated in romantic nonsexual activity for financial or material gain
"Sex in exchange for drugs"
"Selling videos and underwear" 98% say they have never paid for sex with money or material goods
"Someone gave me curry for a cheeky shag"
"Amsterdam"
"Something I have considered deeply"
"It happened in a horse box"
"Got paid by someone [who] watched me and my partner"
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The ultimate guide: 31% have disagreed with a partner about engaging in a kink or fetish
82% are fairly or very comfortable talking about sex or sexuality 34% feel increased pressure to have sex since coming to university
35% of respondents are fairly comfortable with their naked body
57% of respondents feel confidence issues affect their sex life
'Have you ever struggled with sexual performance issues?'
4
: kinks and fetishes "Tentacles"
"Being a living sex doll or a human toilet"
"Furry costumes" "Sausage rolls" "Vampires" "Gangbang" "Consensual non-consent" "I want to have a penis and be given fellatio"
"A fat, sweaty bus driver"
"Giantesses"
"Knife play"
UEA's fantasies
"Cosplay"
"Pee in my mouth"
"Submission"
"Delayed orgasms"
"Princess Leia" "Sex in the kitchen mid making a meal"
"To actually have sex would be cracking"
"Bum sniffing"
"Sleeping with my exes" "A girlfriend's friend or sister"
"Cleaner"
"Sex with my hot professor"
"Impregnation"
69% have not taken part in role play
82% have tried bondage before 42% of respondents own a sex toy 53% have had sex in a public place
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Living the dream: faked Fake it till you make it
Quick confession to you, I’ve never orgasmed. To be truthful, I’ve kind of lost hope that I will. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve tried, with partners, by myself, it just seems kind of impossible? I’m definitely coming across salty here, but I feel deprived. Now, if that’s how I feel about it, how would the poor bloke feel (especially in a longterm relationship) if they felt that they couldn’t satisfy you? Another confession, I love sex. Not orgasming doesn’t make me want it any less, if anything it makes me want it more. However, when you’re single, it’s a little bit difficult to have good sex. When you’re with a partner, you’re comfortable, you want to try new things and most importantly, you’re not selfish. Foreplay doesn’t last for 5 seconds, and the sex lasts for longer than 5 minutes (my personal one night stand experiences). Honestly, I’d be surprised if the lad actually expected or wanted me to come. One-night stands are for your own pleasure. The likelihood is you don’t care about whether the other person orgasms. However, when it comes to a long-term partner, and they’re a-c-t-u-a-l-l-y trying to please and focus on you, and you can’t orgasm, what choice do you have other than faking it? You don’t. Unsurprisingly, guys are quite sensitive to the topic. Past experiences have taught me that when I couldn’t cum, my partner questioned himself. Having said that, this could easily be down to my poor choice of men. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with faking an orgasm but it’s difficult problem. In a way, you’re lying to someone who trusts you but, in this case, the truth may be hard to stomach.
75% have a particular kink or fetish 44% of respondents have faked an orgasm 62% have struggled to orgasm
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orgasms and the 5Ls
A low-down of the 5Ls
.
Jess Barrett
If you haven’t completed one of the Five Ls, then you’ve at least heard of them. Library, Lake, Laundrette, LCR and Lecture Theatre. In the Sex Survey, the LCR was the most favoured location, with 12.9% of respondents having done the dirty in UEA’s own Lower Common Room. Presumably the unisex toilets enable any couple to sneak away discreetly and get down to it whilst their friends throw up in the cubicle next door. However, it is not the most romantic of spots considering the puddles of sick, pee and VK on the floor of every toilet block. The next location to be favoured by UEA students is the Lake. 8.7% of you said you had sex here. But what actually counts as completing the lake? Do you have to be in the lake? On a bench? In the shrubs? I’ve seen enough condom wrappers around the benches and on the jetties to have an educated guess. The downfall of the lake is that anyone could walk around the corner and stumble upon you. There are lots of dog walkers, runners and stressed students that use the paths around the Lake as a route. The Laundrette is arguably one of the riskiest locations. Students tactically use the Laundrette at all hours of the night so they can find an empty machine. Therefore, there is no safe time to use any of the laundrettes. Bravo if you’re in the 1.7% of those who answered our survey and managed to christen a machine. Next up on our list is our Lecture Theatres. Many students go there to learn and be educated, but not 2.1% of you! You can book Lecture Theatres through the e:vision system to ensure that you are alone. From what I’ve heard, only the four lecture theatres in the lecture theatre block count, so no LSB lecture theatres for you… The Library is argued to be the place where the greatest number of students get caught. Whether they’re found coming guiltily out of the toilets, the bookshelves or even in the rolling stack on 02. There are cameras everywhere and lots of roaming students.
The five Ls are often considered to be taboo, with over 80% of you not having had a sexual experience in any of the five locations around campus. I think what makes the Five Ls challenge appealing is the thrill of it all. Not knowing if you’ll get caught. One thing is for certain, that the legend of the five Ls will continue for years after we graduate.
81% have never done any of the 5Ls
Just 8% of respondents have had an STI
75% have had chlamydia
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It's stats-galore: the 'What is your gender identity?'
'What is your sexual orientation?'
'How old are you?'
86% have not had sex with more than one partner at once
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devil is in the detail 12% believe in practising absitinence 85% have had sex before (both penetrative and non-penetrative)
5.02%
0.99%
6.82%
8.43% <5
19.28% 20.63%
5-10 10-15
'How long does sex usually last?'
15-30 30-35 45-60 60+
38.83%
'How many sexual partners have you ever had?' 51+ 41-50 31-40 21-30 16-20 11-15 6-10 2-5
'How many sexual partners have you had since coming to UEA?' 51+ 41-50 31-40 21-30 16-20 11-15 6-10
0-1
2-5
0
0-1
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What makes sex...
GOOD
"Trust" "Nice bum and titties"
"Idk" "Consent is sexy" "Sweat, I guess" "Lots of snacccs afterwards (talkin' bout biscuits my dude)
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"Ponies mostly"
"You cum and she cums"
"Put a finger in"
"Trust, magnum condom, monster dong"
"Nut"
"The risk of getting pregnant"
"Big willies"
"Pegging"
"Kinks"
"Plenty of tongue and a cheeky finger"
"Love not lust"
"Making jokes during sex is awesome"
good
or
"Rushed, no foreplay" "Bad at oral"
"Boys"
"Being very drunk"
"Bad hygiene"
"Condoms"
"Wrong hole" "Keeps checking phone" "Asking me if I've cum when I clearly haven't"
bad?
"Falling asleep" "No lube, haven't "Bad vibes" properly douched. I don't want a shitty dick"
"Being disturbed"
"A surprise butt "If he's quiet in bed" plug" "Anything nonconsensual"
"Lack of respect"
BAD
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All the questions
Long distance: a big ask?
.
Sarah Duffy
To make my life at UEA easy-going, I gave myself two rules to follow: ‘never get into a long-distance relationship’ and ‘never fall in love with a flatmate’. However, life isn’t that easy to plan. Sometimes life throws an Australian exchange student across the hall of your flat. As you can imagine, I broke both of my rules within the first few months of uni. And now having been in a long-distance relationship for a year and a half with my boyfriend, not only did I break my rules, I shattered them into tiny pieces. Being long-distance wasn’t even an option for us at first, because we were both focused on the negatives. The first negative is in the name, the d-i-s-t-a-n-c-e. Being about 10,500 miles away (yes, I just looked that up) there is no chance of surprise weekend visits, as it would take the whole weekend and about £2k just to get to the other person’s house! Which brings me to the second negative - time. We spend a lot of time apart, a lot of time waiting and counting down the days. So, you must be asking yourself, how is this relationship possible or even worth it? People tend to focus on the negatives of long-distance relationships, and there aren’t a lot of success stories. However, if you and your partner are both committed to making it work, there’s no reason it shouldn’t. My advice is to make time for each other. For us, due to the huge time difference (11 hours), we can’t talk all day every day. But I see this as a huge benefit, I wake up in the morning to tens of snapchats about his day and we ensure when we are talking, it’s a conversation worth having. We also plan times to skype call and save certain stories, so we chat for hours at a time. A huge benefit to a long-distance relationship is the long phone calls. I’ve never had such a strong bond with a partner, because for a lot of our
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relationship all we can do is talk. There is no ‘netflix n chill’ where we sit in silence for hours watching a movie until someone makes a move and… well, you know the rest. As much I love nights like that, I also love talking to my boyfriend for 5 hours at a time about everything and anything, while I think in a ‘normal’ relationship it’s easy to slip into meaningless chat or putting on a movie. But no relationship is perfect. Longdistance can be emotionally draining at times. The goodbyes are horrible and the waiting to see each other can feel like forever. An important aspect to long-distance relationships is knowing when the distance will come to a
permanent end. Being in a never-ending long-distance relationship is nearly impossible. Knowing my boyfriend will move to the UK by the end of 2020 is what keeps us both going and gives us something t o look forward to. For a lot of students, it might be waiting until graduation and moving back home to be with your partner. Whatever it is, there must be an end-date which makes the distance all worthwhile. Once you are reunited and can live a ‘normal’ relationship, you will have been through the toughest times together and can only get stronger. And until then, the long phone calls and the excitement when you do visit each other will get you through.
38% of people masturbate multiple times a week
28% have lived with a partner
that really matter Picking someone up: where to go?
.
Matt Branston
You’re a young person looking for sex, but just when it seems like it’s right there, you don’t know what to do. So where do you go? Increasingly nowadays people are looking to dating apps for their partners. We all know the drill, you look at a picture (probably fake), maybe read a bio (if you’re not stretched for time), swipe right if you vibe, and if they agree, you have a conversation. Maybe you start with a classic ‘hi’ (not recommended, makes you seem more boring than a 10 inch drill), maybe you start with a pickup line (if you were a spiky fruit, you’d be a FINEapple), maybe you do what one friend of mine loves to do and just insult the other person and request they dye their hair black. The issue is that most tinder conversations fail. Either you don’t vibe with them, they don’t vibe with you,
or you meet up with them and realise the best reason to date them is for free photoshop lessons. Or, as is a surprisingly constant reality for many women, you add them on Snapchat and get inundated with dick pics. Tinder is really part of this whole commercialisation of love. It turns people into a neatly packaged product, a filtered picture and an 11-word bio – “Can’t live without coffee and dogs, only message if you’re 6ft”. It reduces humanity into less information than I use to pick a wrap when getting a meal deal (Chicken Caesar gang). So where else do you go to? The street? It’s too cold. Obviously you have the classic university staple of a club. Filled with sweaty people and the vague stench of VKs and a £3 bottle of wine you drank in the before entry, a club is a perfect place to find a one-night stand or a relationship where you can’t tell people how you met. You can also tailor your interests to different clubs. You like people who claim to be
indie and went through an emo phase? Waterfront. You enjoy rap music and vague danger? Mantra. You like 50-yearold men who are creeping at 17 year olds? Bar and Beyond. Maybe you do what one girl I know did and go to Loft to find a guy – Greek tragedies have been based on less. How about at uni? Can’t risk the course mate situation because that’s like when I started talking to my bin man and still have to say ‘hi’ three years later. As they say, don’t shit where you eat. Housemate? Same situation. A person in a society? Good option, you’ll have similar interests, you have easy talking points, but if you break up or it goes poorly, suddenly you’re wasted paying subs to a society you can’t take part in anymore. Really, the best option is to just accept you’ll be alone forever and focus on your degree. Or you can always go to Damn Good and pull someone in Blue Bar for the 3rd week in a row. It’s a streak at that point.
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Your best sex... and porn: Best sexual experience in 3 words "Four fucking orgasms" "Taking a virginity"
"Hot tub "Wine vibrator threesome" passion" "Halls kitchen table"
"Eating arse bathroom"
"Wet, dirty, Berlin" "Blowjob in toilets"
"Massive fucking cock"
"Lake in Slovenia"
"Rough tent frolicking"
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"Blindfold, handcuffs, squirt" "My left hand"
"Cock in bum" "Park in "Eight hour Glasgow" foreplay"
"Car, loud, wet" "With my ex"
"Park bush doggy"
"A kinky gymnast"
"Lots of rope"
"Anal in Paris"
"Passionate "On a bus" ketty love"
what could go wrong? "It's a bit gross ngl"
90% of people have watched porn
"Unrealistic expectations for women's bodies"
"Helped me broaden my horizons"
10% of people watch porn daily "It's associated sex with shame"
"I worry my "Confidence sexual partners issues" fetishise me"
35% watch porn once a month
"Has definitely helped" "Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s made me less scared"
"It has desensitised me to sex"
27% say porn has affected how they view sex
"My stepbrother asked me to look at his car and I punched him in the face"
"Kinkier desires"
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The
free
life
'If you want to cheat, then cheat ’
.
Matt Branston
The Sex Survey revealed that 92% of people believe that cheating on a partner is not acceptable, but only 83% said they haven’t cheated. I guess it could be assumed the gap is made up by people who cheated and realise it was wrong, but it poses an interesting question: is cheating ever fine? Yes. It’s fine. If we’re being honest, most things are justifiable. Cheating is one of those things. It’s not always wrong. It depends a lot on the situation. Obviously in a bad relationship if you cheat it’s somewhat irrelevant. If you’re in a committed relationship where there are no real issues – you’re official and all that – and then you cheat? You’re almost definitely in the wrong. It’s very difficult to justify. But if you’re willing to go outside and cheat there are probably issues in your relationship and you might as well end it anyway. Either you’re wrong for your partner because you want to cheat, you’re not in the right stage of life to be in that kind of a relationship, or you just need a tiny jolt of happiness to get you through the everlasting days of nothingness that is the human experience. And really, it’s your life. That’s the first thing. I think it’s very easy to be morally righteous. People love to complain and act like they’re superior about anything. About standing in line, about dealing drugs, about using certain spoons when you’re at a buffet. Everyone cares so much about these random rules society gives you, but the thing is, they aren’t you. Who gives a damn what anyone says? You want to go out and get with someone? Do it. Just do it. Live your life. We need to stop this whole caring about everything, every action, we spend so much time tiptoeing around life and not committing to anything that by the end we’ll just regret every decision we make. If you cheat on your partner of 2 years and don’t do anything about it, or keep doing it, you’re probably a bad person. That’s not a good thing to do. But you know what? Who cares? Life is bad. Life is awful. If you can live with your actions, make the choices that maximise your own happiness
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because life is very simply being born, stuff happening, and then you die. And that’s all you get. If you want to cheat, then cheat. That relationship won’t work anyway. It’s doomed the second you think that you need to go outside the relationship. Just cheat, find something new. It’s not worth it. If you’re considering it, it’s probably done. And it saves your partner from being in a relationship with someone who would cheat and that’s a really nice thing to do. Cheat, break up with them, keep living. Yep - keep living. Stop caring. It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters. Have a wonderful day.
'Why have you catfished someone?'
"Haha oof. It's just funny seeing how low you can get guys to stoop with a weak lure of sex."
5% of people have catfished someone "My tinder profile picture is a Pikachu teddy with a strap on" 82% of people have been cheated on "If it’s Kylie Jenner, has to be done" 8% of people agree with cheating "Because my current girlfriend cheated on her boyfriend with me" 15%
of
people
have
cheated
"To get dirt on my ex"
home and away
Hooking up in hostels: risky business
.
Sam Hewitson
When young people travel, other young people are met on nights out in exotic places, and then, well, it can go in certain directions. A quintessential part of the young traveller’s experience though is staying in hostels and shared accommodation, so how does the logistics behind having sex work in this scenario? The answer is open-ended, as many have different views on the matter. I have not as of yet been exposed to it in any way, so I am impartial at the moment. The reality though, is that there is no decent and not awkward way to go about it. I have stayed in a 28-bed dorm room before, so there is never really any real privacy unless you are very lucky, and any privacy you do find yourself having is certainly not likely to last as long as you may need. Most beds are also bunk beds, and have no form of separation from the other beds at all, so confidence is key here. Most opt to engage in such activities after a night out, but then your roommates are asleep and waking them up is considered one of the worst offences one can commit in shared dormitories. Some also use the bathrooms for this, but blocking roommates from using the toilet or the shower is not smart. Long story short, there is no discrete and respectful way to go about this. Yet, people continue to have sex in hostels. I suppose if you’re not making friends in your room, and you’re soon to move onto another location, then what have you got to lose? You will never see these people again unless you are incredibly unlucky, so there is no real need to make an impression and maintain a certain level of dignity. Why should you sacrifice what you want to do for someone you don’t know nor care about? People have needs, right? Assessing all of this, I would personally say that it should be avoided. When deciding what to do, there needs to be an awareness for how you would feel should someone have sex in your room. Would you not be bothered? Would you be disgusted? Chances
are, these feelings are mutual, and the judging looks and thoughts will be directed towards you. I would not feel comfortable being around such activities unless I was incredibly close with the person, and warned in advance. So, although it needs to be treated generally on a case by case basis, you need to ask yourself how you would feel? Also, just because you did it in a hostel in Berlin without any problems does not mean it will be accepted as well in Budapest or Prague. Just assess it in the moment, would it be acceptable? And more importantly, are they actually worth having sex with?
25% of people haven't used birth control
64% of people prefer to use condoms
47% of people use some form of pill
27% the
of people have lied about number of sexual partners
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Edging closer: what else "I don't, I'm married"
"Unio" "The zoo"
"Odeon"
"Insta" "The walk to uni"
"UeBaes"
"I don't look, they find me"
'Where do you look for a omantic or sexual , partner at UEA' Other (selection above)
13.88% 43.06%
Dating apps Parties Library
34.96% 6.23%
Through your course Flatmates
28.47% 16.17%
Through friends
58.90% 42.53%
LCR Bar
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16.81%
does UEA get up to? 'Have you ever had a one night stand?' Unsure 2%
96% have given oral, and the same percentage have received it No 42%
Yes 56%
50% believe sex is fairly important in romantic relationships, while 42% believe it is fairly important in life overall 'Have you ever had a 'friends with benefits'?' Unsure 3.82%
Yes 45.38% No 50.81%
20% have given anal, and 32% have received it
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The one for all the % 76
23.23%
id 'I love you' to a p a s e v artn ha
er
'How long was your longest relationship?'' 22.01%
18.00%
13.81%
12.97%
5.04% 1.96%
> 6 mos
20
> 1 yr
1 yr
2 yrs
3 yrs
4 yrs
5 yrs
1.21% 6 yrs
0.47% 7 yrs
1.31% 7+ yrs
lovers out there... 52% have had just one or two partners 'Do you prefer sex with a partner to a one night stand?'' No: 9.15%
Yes: 90.85%
'What is most important in a romantic partner?' "Humour" 73.25%
"Appearance" 43.12%
"Respect/ attitude" 47.59%
"Religious beliefs" 2.70% "Political persuasion" 6.92%
"Similiar interests" 37.22%
"Comfortable around friends and family" 17.89%
"Sexual compatibility" 32.41% "Intelligence" 37.97% "Potential future" 23.63%
82% prefer a partner of the same age or slightly older
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Done with sex? Here's Having dinner with a dealer
.
Matt Branston
I’m sitting in a room talking to a man. I can’t be more specific than that. We're eating dinner - spaghetti bolognese. He’s a former drug dealer from South London. Between the ages of 18 and 20, he sold pills and weed across the region, working with a large-scale supplier and selling to a wide range of clientele, and having some dealers working under him. My first question was a classic, how had he got into it? He told me, “You’re taking me back to when I was 13, 14. Me and two other mates smoked every weekend, but we had no money. We got some guy who was rich, told him we were all putting in £50, [the rest of us] scraped together £10 and then [we] all smoked together. I sold £10’s worth for £30 to some kids in the year below and used it to buy more the next weekend. If we wanted to smoke, we needed that bit of money.” He added, “I stopped smoking later because I met a girl, but then I broke up with her and my mate mentioned he might pick up a q [quarter ounce], I agreed to split it, so it all started up again, all for free smoke, till I got together £400 for 2 and a q [two and a quarter ounces] and eventually I was buying an 8th of a kilo for £750. I had an old mate who went to primary and secondary school with me, he got kicked out but when I met up with him again he was a large-scale supplier, least he was selling was 4 and a half, but he sold 2 and a q to me, and his mate was selling me pills, and I got lower prices.” I asked him how the life had worked for him. “At my best, I was netting £500 a week, but I’d smoke it all, spend it all, I was working from 11AM to 8 or 9PM, I’d be anywhere from Merton to New Cross, all across South London, cycling up to 30 miles some days. "I had people selling pills for me, people shotting [selling drugs] for me at Goldsmiths, I’d go every Friday to UAL [University of the Arts London] and make £150. "Bare people want to pick up, I’d just chill at parties and sell.” Obviously drug dealing is a strange business, fraught with strange individuals, so
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he told me about some of his strangest encounter. “I had one guy who I was getting down to get coke from someone else, and he started bugging out and thought it was a set up and cycled off, I chased him because I thought he had my money, turns out he didn’t. I actually used to sell to people’s parents, one of my old mates, I’d come in, sit down in the front room, have a chat with them, they were lovely people, most I sold to them in one go was 63 pills, some to the younger sister for a festival, some to the parents. They were happy to help out one of their son’s mates.” He told me the most stupid thing for a customer to do is “suggesting the price to me” “For pills there’s economies of scale. 1 pill is £10, but 4 for £25. Stupidest thing is someone would come up and suggest the price, like ‘can I get 10 for £90?’ and I’d just say, ‘be my guest’”. It’s in the news a lot that people die from drug use, especially pill users at parties, plus he was mainly dealing to mates and people he knew, so I asked him if he ever cut anyone off if he thought they were too bad. “I separated myself morally. If someone died, it was their responsibility. But I was a partier, if I had money, I’d spend it. I was so unsensible [sic], everyone was better, everyone looked fine to me. Some nights I’d do 7 or 8 pills, which is enough to kill someone. "One night I took 7 pills and tripped out cycling. I meant to go to Dulwich, I ended up in Putney and Tulls Hill. How did I get to Putney? I thought my friends were with me, I was talking to them, anyone watching would have seen me talking to no one. No clue.” I ask him whether drugs should be legal? He replies, “It would help a lot of things, I mean look at the evidence, so many countries have legalised it, addiction is less demonised. Nowadays, kids are growing up ‘round drugs, something needs to be done about it, we can’t just dance around it, it needed to be taught and helped.” He quit a while ago now, which prompted my final question, why did he leave the business? He answered simply, that is was “the fear of getting arrested, it got scarier and scarier. After I turned 19, I slowed everything and I wasn’t as keen to push my product”.
63% of people have taken drugs
"There's a void inside me." 97% of those people have done weed "Initially to experiment and then for fun with the drugs I enjoyed"
39% have done cocaine "Love psychedelics. Wanted to open my third eye." 10% have done amphetamines "Distractions from depression, fun on a night out"
68% think drugs are easy to get in Norwich "To get through drum and bass events"
39% have done ketamine
"Banter"
"YOLO"
3% of people do drugs alone
the
drugs
section!
What do we love? Consent!
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Jess Barrett
Having sex whilst on drugs falls into the grey area when talking about consent. I’m not talking about date rape drugs and spiking here (they pose their own issues). But how can you properly give consent if you’ve taken some form of drug to enhance your night out? Would you be in your right mind to consent to have sex? University is known as an environment where students use a variety of different drugs. Within the sex survey we asked people if they had ever taken marijuana, cocaine, ketamine, MDMA, laughing gas, pills, heroin, LSD, poppers, amphetamines, shrooms, or edibles e.g. truffles, spacecakes or brownies. All of those drugs have been used by students who completed our survey. It is clear that many of you have taken drugs and buy drugs regularly. 79% of those who were asked how much they spend answered between £0-19. 5 people answered £500+. The majority of one-night stands that happen at uni are after nights out. If alcohol and drugs were removed from the equation, would the same decisions be made? Alcohol and drug consumption give students the opportunity to hook up and the confidence to do so. The invitation to go back for afters sounds great, nothing wrong with a few more drinks, maybe something more? It’s difficult to draw the line. Consent is a difficult topic for many to discuss. 34% of respondents said that they have had sex when they didn’t want too. Is that because they were too intoxicated or under the influence of drugs? It’s difficult because alcohol and drugs cause people to make decisions they wouldn’t have made when they were sober. The Dutch courage drug use provides leads users to make decisions they probably wouldn’t have made sober. This could be anything from buying a round of shots to taking someone home. Many students rely on alcohol and drugs to give them the confidence to approach people and let loose. Furthermore, 8% of you said they had overdosed on a drug. It’s difficult to know if you would be in a safe space, if someone would take advantage of your
vulnerability. When thinking about drugs and sex, most people think of poppers. Poppers are a liquid which provides users with an instant high when they breath in the gas. It’s also known by other names such as amyl nitrate, butyl nitrite, and liquid gold. They are used recreationally and are sold in some clubs. The drug can cause the user to have intense euphoria, although the effects wear off quickly. Poppers are regarded as unsafe for people to take because it can cause people to feel dizzy and have an increased heart rate. It is widely known that poppers are taken as a sex enhancer as they relax anal muscles, enabling anal sex to be less painful. If you have taken poppers, it could be argued that you have taken them in order to have a more pleasurable sexual experience. However, you are inebriated once you have taken it. It leads to difficult questions - are you in the right mind? Is it safe to engage in sexual activities? What if you had taken poppers purely for recreational purposes but others assume you’re wanting to partake in sexual activities? The topic of consent when mixed with drugs is a tricky one. For some it doesn’t pose a problem, but for others it can blur the line, especially if one person is high and the other sober.
78% have had sex under the influence
34% have had sex when they didn't want to
How have drugs affected your mental health? "I took drugs due to "Very negatively, large factor bad mental health not in why I was incredibly the other way round" depressed for a long time" "Fucked me up"
"Used to get real sad after mdma" "Use it as a crutch"
"Both significantly improved (mushrooms) and detrimentally (cannabis) impacted me."
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"Big ol' vibrator" "Stinky dicks"
"Sugar daddy" "I squirted lol"
"Pee play"
"DDLG"
"Lots of lube"
"Mummy's lactating, are you thirsty?"
"Spliff and a shag"
"Star Wars" "No good, too sticky" "Fuck me hard and jizz on my feet"
"It happened in a horse box"
"Love" "Men can't find it"
"Cheeky finger"