Jabberwocky
Frumious Bandersnatch
- Joined
- Nov 3, 1999
- Messages
- 84,998
Analysis of party drugs confirm revellers run huge risk of ingesting highly deadly combinations
IT'S like party pill Russian roulette. Every time a dance rave reveller pops a pill they are risking a combination of potency and purity that ranges from as little as 2 per cent to as high as 89 per cent.
Tests have confirmed that James Munro, the 23-year-old who collapsed and died at the Defqon 1 music festival at the Sydney International Regatta Centre in Penrith, was carrying several pills containing MDMA, the key ingredient of the drug ecstasy. Mr Munro told Nepean Hospital staff he'd taken three of the liquid-filled capsules at the festival.
Investigators now have to wait weeks for the results of scientific testing to reveal if the drugs Mr Munro ingested contained the same ingredients as the ones he was carrying.
The news comes amid revelations that NSW is awash with higher grade ecstasy this year.
But even lower grade pills are dangerous, with some pills containing potentially deadly ingredients instead of MDMA, like PMA.
"This is where the danger is," Police Drug Squad boss Nick Bingham said. "It may look like ecstasy but could be a slower onset drug (like PMA) where they take more because they think it's not working and end up overdosing."
Paramedics said the drugs at Defqon 1 appeared to be fast-acting, causing violent outbursts, and on several occasions police had to restrain overdosing partygoers.
Ambulance Service of NSW Intensive care paramedic John Brotherhood said paramedics, police and promoters had also set up a protective ring around the regatta's edge amid concerns someone would dive in to cool down during an overdose and drown. Up to 20 police assisted his team of six paramedics to restrain convulsing and violent ravers.
"At that point you're trying to stop the patient from hurting themself as much as anyone else," he said.
"These people have no threshold for pain, they're just thrashing around."
Det Bingham said there had been an influx of ecstasy into Australia from overseas this year, with purity ratings averaging between 26 per cent to 33 per cent.
Police intelligence shows the average purity level of ecstasy this year was up from 26 per cent in 2012. But analysis of more than 50 court cases over the past 10 years shows supposed ecstasy pills contained as little as zero to one per cent MDMA.
Drug and Alcohol Research and Training Australia's Paul Dillon said there was a huge variance in how each individual responded to drugs.
"You could have a number of people take the same drug and all could react to it differently," Mr Dillon said.
"You throw in the variance in potential ingredients in the mix and it's even harder."
Det Supt Bingham said drug-dealers access dance party venues like Defqon before the gates open so they can hide drug stashes. Det Supt Bingham said. Dealers bury drugs in grass areas or "secrete them anywhere they can like in a structure of a stage". Party-scene regular Chris said revellers are charged double for drugs like ecstasy in music festivals, increasing the normal retail price of $25 to $50. He said the drugs were made specifically for Defqon 1. Despite reports suggesting the quality of drugs is actually going up Chris said he hadn't heard of anyone getting quality drugs for "at least three or four years".
"I haven't heard of anybody getting anything good for a long time," he said. "You just take three or four of them to make up for it." Chris said bikies were notorious for making bad drugs and he only bought drugs from a dealer he knew manufactured them.
The analysis of court cases involving drugs sold as ecstasy since 2006 showed buyers are at the mercy of dealers as to how they cut drugs. One case involved Kings Cross identity Adam Freeman, who pleaded guilty to his role in a large commercial ecstasy operation worth $3 million.
Freeman was making MDA which was sold as ecstasy and cut down to less than 10 per cent purity.
A 2010 case heard that Jason Hristovksi sold 5000 "ecstasy" tablets to an undercover police for $95,000 at the Ribbonwood Centre car park in Dapto.
Testing by police found the pills were actually amphetamine with a purity of just 12 per cent.
This year Det Supt Bingham said precursors were being increasingly smuggled to Australia from Europe.
http://www.news.com.au/national-new...dly-combinations/story-fnii5s3x-1226724363007
