NEWS: MPs 'should go to rave parties' - Advertiser 4/7/06

[ultru-light]

I would rather be at a rave with pinging love all people than at the pub with drunk aggressive bogans

 

[mepat1111]

I can totally see her in kandi and fluffies ahaha

 

[ultru-light]

^^with a reflecting road workers vest and coverd in glowstix telling everyone that they dont relise how much she loves them. Wel thats what most of the piller chix do that i know

 

[Zhyr]

ive done crowd control at the cricket and AFL and the amount of alcohol some people consume is absolutely huge.
ive been to both rave and top 40 clubs and the rave clubs are where i feel safer.

 

[hoptis]

Sandra, here's the truth on ecstasy
LISA ALLISON
07 Jul 2006

DRUG rehabilitation counsellor Georgina Karapas says Democrat Sandra Kanck only saw the "honeymoon" at the Winter Enchanted rave.

Ms Karapas, a former drug addict and now a drug counsellor for Drug Beat SA in Elizabeth Grove, said Ms Kanck had not seen the full picture when she attended the rave at the Night Train in Light Square on Saturday night.

Ms Kanck, the state's only Democrat MP, has made several controversial comments around ecstasy use and raves, since attending the rave at the Night Train theatre restaurant.

She said drug-fuelled raves were a far better environment than alcohol-fuelled pubs and that people using ecstasy should test their pills.

Ms Karapas said she was appalled at the comments.

"What she is seeing is the honeymoon period," Ms Karapas said. "She is not seeing the downside of ecstasy - the comedown that is a huge depression and anxiety that can last for weeks. She has made her comments without doing her homework."

Ecstasy reduces the amount of serotonin in the brain, a chemical necessary for mood control.

Drug Beat SA was set up by anti-drug Independent MP Ann Bressington, a strident critic of Ms Kanck.

Former addicts [snipped], 18, of Balhannah and George Nikolaidis, 36, of Payneham, who are part-way through their 15 months rehabilitation program at the centre, said they would be happy to talk to Ms Kanck about their experiences.

Mr Nikolaidis said he regularly took amphetamines and used alcohol but ecstasy only once. He took it while drinking and described the experience as "the worst feeling on earth".

"The statement she has made about pill testing shows she does not understand what she is talking about, because it implies that taking pills is a safe thing to do," he said.

Once a heavy user of marijuana, amphetamines and other drugs, Mr Calvett was too scared to ever swallow ecstasy.

"She (Ms Kanck) needs to spend a few days with an ecstasy addict," he said.

"I have seen heaps of people come down and they are so depressed."

Ms Kanck declined to comment yesterday.

Meanwhile, the Democrats state executive have called an emergency meeting next Monday to discuss Ms Kanck's comments.

From The Advertiser

There's more in the Advertiser but I can't seem to find it yet... it gets worse, this is just the "news" article, wait till you see the opinion pieces.

 

[hoptis]

Drug stand angers Democrat
Michelle Wiese Bockmann
July 07, 2006

AUSTRALIAN Democrats national president Richard Pascoe may quit the party over his South Australian parliamentary leader's controversial views on the illegal drug ecstasy.

In comments that have placed the floundering party in further turmoil, Sandra Kanck said on Wednesday she would rather attend a rave party where "happy people" consume ecstasy than go to a hotel where aggressive drunks were "puking all over the place".

Her statement has reignited anger within the party over her position on the drug and follows earlier comments in May that put her at odds with Mr Pascoe, who is the party's South Australian president and took on the job of national president last month.

Mr Pascoe is now considering quitting the party, which performed poorly in the March state election.

"I have not made a final decision on my future with the party yet," Mr Pascoe said. He refused to comment further.

Ms Kanck is to be hauled before an emergency state executive meeting on Monday night.

It will be the third time she has been asked to appear before the party hierarchy and explain her public statements on ecstasy.

In her latest comments, Ms Kanck admitted she had attended a rave party last weekend and that users told her if ecstasy was in a "reasonably pure form" there was no health problem.

Ms Kanck has been accused of endorsing a drug that can cause mental illness.

She previously told parliament in May that ecstasy was not a dangerous drug in its pure form of MDMA and could be used to treat victims of post-traumatic stress.

Ms Kanck gave two media interviews this week about the rave party she attended, saying it had "a lot of happy people".

"People get very talkative when they are on these pills and they almost won't go away sometimes.

"It's nothing like being in a hotel bar ... if I had a choice between being at a rave party and a hotel bar, I'd go to the rave party every time."

She had "no problems with it (rave parties) at all".

Ms Kanck is the sole Democrats MP in South Australia's parliament, after the party secured just 1.8 per cent of upper-house votes.

She has resisted pressure to stand aside, but has confirmed she will not run again when her current term expires in 2010.

The Democrats' state policy during the last election supported a trial to test pills at rave parties and harm-minimisation.

Her previous state colleagues have advocated marijuana coffee-houses and doctor-prescribed cannabis.

While party sources have complained Ms Kanck's stance breached party policy, the federal party does not specifically outline its drugs policy platform on its website.

Ms Kanck did not return The Australian's calls.

From The Australian

 

[hoptis]

Dumbing down the drug debate
OPINION

DEMOCRAT Sandra Kanck is doing a serious disservice to the drug debate in South Australia.

Suggesting that rave parties where recreational drugs are sold - often by organised bikie gangs - are safer than drinking at an hotel is ludicrous.

Ms Kanck is, of course, entitled to her view, but to argue as she does that it has not yet been proved that the most popular and prevalent rave party drug, ecstasy, is not dangerous, borders on irresponsible.

The Australian Institute of Criminology says: "In addition to deaths caused directly by the (ecstasy) drug, people have died by becoming overheated, sometimes through the combination of ecstasy use, vigorous dancing and hot, humid venues or from dilution hypontremia, a flooding of the brain due to excess fluid consumption."

That is not something which often afflicts customers in the saloon bar.

There is a chasm of difference between the legal consumption of alcohol and the illegal use of recreational drugs like ecstasy.

While reliable figures are difficult to obtain, one estimate suggests there are more than 1000 deaths associated with illicit drugs in Australia each year, compared to more than 3200 related to alcohol and more than 19,000 associated with tobacco smoking.

It cannot be denied that ecstasy is illegal, it is generally produced and marketed by organised criminal gangs, and it kills or causes serious illness.

By supporting the assertion that the quality of ecstasy available at rave parties should be medically tested, Ms Kanck is helping to legitimise the drug.

She should try to convince the police and welfare groups like the Salvation Army, which have to assist the victims of drug abuse, that ecstasy and other recreational drugs are harmless.

Instead of suggesting that young people attend rave parties, Ms Kanck should spend her Saturday nights at the casualty ward of the Royal Adelaide Hospital, where the tragic victims of recreational drugs are regularly admitted for expensive intensive care.

Caption: Sandra Kanck ... assertions about ecstasy border on irresponsible.
Illus: Photo: sandra kanck
Section: OPINION
Type: Leader

The Advertiser
Edition 1 - State
FRI 07 JUL 2006, Page 018

 

[hoptis]

You can expect to see the conservative columnists in Adelaide go into overdrive to try and crucify MP Kanck for her latest comments. Not only does she dare to promote a drug that is nowhere near as harmful as the government would like you to believe, but in doing so, she's denigrating the drug Australians hold closest to their hearts.

What she has to say is hardly surprising to the hundreds of thousands of us who have taken ecstasy and know from experience the fact that she has dared to air in public. The little piece of trivia that many people working in the private security industry and police officers will tell you, off-the-record... that they'd all rather work at drug-affected crowds than drunk ones for exactly the reasons MP Sandra Kanck has stated.

I'm sure if someone did some digging, there are crime statistics in certain areas for certain large events, like NYE, that could offer quantifiable proof of this. Of course, they wouldn't be the sort of statistics the police would be too keen to publicise.

 

[peaked]

That Bressington character is an idiot. Just how many "addicts" are there in rehab for their ecstacy addiction?

Mr Nikolaidis said he regularly took amphetamines and used alcohol but ecstasy only once.

Once a heavy user of marijuana, amphetamines and other drugs, Mr Calvett was too scared to ever swallow ecstasy.

Oh, so the people being treated at this facility are actually speed/alcohol addicts? How can you even compare that to regular ecstacy users ?? 8) They're competely different in their effects, the nature of their use and the toxicity of the substance.

He took it while drinking and described the experience as "the worst feeling on earth".

Yep, thats a pretty common effect of ecstacy. I mean isnt that why we all take it, because it gives us the worst feeling on earth? 8) 8) 8) What seems more likely is that some moron decided to drop for the first time when they were shitfaced off alcohol and had (as to be expected) a bad experience.

 

[`bLow?]

"But what she should be saying is there is no room in our society for mind-altering drugs."

except alcohol of course.

 

[phase_dancer]

^

Not to mention;

Nicotine, Benzodiazapines, DXM containing cough medicines, SSRIs and newer multi- receptor targeting versions, caffeine, noo-tropics, opioides and similar compounds, cane toads, native flora containing DMT, water lillies (blue lotus), puffer fish and the multitude of native and introduced herbs and plants which contain active substances.

A very incomplete list, but all are arguably mind altering in some fashion.
Just remember your next curry won't taste the same without those essential psychoactive spices

 

[ozbollocks]

The little piece of trivia that many people working in the private security industry and police officers will tell you, off-the-record... that they'd all rather work at drug-affected crowds than drunk ones for exactly the reasons MP Sandra Kanck has stated.

CONSTABLE GERMANOS, QUEENSLAND POLICE: Everyone here is, you know,is here to have a good time.

You know, you probably don't really expect a lot of fights, that sort of -- you know, that sort of behaviour.

And that is probably more common with pub scenes, especially with, like, alcohol.

Like, you know, you'd be a fool not to realise that a majority of people here are on drugs.

And generally, you don't try to get --

..you don't seem to get as many problems as what you do with alcohol in pub scenes.

http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/s307760.htm

That was in 2001, but I doubt opinions have changed. Only now they'd be all schooled not to say it on national tv.

 

[tiptop]

The little piece of trivia that many people working in the private security industry and police officers will tell you, off-the-record... that they'd all rather work at drug-affected crowds than drunk ones for exactly the reasons MP Sandra Kanck has stated.

funny you mention that casue a friend was security at the event mentioned. it was his first time being security at a rave or experiencing the rave culture and he couldnt believe the atmosphere and how he had no hassels all night. he says he would like to do more nights like that for sure.

 

[peaked]

NEWS - Dancing with drugs - Independant Weekly

[EDIT: Threads merged, thanks for posting this. hoptis]

So what did happen at last weekend's Winter Enchanted rave party, famously attended by MLC Sandra Kanck? Sharon Mascall was also there investigating youth culture, its drugs and its hedonism

It is the state's biggest rave party. A twice-yearly extravaganza with girls dressed up as fairies, with butterfly wings, and boys waving glow sticks like magic wands. It's called "Enchanted", and if last weekend's winter version was anything to go by, some take the title seriously.

There were rumours of a police raid. Wings quivered and wands waved as the ravers pumped their arms and shook their heads, as if warding off an enemy.

But the rumours were wrong. The police did make arrests, but they were low-key, outside the venue and targeted suppliers. They were too busy enforcing their new "Hindley Safe" measures to arrive uninvited at the Night Train nightclub complex in the city. So the revellers got down to business, with pills, "fantasy" and meth.

It is a little known fact that Australia has the highest per capita consumption of ecstasy of any country in the world. The figures come from the UN and are supported by national surveys: 38 percent of Australians have taken illegal drugs in their lifetime; 7.5 percent have taken "E".

But here, in South Australia, the heady mix of drugs and dance has extra, potentially lethal, ingredients. Ecstasy doesn't just contain ecstasy -- or MDMA. Pills may contain ketamine, PMA or other substances hard to identify.


A spate of deaths from PMA -- Paramethoxyamphetamine -- in the late 1990s led to Adelaide becoming known as the world capital for overdoses of the drug. Of 27 deaths worldwide, 12 have been in SA.

Commonly known as "Death" on the street, the effects are slow en route to the final outcome. As ravers take more PMA in pursuit of an ecstasy "high" their body temperatures rise, their hearts race and they "cook" to death.

Ketamine -- used by vets to drug horses -- is also a regular on the dance scene. Users describe its effects as an out of body experience known as "going through the K-hole". The fact that users are incapacitated, unable to move, and have at times become victims of physical and sexual assault is not so widely publicised.

There's also GHB -- Gamma-hydroxybutyrate -- commonly known as "fantasy". Marnie, a regular on the SA drug scene and one of the old hands at last weekend's rave, said she would be using it, even though she knows it can kill. "You can die from it pretty easily -- you only need a very small amount of it," she said. "If you cross the line, you can pass out and you can turn blue. You can stop breathing and you can die. It's a stigmatised, very dangerous drug."

Marnie is 27 and says she knows what she is doing. She believes it all comes down to experience and taking the right dose. But the dangers posed by contaminants coupled with unpredictability -- everyone's biochemistry is different -- means that Marnie, and other users, have a false sense of security.

The challenge is how to communicate that warning. According to the Government and the police there is only one way. A clear, simple message: drugs are illegal and the law must be enforced.

"It's a shared problem," says Chief Inspector Peter Harvey, the head of Drug Policy at South Australia Police. "We work with other police, the government and health professionals to look at why and how these drugs are being made. We work with industry and chemists, to try and find what drugs are out there, how they're being made and attack the suppliers. It's enforcement from our end."

Enforcement means targeting manufacturers and suppliers. Educating young people that drugs are wrong. It also means banning the "R" word -- recreational -- when it appears in the same sentence as "drug use".

"It starts to normalise something that's just so dangerous," says Harvey. "It's illegal. Taking illicit drugs means you're risking your life."

But at the rave, the message from authorities that drugs are dangerous, deadly and wrong was not getting through.

"These authorities think they have some sort of control over the way that we behave and what we put in our bodies," said Marnie. "But at the end of the day we're doing it as a subversive act. We're doing it because we don't want to listen to them."

Dr David Caldicott, a doctor specialising in emergency and trauma at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, was also there last weekend.

For the past seven years, he has immersed himself in SA's rave culture, believing that there is another way to protect young people. "Harm minimisation" is his argument, and one that has won him few friends outside the rave scene.

Caldicott thinks there should be pill testing. He carries out surveys to prove his point -- last Saturday he was there with his posse of medical students wearing T-shirts saying "Raveologist", clipboards in hand.

Their questions focussed on the new drug driving laws and whether the "R" word does affect drug-taking behaviour. The response: most young people think the laws make sense and say the "R" word and the surrounding debate has no influence on them at all.

Caldicott wants to see better engagement between authorities and rave culture. An approach that doesn't condone drugs but does offer pill-testing -- without judging behaviour -- together with an educational approach with a less moral tone.

"There's absolutely no evidence that a law-enforcement or prohibitionist approach has worked anywhere in the world, there is no article published in any medical journal to prove it," he says.

"The only things that has ever been shown to work anywhere in the world is harm minimisation. Prohibition kills young people and has no place in medicine or science." His fear, when the raid last weekend was rumoured, was that he and his colleagues would have to deal with dozens of overdoses. "If there's a raid tonight, everyone will just eat all their drugs," he said.

"We spend a lot of time educating people how to use drugs safely. For example, don't take 10 pills at once. These are harm minimisation techniques -- first, don't die, then we'll talk about your habit."

After a few pills, talking is exactly what the ravers are prepared to do. Marnie isn't the only one who is open about her drug use -- surveys at previous raves indicate that 80 per cent are taking something.

"It's safe as long as you listen to your body," said one girl in a nurse's costume. "We look after each other, we're rave safe," said her boyfriend.

As the dance floor filled and the DJs grew frenzied, Marnie made her last point before going off to buy a drink and a stash of pills to last the night.

"The people at these parties are being marginalised, it's like the communication gap with authorities is getting wider," she said.

"We've taken it upon ourselves to do what it takes to make ourselves feel good and to have a good time. We want to connect with other people who do understand and who know what it feels like."

Source

 

[Rated E]

The impression i got from the article is, the "extra" ingredients are what makes doing e dangerous. I found it interesting that nothing is said of MDMA being dangerous or harmful.

I agree that harm minimisation is the way to go. As i think legilization of e would have a negative affect. It would mean cleaner pills, ect ect, but then there would just be heaps of ppl abusing e the same way alcohol is abused at the moment, i dunno, just what i think.


EDIT: <<OMG IM A BLUELIGHTER NOW!

 

[hoptis]

Rave drug named in 'honour' of Kanck
BRYAN LITTLELY
10 Jul 2006

AN ECSTASY pill named in honour of South Australian Democrats MP Sandra Kanck is being produced and should be at rave parties soon, a widespread email claims.

Sent from a hotmail address under the title of Not Happy Kanck, the email claims the Skanck-E ecstasy pill will be sold throughout the remainder of the winter rave season.

The email claims the new ecstasy tablet follows Ms Kanck's comments in Parliament about the drug not being dangerous and her attendance at a city rave party at which police seized 500 drug deals and arrested four men, some with bikie links.

The claims of a new drug cannot be verified and there is speculation the email's circulation may be politically motivated.

It also claims that: "Underground sources have confirmed that an Australian ecstasy producer is so happy with the SA Democrats Sandra Kanck's endorsement of their product that they are producing a pill in her honour".

It says the "SK" will be released in time for the winter rave season.

"The producers of the SK would like to make it clear that this new pill was inspired by the glowing parliamentary endorsement delivered in the South Australian Parliament by Sandra Kanck. Therefore the new pill will be commonly called the Skanck-E.

"The pure MDMA pill is guaranteed not to contain methamphetamine and will be undetectable by the new roadside drug tests."

Ms Kanck, who also has called for legal pill testing trials to minimise harm among users, could not be contacted for comment last night.

Despite dozens of pills produced in recent years being tagged with trendy brand names, including Red Mitsubishi and Calvin Klein, prominent drug test campaigner Dr David Caldicott said he was confident the email was a joke.

"I don't think that's really the style of producers. It would surprise me enormously if there was any truth to this," he said.

Dr Caldicott said he would apply to the Health Department for a pill testing licence for December's Summer Enchanted Rave.

Substance Abuse Minister Gail Gago, however, made it clear the State Government would not endorse the testing of drugs.

From The Advertiser

 

[pillsnapa]

I beleive the above article is a complete crock of shit.

Especially these parts...

the "SK" will be released in time for the winter rave season.

The pure MDMA pill is guaranteed not to contain methamphetamine and will be undetectable by the new roadside drug tests

Ha Ha.

Ohhh...it's an email joke.

 

[phase_dancer]

Something smells fishy to me

Personally, I hope it is a joke. Something like this would do more harm than good to the MP IMO, and would likely scare away other supporters of safe recreational drug use, particularly the noteworthy kind who may be yet to step out of the closet - so to speak.

However, I'm sure there are those out there with the ability to "promote" Ms Kanck in such a way. They, like many, might see her as a brave and honest MP - one of the very few. Of course it would also be a good move for business (who gets to advertise their pills in the above manner?). But the downside could be disastrous, particularly if the pills were a contributing factor to any hospital admission.

I say that we should instead be promoting Ms Kanck by supporting her in a more conventional manner, perhaps by writing to local MPs/ senators and telling them why you agree with her statements. But don't tarnish her by directly associating her to a pill FFS. If you think she's received a lot of flack so far, it would be nothing to what she'd get if such a pill was circulated.

Most politicians are like attention seeking, teenaged school kids; ready to tease, make fun of and generally humiliate anyone who's not part of their "gang". She's already shunned by some of her colleagues.


Of course, the instigators of the email may not be manufacturers at all. They may be from over the political fence and realize all too well what such an email could do to disrupt her rational and scientifically based arguments.

As said, something smells fishy to me

 

[katmeow]

I think it's the Skanck-E (skanky anyone?) part that makes it sound most bogus.

Anyway, regarding the earlier articles, yes I think it's important that MPs visit treatment centres to see what is going on there, but this is only part of the story. By exposing themselves to events such as raves they'll get a much better idea about the experience of the majority of drug users who have a largely positive relationship with their substance of choice.

Nice to see one person doing just that.

 

[Tronica]

A very incomplete list, but all are arguably mind altering in some fashion. Just remember your next curry won't taste the same without those essential psychoactive spices

Thanks for the laugh I always wondered why curries were so delicious and made me go back for more %)

I also hope that email is a joke... not a very funny one IMHO.

This whole issue has been interesting. As Rated E noted, we are either getting the message "MDMA is safe but watch out for adulterants" or "All drugs are bad / Ecstasy will make you crazy and kill you". Surely the truth is somewhere in between...