poledriver
Bluelighter
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- Jul 21, 2005
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Police defend decision not to warn public of new drug after Melbourne club deaths
A toxic batch of drugs being sold as MDMA in Melbourne's nightclubs which resulted in three deaths was tainted with the powerful hallucinogen NBOMe, tests have revealed.
Victoria Police has defended its decision not to warn the public about what was in the deadly drug despite circulating an internal memo detailing its knowledge of the dangerous cocktail of powerful substances.
Three deaths and at least 20 hospitalisations resulted from overdoses by users who consumed what they thought was ecstasy in the Chapel Street entertainment precinct last month.
Instead, they may have consumed the potent psychedelic drug 25C-NBOMe, which has been linked to a number of deaths, including Australian tourist Rye Hunt whose body was found after he went missing in Brazil last year.
In a memo distributed by Victoria Police on January 27, members were told that the Drug Taskforce had seized illicit substances sold as MDMA but which actually contained a cocktail of NBOMe and the psychoactive chemical 4-FA.
A research chemical discovered in 2003, NBOMe has a similar hallucinogenic effect to the psychedelic drug LSD but is effective in very small doses. The drug can cause psychotic and paranoid behaviour.
Drug experts say the synthetic compound is highly toxic, with users risking cardiovascular complications, seizures, hypothermia, metabolic acidosis and organ failure.
The Victoria Police safety alert, which was published on Reddit, reported that the appearance of the drug included powder, capsules, tablets and paste, with the colour ranging from off white to dark brown.
"The drug is causing consumers to react far differently to what they would expect if they had consumed MDMA," the memo stated.
The warning matches results published this week by a Spanish drug testing lab, which said it was anonymously sent a sample of capsules sold as MDMA after the deaths in Melbourne last month.
At the time of the overdoses, the management of Prahran nightclub Revolver Upstairs pointed the finger at synthetic drugs, rather than MDMA.
In its examination, the Spanish lab Energy Control reported that the drug only contained a low dosage of MDMA, which may have been present to trigger a positive result on users' pill test kits.
Nightclub sources say the price of MDMA has skyrocketed recently from $35,000 to $50,000 a kilogram after a series of busts left a dent in supply.
Local nightclub owners have also been left frustrated after police refused their requests to provide identifying features of the bad batch of drugs at a meeting on January 24.
A police spokesman defended the decision to not release specific details about the deadly drug, saying that a general public warning had been issued as soon as a possible link between the Chapel Street overdoses was identified on January 14.
Cont -
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/p...er-melbourne-club-deaths-20170206-gu6zf2.html
A toxic batch of drugs being sold as MDMA in Melbourne's nightclubs which resulted in three deaths was tainted with the powerful hallucinogen NBOMe, tests have revealed.
Victoria Police has defended its decision not to warn the public about what was in the deadly drug despite circulating an internal memo detailing its knowledge of the dangerous cocktail of powerful substances.
Three deaths and at least 20 hospitalisations resulted from overdoses by users who consumed what they thought was ecstasy in the Chapel Street entertainment precinct last month.
Instead, they may have consumed the potent psychedelic drug 25C-NBOMe, which has been linked to a number of deaths, including Australian tourist Rye Hunt whose body was found after he went missing in Brazil last year.
In a memo distributed by Victoria Police on January 27, members were told that the Drug Taskforce had seized illicit substances sold as MDMA but which actually contained a cocktail of NBOMe and the psychoactive chemical 4-FA.
A research chemical discovered in 2003, NBOMe has a similar hallucinogenic effect to the psychedelic drug LSD but is effective in very small doses. The drug can cause psychotic and paranoid behaviour.
Drug experts say the synthetic compound is highly toxic, with users risking cardiovascular complications, seizures, hypothermia, metabolic acidosis and organ failure.
The Victoria Police safety alert, which was published on Reddit, reported that the appearance of the drug included powder, capsules, tablets and paste, with the colour ranging from off white to dark brown.
"The drug is causing consumers to react far differently to what they would expect if they had consumed MDMA," the memo stated.
The warning matches results published this week by a Spanish drug testing lab, which said it was anonymously sent a sample of capsules sold as MDMA after the deaths in Melbourne last month.
At the time of the overdoses, the management of Prahran nightclub Revolver Upstairs pointed the finger at synthetic drugs, rather than MDMA.
In its examination, the Spanish lab Energy Control reported that the drug only contained a low dosage of MDMA, which may have been present to trigger a positive result on users' pill test kits.
Nightclub sources say the price of MDMA has skyrocketed recently from $35,000 to $50,000 a kilogram after a series of busts left a dent in supply.
Local nightclub owners have also been left frustrated after police refused their requests to provide identifying features of the bad batch of drugs at a meeting on January 24.
A police spokesman defended the decision to not release specific details about the deadly drug, saying that a general public warning had been issued as soon as a possible link between the Chapel Street overdoses was identified on January 14.
Cont -
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/p...er-melbourne-club-deaths-20170206-gu6zf2.html
