NEWS: Party drug claims Victorian Life

A young nurse has become Victoria's first victim of party drug GHB after celebrating a friend's 21st birthday.

The party turned to tragedy when Belinda Davey, also 21, was found dead in a drug dealer's car after partying at a Melbourne nightclub.

Ms Davey's father said she was persuaded to take ecstasy in January and died from an overdose within a month of trying party drugs.

Her parents told a Melbouren newspaper they want others to learn from the tragedy.

"My daughter would be alive today if she hadn't been pressured to take ecstasy at a nightclub," Ms Davey's father, who was not named, told the newspaper.

"A month after swallowing that first tablet, she was dead of a drug overdose.

"What a tragic waste of a life. Belinda had a good job, a good home, a loving family, lots of friends and was happy and healthy -- she had everything to live for."

Ms Davey left Pure Hard Dance (PHD) club -- then in Bullens Lane, off Russell Street -- about lunchtime on February 19, after partying through the night.

She took the drug in a teenage drug dealer's vehicle in a public car park nearby. An off-duty policeman found her dead in the car about six hours later.

GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyrate) sells for about $5 a hit, the newspaper said.

It cheapness makes it a target for young people with little money. It is colourless and odourless, and known on the street as G, juice, grievous bodily harm (GBH), fantasy and liquid E.

- AAP

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Thirsty after a long night of non-stop dancing, Belinda took a swig from a water bottle in the car -- not knowing it contained the colourless and odourless drug GHB.

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BigTrancer said:

I think this sentence stands out from the rest of the story...

BigTrancer

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A dangerous dose
Keith Moor
18 Jul 2005

Insight report: drugs tragedy

GHB is a powerful brain and central nervous system depressant usually taken as a liquid.

Users drink it in the hope of reaching a stage of euphoria and to decrease inhibitions.

Bodybuilders use it believing it stimulates growth hormone release.

It is usually colourless and odourless and easily causes unconsciousness, making it popular among drink-spikers.

A typical dose is between 1.5ml and 3ml.

Dealers sell GHB for about $2.50 a ml -- making it the cheapest illegal drug on the market.

Studies show users can become physically or psychologically addicted.

GHB was developed legally in the 1960s as a pre-medication sedative before surgery, but was withdrawn because of dangerous side effects.

While regular ecstasy users frown on GHB, many use it as a top-up drug when they run out of money for ecstasy.

They have spent their $100 on four ecstasy tablets during 24 hours of non-stop dancing and only have a few coins left.

"That's when they are tempted to use their last $5 for a quick squirt of GHB," drug expert Cate Quinn said.

"Their judgment is flawed through lack of sleep and the effects of the ecstasy.

"The big problem with GHB is there is only a tiny difference between the dose required to give you the desired effect and a critical dose."

Ms Quinn, the manager of the drug analysis branch at the Victoria Police Forensic Services Department, said GHB's cheapness made it attractive to young people.

"Usage of it is a significant problem in Melbourne, particularly in the dance scene," she said.

Ecstasy and GHB users told the Herald Sun that overdosing was common.

"It's known as blowing out or G-ing out," one said. "GHB users will sometimes get really hyper and dance quickly on the spot with jerky movements just prior to collapsing."

A study reported last year in The Medical Journal of Australia said 10 people died in Australia after GHB overdoses between 2000 and 2003, with none recorded in Victoria.

"In an Australian series of 76 GHB users, half had experienced a GHB overdose in which they had lost consciousness," it says. "More worryingly, some of these users did not see loss of consciousness as a negative outcome."

The study also revealed the proportion of dance scene drug users surveyed who used GHB went from 1 per cent in 2000, to 35 per cent in 2002. Negative side effects reported by users included: dizziness (76 per cent); blurred vision (74 per cent); hot/cold flushes (65 per cent); vomiting (53 per cent); tremors and shakes (47 per cent); memory lapses (45 per cent); shortness of breath (38 per cent) and heart palpitations (32 per cent).

The Victorian Government health information website warns that any use of GHB can cause death. "There is a fine line between the desired effect, overdose, coma and possibly death."

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Ravers rev up on a lethal brew
Keith Moor
18 Jul 2005

MANY ravers who think they are using the illegal drug GHB are actually swallowing chemicals used to make nail varnish remover.

Liquids being sold by drug dealers as GHB are often legally obtainable chemicals -- despite their potential to kill.

The chemicals, which the Herald Sun has decided not to name, are widely used in various legitimate industries.

They are available legally as industrial solvents used to produce polyurethane, pesticides, elastic fibres and products such as fish tank cleaner, ink stain remover, paint thinner and wood stripper.

Yet drug dealers are selling them as GHB to unsuspecting people in Melbourne's dance scene.

The legal chemicals are closely related to GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyrate) and the body naturally converts them into GHB after being taken, producing the same effect as GHB.

Drug professionals said state and federal Governments would have to consider making the two chemicals harder to get.

They could do so either by including them in the Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act or listing them as chemicals able to be bought only by licensed users.

It is already illegal to supply, manufacture, possess, sell or use GHB in Australia.

"That makes it hard to get so drug dealers have turned to easily obtainable chemicals, which are closely related to GHB," a leading drug expert said. "It seems logical that now drug dealers are using these other chemicals instead, they should be as hard to get as GHB.

"At the moment, the chemicals being sold in and around the Melbourne dance scene as GHB are, in many instances, these legally obtainable chemicals.

"There is a lot of discussion going on among drug professionals, both in Victoria and nationally, about how we are going to manage these two substances and their abuse, as well as the general illegal use of GHB."

GHB is almost universally banned around the world and one of the two chemicals legally obtainable in Australia has been banned in many other countries.

A multi-million-dollar value in trade on the international industrial chemical market has resulted in legislation to control the other chemical.

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Dying to be just one of the crowd
Keith Moor
18 Jul 2005

RAVE party-goers are using amphetamines to try to kick-start GHB overdose victims out of unconsciousness.

Stunned police have discovered it is common practice in Melbourne's dance scene.

The dangerous tactic was used on 21-year-old Belinda Davey -- but failed to save her life.

She is Victoria's first fatal victim of the party drug GHB.

Police investigating the tragic death told her father about the abortive attempt to use amphetamines to bring his daughter round.

"What they should have done was ring an ambulance or take Belinda to hospital," he said.

"Instead, they gave her another dangerous drug on top of the dangerous drug that had already rendered her unconscious.

"That is a scary and stupid thing to do, but police tell me they have discovered the practice is common among clubbers.

"Their misguided rationale is that the GHB has slowed the heart rate right down so if they use amphetamines it will stimulate the overdose victim back to consciousness."

Belinda was not the sort of person anybody expected to become a drug overdose statistic.

That she did should come as a warning that if it can happen to her, it can happen to anybody.

Belinda came from a good home. Although her parents separated when she was young, she maintained a loving relationship with both.

And she adored her three younger half-brothers and two younger half-sisters.

Belinda was born in Warragul and spent six years living in the area before moving to Pakenham. She was a successful student at Pakenham Secondary College, where she did her VCE.

Her father said Belinda came to live with him when she was 14. His three other children also moved in.

"Belinda was superb with them and was an enormous help to me during some difficult years as a single father," he said.

"She was the main female influence in their lives and was a superb role model for them.

"Belinda was intelligent, bubbly, loved life and loved helping people.

"She had plans for the future and was looking forward to fulfilling them."

Belinda began a nursing course at 18, soon after leaving school.

She worked part-time at aged care homes to get experience and earn some money.

"Belinda always wanted to help others, which is why she chose nursing as a career," her father said.

"After she qualified she signed up with a nursing agency and worked at hospitals and aged care homes across Melbourne's south-east.

"She loved it and was very good at it."

Belinda also loved to dance and sing.

Belinda moved out of her father's home in mid-2004 when he moved back to Warragul.

"She was ready to become a bit more independent by then and started sharing a house in Mt Waverley with a female friend," he said.

"It was about this time that she started going to nightclubs, both because of her love of dancing and because that's what her friends were doing.

"Then she met a bloke she was very keen on. He was a regular drug user, particularly ecstasy."

He ditched her just before Christmas last year, telling her that she was not cool as she didn't use drugs.

"Belinda was really cut up about it, feeling the main reason he dumped her was because she wouldn't become part of the supposedly cool set and take party drugs to enhance the dance experience," her father said.

"Her friends have told me she confessed to having had her first ecstasy tablet in mid-January. She explained to them that she tried it because she wanted to be accepted by the dance crowd. She wanted to be one of them.

"Belinda died four weeks after taking that first ecstasy tablet.

"I spoke to her the day before she died. She had just finished a Thursday night shift at Berwick Hospital and was looking forward to some sleep before heading out to a friend's 21st that night.

"The next call I got about her was from her mother on the following Sunday to tell me police had contacted her to tell her Belinda was dead."

Police and friends of Belinda have since been able to fill him in on what happened on the Friday and Saturday.

"Belinda came home to change into her dance gear after the 21st and headed off to the Palace complex in St Kilda," her father said.

"She met some people there who persuaded her to go to a day club in the city, one of those places that opens at 7.30am to cater for ravers and clubbers who want to keep dancing.

"Her friends have told me she did take ecstasy that night, which is really out of character.

"But, as her friends explain it, Belinda wanted to be accepted by the dance crowd and it seems to be accepted you have to join in the drug-taking.

"Police have told me it is the norm among serious ravers and clubbers to take such things as ecstasy, speed and, to a lesser extent, GHB.

"Belinda left the Pure Hard Dance club, which is in a lane off Russell St in the city, about noon to go to a nearby car park, where it was common knowledge you could get drugs. She got into a car being run as a drugs supermarket by a teenage boy.

"He had a commercial water bottle in there and she had a drink out of it, thinking it was water.

"It was GHB and she quickly fell unconscious."

An off-duty policeman who arrived to pick up his car was asked by the attendant to speak to a group of people hanging around a car in Bay 381 on the basement level of the public car park below the Saville On Russell hotel.

When he arrived he found Belinda slumped in the front passenger seat. There were four young males and a young female hanging around the car.

The ambulance he called arrived just after 6pm, but Belinda was already dead.

"So for almost six hours these people did nothing to try to save Belinda's life," her father said.

"Quite simply, if this can happen to Belinda, then it can happen to any kid.

"I urge every parent to educate themselves about the dangers of all drugs and to speak to their children about it.

"And to be aware that if your children go to raves, nightclubs, recovery clubs or day clubs then, from what police have told me, there is more chance than not that they are taking ecstasy or other drugs.

"How has society let it become normal and accepted for young people to take drugs so that they can dance for 24 hours straight?

"Why isn't more being done to educate users and catch dealers?

"And I don't just mean catch the street dealers that sell from cars outside nightclubs, but those above them who buy or make illegal drugs in bulk.

"These people are the scum of the earth and they are killing and harming our children.

"The only reason I am highlighting what happened to Belinda is in the hope telling her story might make a difference.

"Might make some kid think twice before popping some tablet or dangerous liquid into their mouth.

"Might make some parent take more notice of what their son or daughter is doing.

"I believe Belinda would have wanted some good to come out of her death, just as she did good in her life."

Belinda's mother said she and Belinda had discussed drugs two weeks before she died.

"She sent me a message on the Friday afternoon saying she needed some family time and that she was coming up for the weekend," she said.

"After dinner she and I got into our pyjamas and put a chick flick DVD on and just lounged around.

"She had loved to dance ever since she was five years old and I knew she was going to dance clubs.

"I told her to be careful and raised the subject of drugs. She told me not to worry, but she also said that they were everywhere and that people in clubs were always coming up and asking if you wanted drugs.

"She said the drug use in dance clubs was really in your face and drugs were readily available.

"One of the last pleasant memories I have of her is from that weekend.

"She put a CD on and started dancing with my five-year-old daughter in the lounge room.

"The pair of them were loving it -- Belinda was dead two weeks later."

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hoptis said:

While Belinda may have died because she drank out of the wrong water bottle, the attitude of the reports clearly puts the blame on all illicit drugs, including ecstacy and speed, and highlights the role that day clubs like PHD play in the scene. A quote from Belinda's father on the front page seems to blame Belinda's first pill, a month before her death, as the cause of her passing.

Make no doubt about it, the Herald Sun is on the warparth with this one. It appears on the front page with a double spread on page six. Expect to see a lot of letters and editorial comment over the next week.

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You could take six ecstasy tablets on a Friday night and have enough energy to rave until dawn.
You could take three on a Saturday night and not feel any different.
You could take one on Sunday and die.

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