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This is a continuation of the Herald Sun's drug insight theme this week, but today's articles are unrelated to yesterday's report on Victoria's first GHB death.
Mods: feel free to merge this into the other thread as you see fit.
From Herald Sun
From News.com.au - Herald Sun
Mods: feel free to merge this into the other thread as you see fit.
Pill poison
John Ferguson and Michael Warner
19 Jul 2005
Insight report: Our tests reveal dance drugs contaminated with toxic chemicals
TENS of thousands of young Victorians are gambling with their lives on deadly cocktails of chemicals sold as ecstasy. The Herald Sun has uncovered fresh evidence of pills sold in Melbourne containing alarming ingredients such as horse tranquillisers, morphine, speed and nerve-numbing agents.
Victoria Police tests for Insight have highlighted a dramatic shift in the ecstasy market designed to fool users into using other drugs.
Police have found that drug makers are increasingly lacing tablets with a variety of other dangerous substances.
One of the chemicals discovered in ecstasy is used to treat dogs and cats for incontinence.
Four ecstasy tablets branded CK and tested by police for the Herald Sun showed MDMA -- the uncut form of ecstasy -- was absent as a key ingredient.
The police tests revealed a mix of ingredients, including the veterinary drug ketamine, anti-anxiety medication and the pain-killer morphine.
Of 89 batches of CK tablets seized and tested by police, only 18 had MDMA as the main drug.
"I think it's a case of Russian roulette. This is a very illicit, unstable market," Victoria Police drug analysis branch manager Cate Quinn said.
The Herald Sun's investigation also revealed:
TEENAGERS and twentysomething dealers are reaping up to $100,000 a weekend.
A 21-STRONG police unit has been formed to tackle the explosion in ecstasy dealing.
RECENT busts have failed to dent the demand and supply of ecstasy.
REAL estate agents are helping dob in drug dealers who use rented properties for makeshift laboratories.
ECSTASY is sweeping rural and regional areas, with hotels the focus of police attention.
VICTORIA is poised to set up a new drug alert system to help hospitals and ambulance drivers treat overdose victims.
THE nation's peak medical body is reconsidering its drug policy and opposition to ecstasy-testing kits.
MOST ecstasy is still made in Europe, but special MDMA labs are operating in Australia.
Insight yesterday revealed nurse Belinda Davey, 21, as Victoria's first fatal victim of the party drug GHB.
She died in February in a drug dealer's car outside a Melbourne club after taking a mouthful of GHB, knows as liquid E.
Crime Stoppers recently printed 200,000 brochures warning of the dangers of using ecstasy and amphetamine-based party drugs.
"They stimulate and affect the brain," the Crime Stoppers brochure says.
"They may cause collapse, cerebral haemorrhage (bleeding in the brain, stroke), seizure and heart failure.
"Ecstasy can cause confusion, depression, anxiety, sleeplessness, drug craving and paranoia."
Victoria Police examined 89 batches of CK brand ecstasy and discovered just 18 had ecstasy as the main drug.
The minimum ecstasy purity was 1.6 per cent, the maximum 53.3 per cent and the median purity 48.2 per cent.
These figures underpin the extraordinary range in purity, with many young users unaware that they are taking anything other than the already dangerous ecstasy.
Ingredients found in CK ecstasy tablets include ephedrine, caffeine, mianserin, ketamine, phenylpropanolamine, pseudoephedrine, procaine, acetylmethylamphetamine, morphine, formylmethylamphetamine and diazepam.
For the Insight investigation, forensic investigators examined four different ecstasy tablets seized by police.
The make-up of the pills varied from batch to batch. This is despite being stamped with CK, after the fashion label Calvin Klein but clearly without the company's approval.
The pills were of different colours and included subtle differences like bevelled edges, suggesting they were made in different drug labs.
Victoria's top drug investigator, Det-Supt Tony Biggin, said taking ecstasy was a huge risk.
"The broader issue with ecstasy is, of course . . . what are you taking?
"Pure ecstasy itself, which is MDMA, causes issues and of course people are taking pills that are called ecstasy but what are they?"
From Herald Sun
Study shows ecstasy's agony
by John Ferguson
July 19, 2005
PEOPLE who use ecstasy work their way there by experimenting with an average of 11 classes of drugs.
Many users had been on binges lasting numerous sleepless days and nights, research showed.
And one in four overdosed on an illicit drug in the previous six months; most likely on a substance other than ecstasy and most commonly GHB.
A ground-breaking study into young Victorians' ecstasy use revealed strong links between the drug and other harmful substances.
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As well as ecstasy, users are most likely to have recently used alcohol, methamphetamine powder, cannabis and crystal methamphetamine.
The study found almost half the ecstasy users reported better communication and sociability under its influence.
But the majority recognised they were taking risks with their health.
Concerns included memory loss, depression and doubts about the purity of the pills.
The Victorian findings of the Party Drug Initiative (PDI), a national study examining trends in ecstasy and related drug use, showed almost half the Melbourne respondents binged on drugs in the previous six months.
The use of other drugs was common among the 100 ecstasy users surveyed.
Respondents were typically in their mid-20s, lived at home or in rental accommodation and most had post-secondary qualifications.
The most common first-time ecstasy use by respondents was when they were 18.
The users reported having taken between four and 19 different drug types, with a median of 11.
The median length of the non-stop binges was 84 hours, with the longest lasting 10 sleepless days.
Ecstasy users often took other stimulants when the drug wore off to enable them to keep functioning and avoid a depressive let-down.
The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre report provided a comprehensive breakdown of attitudes and habits of ecstasy users.
It reports on the Tuesday Blues, where users suffer mood downturns after weekend partying.
The report showed an ambulance was most likely to be called out between 4am and 5am on a Sunday -- with the incidence of negative or serious drug reactions requiring ambulance attendance rising steadily after midnight.
Hundreds of people received ambulance treatment for ecstasy-related incidents between March 2001 and December 2003.
One of the side-effects of ecstasy is it can hyper-energise users until the early hours of the day, explaining why complications such as overheating can occur just before dawn.
The NDARC surveyed users who had taken the drug at least once a month in the previous six months. They had to be 16 or older.
Fitzroy's Turning Point Alcohol & Drug Centre research fellow Jennifer Johnston said ecstasy use was widespread, but its harms were often overstated.
The majority of people using the drug did not report serious side-effects.
Ms Johnston said research showed youths were becoming suspicious of strong marijuana, which left users anti-social.
This could partly explain why so many switched to ecstasy.
Most users are likely to be working and/or studying but are unlikely to have been in prison.
From News.com.au - Herald Sun
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
