By Jane Metlikovec, Shannon McRae and Paul Anderson
October 14, 2006 12:00am
DRUGS have become rampant at Melbourne's hottest nightclubs, with buying, selling and using taking place virtually unchecked.
A Herald Sun Insight team witnessed blatant drug dealing and consumption at the trendy Q Bar and Revolver in the Chapel St club district.
It saw some staff at Revolver warn patrons undercover police had arrived to look for drugs.
Insight spoke to a teenage drug dealer in Q Bar who had just sold 20 ecstasy tablets in two hours.
The Kew woman, 19, said she expected to make at least $1000 selling drugs that night, and she did so regularly.
She and other pill pushers in Q Bar are allowed into VIP areas behind barriers that separate them from the rest of the club.
Insight also watched as some security staff at Q Bar allowed men and women to enter single toilet cubicles together.
Drug-takers told Insight they used toilet seats and cubicle shelves to prepare and snort cocaine and speed.
One drug user allowed Insight to photograph her stash of speed and ecstasy in the Q Bar toilets.
Q Bar manager Stewart Brasier acknowledged drugs were a problem.
"We're always vigilant but drugs are a problem right across the board in society," he said.
An Insight investigation into Melbourne's nightclub culture also discovered:
DRUG users are popping anti-depressant pills with ecstasy in the dangerous belief it will prolong the ecstasy's effect.
POLICE presence in nightclub districts is just about non-existent after 3am, even though much of the street violence happens then.
CHASERS in Chapel St has a reputation as a club that attracts men looking for fights.
MANY young women are too scared to visit clubs without a posse of friends for protection.
PUMPED-UP men prowling dance floors looking for fights are ruining the nights of other patrons.
Kristy, 19, told Insight she regularly reaped at least $1000 a night by selling ecstasy at Q Bar.
She had sold 20 "Yellow Swan" pills, worth $30 each, in two hours when Insight spoke to her.
"I've got lots of happy customers," she said.
Paramedic Alan Eade told Insight drug use was rampant in Melbourne's club scene and was causing all sorts of problems for ambulance crews.
He said the most dangerous narcotics users were the ones high on amphetamines and cocaine, particularly those on the more aggressive psycho-stimulant methamphetamine.
"Those who binge usually start on a Thursday or a Friday night and go straight through," Mr Eade said.
Mr Eade said a disturbing new trend involved drug bingers taking anti-depressants to replenish the neuro-transmitter seratonin in their brains in the dangerous hope it would prolong the effect of the drug.
"That only buys them another 24 hours, then there's just no seratonin left and they're in a world of trouble," he said.
"They get super hot and our attention is usually brought to them because they start fitting, and it's very hard for us to stop them fitting."
Chasers part-owner Martha Tsamis defended the club as one of Melbourne's safest.
"We're very anti-drugs," Ms Tsamis said. "Staff and management here are very strict. But drugs are a social problem. Some people will use them."
