NEWS: Daily Telegraph - 30/11/09 'Sydney's killer drugs on the dancefloor'

[hoptis]

Sydney's killer drugs on the dancefloor
By Dr Gordian Fulde, St Vincent's Hospital emergency director
From: The Daily Telegraph
November 30, 2009 12:00AM

THE head of one Australia's largest emergency departments said his ward was more like a private social and meteorological barometer.

He can tell if it is going to be a busy night just by the weather. He can also detect whether a dance festival is in town.

And while he is no meteorologist, Dr Gordian Fulde knows just what time of the year it is if his emergency department at St Vincent's Hospital is full of young drunk people mid-week.

"I know that if it is stinking hot, if there is a band or dance festival on and it's near summer that the silly season has started and I am going to have a hell of a night," he said.

"I know when the Christmas party season is upon us because my Tuesday nights are like Saturdays: I have really drunk people who have done stupid things in my emergency department in the middle of the week."

From today, St Vincent's emergency director Dr Fulde will write a weekly column for The Daily Telegraph.

The trauma surgery veteran will traverse drug and alcohol issues and other health-related trends he discovers, safety messages and an insight of an emergency department.

Dr Fulde has been the eyes and ears of Sydney's streets as he has worked often gruelling 12-hour shifts for the past 26 years.

WHAT blew us away was the amount of people who came in after taking the drug GHB or Fantasy, which is very unusual. We had half a dozen very sick young women in resuscitation who had taken it.

They were all ladies in their 20s. One girl had the level of consciousness of a dead person and we had to intubate her.

Since the Dianne Brimble case - the woman who was found dead in a cruise ship cabin after taking GHB - girls have seemed to stay away from it. Yet these women who ended up in emergency all chose to take it.

It was quite an amazing and alarming weekend. It was very hot and there was a dance festival on at Moore Park. We got some very heavy duty fallout from that.

My secret hope is that Saturday night's scenario was a one-off and it was a result of someone who managed to get into the dance festival and sell it.

There was obviously someone in there selling caps of this stuff and it was cheap, about $20 a cap. It was really scary stuff.

We had dozens and dozens of people come through emergency all Saturday and they had all been at the dance festival. What was really alarming was that all of them bought their drugs inside the festival. I am amazed that drugs were so freely available in the venue.

Nearly all these people had started drinking before they got to the festival. Some had kicked off about 10am drinking and then kept going all day before they took drugs.

What was new to me and what stood out was there were people there at the festival who were selling packets of ecstasy containing four to five pills. I don't know if it's a new marketing system, but they sell them cheaply rather than $30-$40 a pill. What happens is the person who buys them takes them all and they end up in emergency with us.

These were normal people. They had normal jobs, some were professionals and worked in offices, others worked in stores. They were your everyday 9-5 people with all levels of income.

What is great about St Vincent's Hospital is its location.

People who take drugs in crowded places and fall down will be picked up and taken here.

But if the hospital was a really long distance away and they had to wait then they would probably die. That's what is really frightening.

Some of these people we saw were extremely sick.

We also treated a man who is a regular user of cocaine and who attended the festival. He had taken cocaine and suffered a mini stroke, with his left side partially paralysed.

He had also been drinking vodka and energy drinks.

It was a deadly mixture and the message I want to get out there to people is if they didn't drink too much and then didn't take drugs, too many of them, or mix their drugs then they wouldn't end up with us in emergency.

Some of these people stopped breathing. We put them on life support.

Daily Telegraph

 

[shienar]

What was new to me and what stood out was there were people there at the festival who were selling packets of ecstasy containing four to five pills. I don't know if it's a new marketing system, but they sell them cheaply rather than $30-$40 a pill. What happens is the person who buys them takes them all and they end up in emergency with us.

Sigh.

Anyway had a blank pill on sat that was dirt cheap, turned out to be the most empathic pill ive had in years.

Does anyone know how many people actually wind up in emergency due to just pills?

 

[Pie]

Sounds like a pretty fair, honest report to me :/

 

[shtonkalot]

These were normal people. They had normal jobs, some were professionals and worked in offices, others worked in stores. They were your everyday 9-5 people with all levels of income.

Normal people!? Normal people take drugs now.. and they are reporting this in the media..? My god this is amazing next they'll be reporting that "normal" people like to watch porn or something equally outrageous!

 

[chemi]

Normal people!? Normal people take drugs now.. and they are reporting this in the media..? My god this is amazing next they'll be reporting that "normal" people like to watch porn or something equally outrageous!

I lol'd

Totally true, public view of drug users is that we are all junkies. I don't really see this changing anytime soon... We can change our state of consciousness with alcohol, no worries, but noooo you better hope no-one tries any other HORRIBLY DANGEROUS DEATH INDUCING DRUGS

 

[MrIbis]

is this guy a retard.. for starters - medicine and media do not mix, this has been proven, with alot of doctors very partial to lawyers and journalists.

This wanker doc needs to be castrated by his peers for leaking information on their ward for extra cash to the media.

fucking sad what some people will do - and how they will word it.

For starters, its evident he has NO IDEA what he's on about "people selling packets of ecstacy" how would he know this? with any first hand evidence - seeing as he was in an emergency ward, with - guess what everyone; idiots who wound up there. Hardly any level of trust can be placed in a pack of drunkards, blowouts and ods, who probably didn't need to be there in the first place - but have stupid friends with no idea what to do in a crisis.

This is why we NEED harm reduction. to reduce the amount of morons feeding the media like this

 

[hyroller]

lol - as far as anyone is concerned, we're abnormal people

let's face it, though, drugs reek of the passe. indeed, meeting a straight n narrow type of person is a pretty peculiar finding.

 

[krankenhaus]

They were all ladies in their 20s. One girl had the level of consciousness of a dead person and we had to intubate her.

If someone has the level of conciousness of a dead person, they are completely unconcious with no electrical activity in their brain, and electrical activity will not return. So this person would be considered dead. As this is not stated as "One girl died..." and used as a more major point in the article I assume this person recovered.

So what the hell is going on here? She was either dead or she wasn't. Get the fuck out.

 

[Crankinit]

I don't see anything news worthy here, it was hot (in november, in australia, really?) people took drugs at a dance music festival (wow!) some of them took too many (and that's certainly never happened before...) then they end up in hospital (as opposed to the gutter, or the back room of some seedy afterparty).

 

[acidicweed_69]

mmm i dont see why people are attacking this guy, he wasnt even particularly condemning those who use drugs- he was attacking those who take drugs stupidly, which even most people on BL do.. yes, some of the things he said are a bit overdramatic or he cant back them up, but at least he isnt just blindly attacking those who use drugs..

 

[static_mind]

Yeah he said it like it is in his ER. I don't see why your all bitching so much.

 

[madmick19]

i would have to agree with some of the aspects that gordian sys to be honest i think there is much less respect for substances that people take these days. also he is a avid prohibitionist from what i can gather which also plays a part in scary people off taking their possible next substance- while zero tolerance does not work all the time the idea makes people stop and think in the general population

 

[drug_mentor]

Theres a fair bit of speculation on this guys part in that article which is pretty useless imho. Not to mention that its pretty obvious more people are using alcohol and drugs more frequently during the party season, this is not news.