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Teenager Dies After Taking Drugs at Music Festival In Australia

That article posted above implies that the pills were MDMA.
I wonder if any "purple" pills have been reported lately that are particularly strong? I suppose in a global marketplace there are too many presses to keep track of.

In a sense I think it is sad that this issue is being used by some in the Australian press to put the boot into drug legalisation supporters - but Miranda Devine is a notorious for being a divisive fascist "journalist".
Things that happened in 1995 when Anna Wood died should not be the issue here - drug testing (and analysis) is urgently needed in the post-RC influx drug scene.
OTW, your mates sound like idiots for taking - and selling - what they knew to be bunk shit.
Just because that is the culture at the moment, doesn't mean change cannot be made with education and support from intelligent politicians and people of influence (like Miranda Devine, for one).
 
it's possible she did up to 500mg MDMA plus alcohol. A possible death combo.

or something else + too much alcohol. death combo


must be very sensitive or different to die from the first one though tbh. My friends drink with it all the time. No way safe though. very bad idea.
 
^ Thanks for the article, that's so shit, but not surprising really. Everyone should be testing their pills.
 
Such a shame, especially considering this death was entirely preventable through test kits and proper education.

It would be nice if they would say what the pills she consumed were so people could avoid them or at the very least make sure they reagent test them until more is known about their contents...

A friend of mine went into a coma last year after taking what turned out to be PMA (he'd taken other drugs too, but the hospital put the blame for his condition on the PMA, which was only identified after extensive testing on their part). I had to publicly ask the Local Area Command on their Facebook page to issue a warning. They did so pretty reluctantly and with an implied "this is what you risk if you take illegal drugs" tone.

Friend turned out OK after several weeks in intensive care, but watching the distress of everyone who cared about him and knowing it could easily have been my own child (a large group of them had taken the same pills the same day, he'd just taken more for some reason) made me pretty furious at the lukewarm response from Police NSW.
 
Georgina Bartter: How can we stop another tragic drug death?

BEHIND the picturesque setting, an ugly tragedy emerged.

Sydney’s Harbourlife festival had started off like any other dance event, with music, friends and fun.

As the crowd heaved under clear blue skies, the city’s iconic bridge and opera house provided the perfect backdrop.

But beyond the glistening harbour, beyond the sunglass-clad revellers, a tragedy was unfolding.

Georgina Bartter, 19, had been dancing with friends at the harbourside event last Saturday.

She had taken one and a half purple pills — what she thought was ecstasy, friends say.

She started getting tired and was shivering.

One person saw her doubled over and foaming at the mouth.

Irish national Owen Mullins stopped to ask if she was okay. She didn’t respond. He raised the alarm.

“Her lips were blue and I knew something wasn’t right when I saw her shivering in the heat while rocking forward and back,” Mr Mullins said.

At 4.37pm, Georgina collapsed. She later passed away at St Vincent’s Hospital.

Sydney’s Harbourlife festival had started off like any other dance event, with music, friends and fun.

As the crowd heaved under clear blue skies, the city’s iconic bridge and opera house provided the perfect backdrop.

But beyond the glistening harbour, beyond the sunglass-clad revellers, a tragedy was unfolding.

Georgina Bartter, 19, had been dancing with friends at the harbourside event last Saturday.

She had taken one and a half purple pills — what she thought was ecstasy, friends say.

She started getting tired and was shivering.

One person saw her doubled over and foaming at the mouth.

Irish national Owen Mullins stopped to ask if she was okay. She didn’t respond. He raised the alarm.

“Her lips were blue and I knew something wasn’t right when I saw her shivering in the heat while rocking forward and back,” Mr Mullins said.

At 4.37pm, Georgina collapsed. She later passed away at St Vincent’s Hospital.

By nightfall, the Bartter family was grieving the loss of a young life cut horribly short by a suspected overdose.

‘She was a beautiful and vibrant young woman who was much loved and will be sadly missed,” the Bartter family said in a statement.

“She had allergies and it was extremely out of character.”

A promising young woman, Georgina was an accounting student and, friends say, “the life of the party”.

The eldest of three children, she graduated from a top Sydney private school last year where her former principal described her as a gorgeous and bright young woman with an infectious sense of humour.

Sydney City Local Area Commander Mark Walton said drug offences at music festivals had become worryingly common.

He pointed out that young people wanted to know the content of everything they ate, yet no-one ever knew what was in any illicit drug.

That’s the thing about illegal drug labs — there is no quality control.

Georgina’s death comes little more than a year after the death of Bayswater man James Munro, 23, after a suspected drug overdose at Sydney’s Defqon 1.

Between December, 2012, and March, 2013, Victoria Police caught more than 420 people for drug-related offences over the summer live music circuit.

Australia has the highest proportion of ecstasy users in the world.

According to Australia Bureau of Statistics data commissioned by the Penington Institute, in the last decade to 2012, accidental drug overdoses have claimed 7923 lives.

ADRIANA Buccianti has never met the Bartter family and did not know Georgina.

But the young woman’s death has been heart-wrenching for the Epping mum.

She knows the Bartter family’s pain is insurmountable, that losing a child “defies all universal laws”.

Ms Buccianti lost her own son, Daniel, to drugs at Beaufort’s Rainbow Serpent Festival almost three years ago.

“It’s almost like reliving your pain all over again,” Ms Buccianti says.

“This has made me extremely nervous. The dance parties are only just starting.”

She had tried to talk her Daz out of going to the festival. She had a feeling in the pit of her stomach that something was not right. Call it mother’s intuition.

“He called me on the Saturday night. It was a really hot day. He said ‘mum, I’ve taken some really bad acid’.”

The 34-year-old had also, he told her, taken ecstasy that night.

She urged him to see St John Ambulance and started trying to work out how she was going to get to the festival to collect him.

But less than an hour later he reported that he was fine.

“His last words to me were ‘I’m OK, I’ve been to see the chill-out tent, everything’s fine. I will see you on Monday.’

“I got that dreaded knock on the door at eight o’clock on the Sunday morning from the police to tell me that Daniel had died and everything possible had been done. My whole world just fell apart.”

When Daniel died Ms Buccianti was angry. She wanted the festival shut down and drug use stamped out.

As time has passed, so has Ms Buccanti.

She has been to the past two Rainbow Serpent festivals to talk to young people about being careful and looking after each other.

“We can’t stop people taking things, it’s as simple as that. In terms of the war on drugs, we have lost the plot. We need to rethink the whole thing.”

Ms Buccianti believes drugs should be legalised and made by reputable laboratories rather than “these scumbags who put garbage in them”.

Something needs to be done, she says. One child dead is too many.

VICTORIAN of the Year Professor David Penington has proposed a system where people over the age of 16 could sign up to a national register and would then be allowed to purchase cannabis or ecstasy from an approved government supplier.

The supplier, probably a pharmacist, would give advice and be able to refer people to counselling or treatment.

“Prohibition has not stopped the availability of drugs in the community,” Prof Penington says.

“For 50 years they have been readily available to anybody who wants to find them.

“The consequence of that is they are used without any sort of control.”

Prof Penington says prohibition “forces people to get into the hands of illicit drug traffickers that peddle things that are cheap and easy to provide and have no recognition of safety issues”.

Dan Burns, of DanceWize, believes a regulated market needs further exploration.

“I think we need to start having this discussion ... discussing potential solutions and trialing them,” Ms Burns says.

He says the stigma around drug use means people are less inclined to seek medical attention if they run into trouble at a festival.

DanceWize is an arm of Harm Reduction Victoria. It sets up chill out areas at music festivals and distributes information to promote safer drug use.

He says while people are going to use drugs, measures have to be in place to make it safer.

“I think as long as we are working within a prohibitionist system where these drugs are unregulated — and therefore we don’t know what’s in them — we need to work in minimising the risk.”

He is advocating discussion of the use of pill testing at festivals.

“People say if they could test their drugs and found out their drugs were not what they thought that they were, they would alter their drug-taking behaviour.”

In 1985, the Federal Government adopted a harm minimisation approach to drug policy in Australia. The approach has three arms — supply reduction, demand reduction and harm reduction.

Many believe existing policy is failing, but opinion on the best option is sharply divided.

Shane Varcoe, director of alcohol and drug educator the Dalgarno Institute, says Australia gave up its war on drugs.

He says 30 years of a harm reduction ideology has only increased drug use, with young people, in particular, risking their lives.

“There seems to be like an unwritten law that substances are going to be used at these festivals, drugs are going to be part of the experience,” Mr Varcoe says.

An automatic response after a tragedy like the death of Georgina was often to say “we need to make this safer so let’s legalise drugs”.

“Illicit drugs are banned because they are psychotropic toxins that have all sorts of impacts.

“Our concern is when these tragedies happen there are people who want to cash in on that to promote a pro-drug agenda.

“All the evidence is in — these drugs are dangerous, they are toxins.”

He says pro-drug activists are sending out a permissive message.

“Every time that permissive message goes out it buys another recruit. I say ‘why are we doing this to our young people’ — it breaks your heart.”

Mr Varcoe says the QUIT campaign has been hugely successful in reducing smoking.

“It’s worked with tobacco but apparently it can’t work with illicit drugs.”

The Dalgarno Insitute’s programs have found that peer pressure is one of the major drivers of illicit drug use.

A lack of resilience was behind this willingness of young people to succumb to peer pressure and “play Russian roulette with their lives”.

Mr Varcoe says prevention and education is the best option.

MS BUCCIANTI now urges young people at music festivals to get high on the music, remain vigilant, travel together, ensure someone remains sober, not to mix any drugs and be very, very careful.

“Before you take anything, take half-an-hour out — think of Georgina, think of Daniel, think of the pain you are going to create if anything happens to you.”

read it all -

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/vi...-death/story-fni0fit3-1227123208400?=news.com
 
Shane Varcoe, director of alcohol and drug educator the Dalgarno Institute, says Australia gave up its war on drugs.

He says 30 years of a harm reduction ideology has only increased drug use, with young people, in particular, risking their lives.

“There seems to be like an unwritten law that substances are going to be used at these festivals, drugs are going to be part of the experience,” Mr Varcoe says.

An automatic response after a tragedy like the death of Georgina was often to say “we need to make this safer so let’s legalise drugs”.

“Illicit drugs are banned because they are psychotropic toxins that have all sorts of impacts.

“Our concern is when these tragedies happen there are people who want to cash in on that to promote a pro-drug agenda.

“All the evidence is in — these drugs are dangerous, they are toxins.”

He says pro-drug activists are sending out a permissive message.

“Every time that permissive message goes out it buys another recruit. I say ‘why are we doing this to our young people’ — it breaks your heart.”

Mr Varcoe says the QUIT campaign has been hugely successful in reducing smoking.

“It’s worked with tobacco but apparently it can’t work with illicit drugs.”

The Dalgarno Insitute’s programs have found that peer pressure is one of the major drivers of illicit drug use.

A lack of resilience was behind this willingness of young people to succumb to peer pressure and “play Russian roulette with their lives”.

This mindless banter adds nothing to the article. They should have found a drug-war supporter who had something intelligent to say, at least.
 
Its easier to find drugs at midnight than alcohol, that says something
 
Georgina Bartter funeral: Teenager farewelled at North Sydney’s St Mary’s Catholic Church

THE devastated parents of drug victim Georgina Bartter have told of the moment they realised their “beautiful” daughter was gone.
The 19-year-old who died after taking drugs at a music festival a week ago was farewelled today by hundreds of her family and friends in North Sydney.
Scott Braid, Georgina’s uncle and godfather spoke on behalf of her devastated parents, Simon and Kirsty Bartter.
He told of the moment doctors told the parents of the battle she faced to survive.

She’d suffered a rare allergic reaction and organ failure in response to the drugs which was “acute, aggressive and irreversible”.
It was so rare they were told “with disbelief” there was only a 0.00001 per cent chance of it happening.

Doctors gave her a maximum 10 per cent chance of surviving.

That’s how on a “beautiful” Saturday afternoon they found themselves in hospital watching her on a “collision course” with the allergic reaction and with near-impossible odds of survival.

Brother Harry dropped to his knees and prayed while his parents held their daughter and realised her life was slipping away.

Their only comfort was they were there for their daughter on her final day and that she was “unaware” of the trauma around her.

Despite the comforting words from doctors it was clear to them she was in great difficulty.

“With the doctors working so desperately to save our daughter we could see the anguish in their eyes,” Mr Braid read.

Mr Braid, reading a letter on behalf of the parents, said the most devastated person at the funeral was Georgina herself “without question”.
Georgina was not a risk-taker and cherished her health. She did not use drugs regularly and the mistake at the music festival cost her dearly.
“She was a vivacious and intelligent girl who had a lapse in judgment in a generation that sees no risk.”

Instead it was a “split second” decision that sealed her fate.
“She did not take risks, this was not her character. A split-second decision has left us broken-hearted, devastated and bewildered.
“She did not want this. She did not deserve this.”

Cont -

http://www.news.com.au/national/geo...-catholic-church/story-fncynjr2-1227125254681
 
Rebecca Hannibal should not be charged for Georgina Bartter's ecstasy death

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NSW police announced this week that they have charged 19-year-old Rebecca Hannibal with "supplying drugs" to her best friend. That friend, Georgina Bartter, died after taking a purple ecstasy tablet at Harbourlife music festival late last year.

Rebecca's unsuspecting, smiling face is now plastered on news sites across the internet alongside her criminal charges, forever marking her as someone who has, not just used but actually dealt in drugs. In the zeal to show they are doing something about the "drug problem," our police force have decided to throw the book at a teenager who made a very serious mistake -albeit one that many thousands of young people make with no such repercussions- and who is already paying for that mistake through the loss of one of her closest friends.

If, at some point, the police stopped to weigh up the benefits against the costs of charging Rebecca, they have surely come to the wrong conclusion. A drug conviction at the age of 19 will reverberate throughout this young woman's life, forever altering what could have been. From travelling overseas to work opportunities, her options will be severely curtailed.

I know that this pales in comparison to the price paid by Georgina Bartter. However, it also veers dangerously close to blaming Rebecca for it. I imagine that the decision to go to a music festival and take ecstasy is one that the young friends made together. The idea that one is more responsible for that decision borders on the ridiculous. Had Rebecca been the one to have had an allergic reaction to the drug, would Georgina then be the one to have her life all but ruined on a pointless drugs charge?

I say "pointless" because once a young person has a prison record, they are almost certainly going to reoffend. In NSW, 60 percent of adults re-offend within 15 years. Amongst juveniles, that statistic jumps to a staggering 80 percent. It's almost like treating young, small-time criminals harshly -essentially placing them outside mainstream society- sets them up for a life of petty crime on its fringes.

This is the consequence of treating what is essentially a social and health problem as a criminal one. It ensnares petty criminals and makes criminals out of short-sighted teenagers who thought they only having a night of fun.

It is also a prime example of societal hypocrisy. When we oppose the death sentences handed out to drug couriers, we are told that our sympathy is in the wrong place, that we should reserve it for of the drug users, and the addicts, and their families (as if empathy is a finite resource that must be rationed out rather than an essential component of a functioning society). As a recreational drug user, Rebecca surely falls into that second category. And yet, having already been through a traumatic experience, she is on track to receive, not sympathy, but a drug conviction.

In Russell Brand's documentary, End The Drugs War, professor Eamon McRory,of University College London, says that the problem with this hardline approach to drug use is that it fails to take into account why people take them in the first place. The harsh decision to charge a young woman, not with simple drug possession, but with supplying the drug that killed her best friend, exemplifies so much about what is wrong about our approach to fighting drugs.

From sniffer dogs that patrol train stations and music festivals to criminal charges such as this one, our laws ensnare recreational users, leaving them with a criminal record and a limited future for doing something that, while illegal and potentially harmful, is so ubiquitous in our culture it's sometimes easy to forget it's against the law.

11 percent of Australians over the age of 14 have tried ecstasy at least once. It is so mainstream, it features prominently in popular music such as Miley Cyrus's hit song We Can't Stop (the "dancing with molly" line is a reference to the drug's nickname), while this Alternet found at least 20 instances of recreational ecstasy use in recent US television shows, including Sex and the City prequel The Carrie Diaries, aimed, of course, at young women.

That's not to say that ecstasy should be decriminalised necessarily. Nor that Rebecca Hannibal should not receive any punishment. It may, however, serve the police well to put themselves in the mind of a young person who, whilst knowing on an intellectual level that the drug is illegal, is nonetheless, far more heavily influenced by her peers and popular culture.

With all this in mind, surely a more appropriate punishment would be one that helps Rebecca avoid re-offending, such as a diversion away from the criminal justice system? Of course, it may well be that she is not be convicted or the judge may decide not to record a conviction. Regardless, in the internet age, in such a high-profile case, much of the damage is sadly already done.

As for the drug war itself, I'm no Russell Brand; I don't think decriminalisation of all drugs will solve the problem. But it's hard to disagree with him when he says at the end of his documentary, "If the system isn't working, change the system."

Ultimately, I don't know what will prove the most effective way of curtailing the international drug trade. Perhaps a system based on compassion, empathy and harm minimisation would be a good start, one where we acknowledge wrongdoings but work towards rehabilitation and renewal rather than punishment and retribution.

Going after a teenage girl because she and her best friend, like so many others their age, decided to pop a couple of pills at a music festival, however, is unlikely to be of much help.

http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-an...a-bartters-ecstasy-death-20150212-13cvb5.html
 
NSW teen convicted for fatal drug supply

1011_bartter_9.ashx


A Sydney teenager whose best friend died after taking ecstasy she supplied her at a dance festival has been sentenced to 12 months good behaviour.

Rebecca Hannibal, 19, was convicted at Sydney's Downing Centre on Friday of supplying the drug which caused Georgina Bartter to collapse at Sydney's Harbourlife festival last November.

Ms Bartter, also 19, later died in St Vincent's Hospital from multiple organ failure.

In sentencing Hannibal, Judge Graeme Henson said a criminal conviction was necessary to reduce tragedies of this kind in the future.

"This conduct is a crime and should be acknowledged as such by the whole community," he told Downing Centre Local Court.

However, he said Hannibal's moral culpability was low, and that Ms Bartter would have been able to acquire the drugs on her own.

Judge Henson said the real evil lies in the organised criminals who produce and sell drugs in the knowledge they can cause harm.

Hannibal wept in court and embraced her parents upon hearing the verdict.

"Two young women, close friends, go out to enjoy a music festival. They make a foolish decision to buy and consume drugs. Only one comes home," Judge Henson said.

Friends of Ms Bartter told police that the University of Technology Sydney student had taken one and a half pills.

Judge Henson said a trail of text messages showed Hannibal purchased three ecstasy pills for Ms Bartter from someone they both knew.

Hannibal has moved interstate since the tragedy to avoid publicity, and is suffering from severe depression and anxiety, the court heard.


Read more at http://www.9news.com.au/national/20...entenced-over-drug-supply#AMt9sjfs2Lu9PLYh.99
 
i just had to double take this post the as i could not remember putting it up
 
Oh yeah I remember this one well.

She was so, so beautiful - what a tragic waste indeed :(
 
Which research chemical did Daniel Buccianti take? Or is it unknown?

I read that the family didn't want the toxicology report released.

While a toxicology report was conducted, revealing the presence of drugs including prescription medication, Ms Buccianti has requested details of the results not be reported.
 
Last edited:
Georgina Bartter drug dealer jailed at least 12 months

The Sydney teenager who supplied the MDMA that killed Georgina Bartter has been jailed for at least one year.

Matthew Forti, who has been on bail since his arrest, hugged his sobbing family and friends after the sentence was handed down in the District Court on Friday.

The 19-year-old had pleaded guilty to three counts of supplying the drug months after Miss Bartter died in November last year from cardiac arrest and drug overdose.

Forti had sold four MDMA tablets for $240 to Miss Bartter's best friend Rebecca Hannibal, for the teens to use.

Miss Bartter, who was also 19, collapsed and began convulsing at the Harbourlife festival in Sydney after taking one and a half tablets.

After her death, the court heard Forti had texted Hannibal saying "I'm so sorry for what happened. I can't explain it in words. I value you a lot as a friend and didn't want to bring this on my family nor my friends".

But despite the tragedy he continued dealing.

On January 10, Forti went to a party at Northbridge and sold MDMA to a friend.

A month later he was also making arrangements to supply MDMA at the State of Trance music festival.

Forti later told police: "I'm not a big fish. I just use and make sure my friends get safe pills".

In sentencing him on Friday, Judge Deborah Sweeney said it was likely he didn't not think of the consequences when he committed these offences.

While she said there wasn't a need for specific deterrence there was a need for general deterrence.

Hannibal was handed a nine-month good behaviour bond in June this year for drug supply.

Forti was sentenced to a maximum of 22 months and will be eligible for parole in August next year.


Read more at http://www.9news.com.au/national/20...ed-drug-immersed-in-scene#uWXSo6HKbk8aSb5q.99
 
So the person who actually sold her the drugs was given a suspended sentence, but the person who sold the drugs to the person who sold her the drugs copped a custodial sentence? That is honestly ridiculous.

The article condemning this dealer is fairly biased. Of course he kept selling the drugs, they weren't a bad batch. Was he supposed to take a financial loss and watch his friends and/or customers source drugs which were likely less reliable? From the prices he was charging I am guessing they were high dose MDMA Dutch imports. It is really unfortunate this girl died, but you don't see alcohol companies stop peddling their wares every time someone gets alcohol poisoning, how is this different?

From the quality of pills he had and the fact he said he makes sure his friends get quality pills, I can't help but feel this guy has been scapegoated for an unfortunate series of events. Even if drugs were legal, some people would die from taking them. All you can do is supply legit goods and tell the customer honestly what it is, beyond that the responsibility has to fall to the end user.
 
It is probably safe to say the girl who sold Bartter the drugs ratted him out, thus reducing her sentence and he choose to not rat out his own dealer thus copping the blame.
 
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