trainwreckmolly
Bluelighter
Popping pills is like playing Russian roulette with your life
Matthew Fynes-Clinton
March 30, 2009
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25266092-952,00.html
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ON the street, two pills each bearing an omega symbol are marketed as the illicit drug ecstasy. But one is an impostor and far more likely to be lethal.
PMA (paramethoxyamphetamine) has been responsible for killing 10 young Australians in the past decade.
It is produced when one of the ingredients used to synthesise ecstasy becomes scarce and a more commonly available chemical is swapped.
With superior toxicity to ecstasy - or MDMA (methylenedioxymeth-amphetamine) - just 50mg of the compound can lead to sudden death. All it takes is slightly more than one PMA pill.
Both omega tablets were captured in police operations and sent for analysis to Queensland Health Forensic and Scientific Services.
Their similar appearance underscores the substitution racket turning ecstasy use into an increasingly hazardous affair.
Popular culture logos, stamped by backyard pill presses, are copied regularly and do not indicate any particular substance.
In this case, the ecstasy pill also was found to contain traces of MDA - MDMA'S more toxic and hallucinogenic cousin.
Today, The Courier-Mail can reveal a range of bogus contents purporting to be ecstasy after securing the release of screening results from pills and capsules seized over the past year.
LSD was the sole active ingredient in some pills.
Others were composed entirely of the anabolic steroid methandienone.
Uncovered constituents included methamphetamine (speed), the veterinary anaesthetic ketamine, the tranquilliser diazepam, the analgesic tramadol, the anxiety disorder treatment alprazolam - and oxycodone, an opioid almost as powerful as morphine.
Despite a street price of $25 to $40 a pill, some "eccies" were also found to contain only caffeine. Sometimes no drugs were present.
Detective Acting Inspector Kerry Johnson, of the State Drug Squad, said "arsenic, strychnine and Ratsak" had been identified in street pills before.
"It's Russian roulette," he said.
Matthew Fynes-Clinton
March 30, 2009
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25266092-952,00.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ON the street, two pills each bearing an omega symbol are marketed as the illicit drug ecstasy. But one is an impostor and far more likely to be lethal.
PMA (paramethoxyamphetamine) has been responsible for killing 10 young Australians in the past decade.
It is produced when one of the ingredients used to synthesise ecstasy becomes scarce and a more commonly available chemical is swapped.
With superior toxicity to ecstasy - or MDMA (methylenedioxymeth-amphetamine) - just 50mg of the compound can lead to sudden death. All it takes is slightly more than one PMA pill.
Both omega tablets were captured in police operations and sent for analysis to Queensland Health Forensic and Scientific Services.
Their similar appearance underscores the substitution racket turning ecstasy use into an increasingly hazardous affair.
Popular culture logos, stamped by backyard pill presses, are copied regularly and do not indicate any particular substance.
In this case, the ecstasy pill also was found to contain traces of MDA - MDMA'S more toxic and hallucinogenic cousin.
Today, The Courier-Mail can reveal a range of bogus contents purporting to be ecstasy after securing the release of screening results from pills and capsules seized over the past year.
LSD was the sole active ingredient in some pills.
Others were composed entirely of the anabolic steroid methandienone.
Uncovered constituents included methamphetamine (speed), the veterinary anaesthetic ketamine, the tranquilliser diazepam, the analgesic tramadol, the anxiety disorder treatment alprazolam - and oxycodone, an opioid almost as powerful as morphine.
Despite a street price of $25 to $40 a pill, some "eccies" were also found to contain only caffeine. Sometimes no drugs were present.
Detective Acting Inspector Kerry Johnson, of the State Drug Squad, said "arsenic, strychnine and Ratsak" had been identified in street pills before.
"It's Russian roulette," he said.

