Cowboy Mac
Bluelighter
I expect Enlighten and Bluelight to play a major role if/when this occurs. props to waz for the OCRing. 
Keeping tabs on pills
Neil Wilson and Patrick O'Neil
GOVERNMENT labs could be used to analyse ecstasy and amphetamines sold in nightclubs to provide safety information to users, a drug expert says.
Professor Margaret Hamilton said weekly posters distributed to clubs could prevent users suffering sometimes disastrous consequences from impure mixes in drugs such as GHB.
Professor Hamilton, a senior member of the Premier's Drug Prevention Council, said the idea was one way of trying to connect with casual drug users and provide an alternative to unofficial drug websites.
But she stressed any such move would have to be carefully tested and assessed so it did not induce young people to experiment with drugs.
"It would be possible to pilot in a small way to have locally available products analysed by a government laboratory, then putting that information into the environment," she said.
"Having a poster in clubs to say: this is what was sold in Melbourne last week, this is what it contained."
Youth worker Les Twenty-man backed the call for government-sponsored drug testing. 'For nearly 10 years now kids have been consuming these drugs and they still can't find out what they are taking." he said.
"In Amsterdam and Germany, where they have drug testing, they never have kids die. When are we going to grow up as a nation and stop kids playing Russian roulette?"
Mr Twentyman's call comes after the death of a 19-year-old Sydney woman after she took a tablet called Red Mitsubishi on Friday.
The woman believed the tablet was ecstasy. Instead it contained killer ingredient para-methoxyamphetamine, or PMA.
Mr Twentyman slammed Prime Minister John Howard's chief drug adviser Major Brian Watters for pushing the drug debate in the wrong direction.
"If that girl had known what she was purchasing she wouldn't be dead." he said.
A spokeswoman for state Health Minister Bronwyn Pike said there were no plans to implement a testing scheme for drug users but analysis was done for police, paramedics and doctors.
Professor Hamilton said a key cause of overdoses from clubs was the varying strength of pills.
In Australia, there have been 15 ecstasy-related deaths in the past ten years. After-effects include depression, aggression and nausea.
"The community needs to come to terms with youth culture and stop thinking we can totally stop them having access to drugs or information on drugs," Professor Hamilton said.
Ravesafe and other groups were typical of government efforts that took a realistic view of getting information to young adult drug users.
Source: Herald Sun, 07/10/04, pg. 28.
and..
Users turn on to web safety net
Patrick O'Neil
SECONDS after clicking on to the net, drug users can see a review of any ecstasy pill available on Melbourne's black market Mitsubishis, Playboys, Motorolas, Dolphins and Smileys are scored out of 10 and tested for their main ingredients on one Australian site.
Users share experiences with specific tablets, often warning each other about dangerous varieties.
Site administrator Johnboy Davidson said the site offered warnings so users did not take drugs with lethal ingredients.
"We have a situation at the moment with Red Mitsubishi pills going around which could seriously harm people," he said.
The tablets are believed to contain PMA, a drug linked to one death and two near fatal-overdoses in Sydney in the past week, and six deaths in South Australia in 1997.
"The government websites are not going to warn you about that. They are not supplying information that will save lives, they are screaming in one direction," Mr Davidson said.
"People are going to take pills anyway, and if they have a choice between three then we want them to take the safest." On the website each tablet is described by colour, imprint, size and shape so users can identify the drugs they are considering taking.
Users are told how quickly the drug will take effect, how long it will last, what feeling it will induce, and what the after-effects will be.
Mr Davidson said drug users didn't visit government websites because most information and advertising was for parents' benefit and offered little practical advice.
"The Government has ads on TV where a kit in a body bag is saying 'you will die like them' which was not what they were experiencing," he said.
"The Government says if you touch drugs you are a bad person, we wash our hands of you. But one in five people in their 20s take drugs. They are not marginalised young people - they are us."
Mr Davidson also offers a drug-testing service at raves and nightclubs, despite it being illegal.
Source: Herald Sun, 07/10/04, pg. 28.
Keeping tabs on pills
Neil Wilson and Patrick O'Neil
GOVERNMENT labs could be used to analyse ecstasy and amphetamines sold in nightclubs to provide safety information to users, a drug expert says.
Professor Margaret Hamilton said weekly posters distributed to clubs could prevent users suffering sometimes disastrous consequences from impure mixes in drugs such as GHB.
Professor Hamilton, a senior member of the Premier's Drug Prevention Council, said the idea was one way of trying to connect with casual drug users and provide an alternative to unofficial drug websites.
But she stressed any such move would have to be carefully tested and assessed so it did not induce young people to experiment with drugs.
"It would be possible to pilot in a small way to have locally available products analysed by a government laboratory, then putting that information into the environment," she said.
"Having a poster in clubs to say: this is what was sold in Melbourne last week, this is what it contained."
Youth worker Les Twenty-man backed the call for government-sponsored drug testing. 'For nearly 10 years now kids have been consuming these drugs and they still can't find out what they are taking." he said.
"In Amsterdam and Germany, where they have drug testing, they never have kids die. When are we going to grow up as a nation and stop kids playing Russian roulette?"
Mr Twentyman's call comes after the death of a 19-year-old Sydney woman after she took a tablet called Red Mitsubishi on Friday.
The woman believed the tablet was ecstasy. Instead it contained killer ingredient para-methoxyamphetamine, or PMA.
Mr Twentyman slammed Prime Minister John Howard's chief drug adviser Major Brian Watters for pushing the drug debate in the wrong direction.
"If that girl had known what she was purchasing she wouldn't be dead." he said.
A spokeswoman for state Health Minister Bronwyn Pike said there were no plans to implement a testing scheme for drug users but analysis was done for police, paramedics and doctors.
Professor Hamilton said a key cause of overdoses from clubs was the varying strength of pills.
In Australia, there have been 15 ecstasy-related deaths in the past ten years. After-effects include depression, aggression and nausea.
"The community needs to come to terms with youth culture and stop thinking we can totally stop them having access to drugs or information on drugs," Professor Hamilton said.
Ravesafe and other groups were typical of government efforts that took a realistic view of getting information to young adult drug users.
Source: Herald Sun, 07/10/04, pg. 28.
and..
Users turn on to web safety net
Patrick O'Neil
SECONDS after clicking on to the net, drug users can see a review of any ecstasy pill available on Melbourne's black market Mitsubishis, Playboys, Motorolas, Dolphins and Smileys are scored out of 10 and tested for their main ingredients on one Australian site.
Users share experiences with specific tablets, often warning each other about dangerous varieties.
Site administrator Johnboy Davidson said the site offered warnings so users did not take drugs with lethal ingredients.
"We have a situation at the moment with Red Mitsubishi pills going around which could seriously harm people," he said.
The tablets are believed to contain PMA, a drug linked to one death and two near fatal-overdoses in Sydney in the past week, and six deaths in South Australia in 1997.
"The government websites are not going to warn you about that. They are not supplying information that will save lives, they are screaming in one direction," Mr Davidson said.
"People are going to take pills anyway, and if they have a choice between three then we want them to take the safest." On the website each tablet is described by colour, imprint, size and shape so users can identify the drugs they are considering taking.
Users are told how quickly the drug will take effect, how long it will last, what feeling it will induce, and what the after-effects will be.
Mr Davidson said drug users didn't visit government websites because most information and advertising was for parents' benefit and offered little practical advice.
"The Government has ads on TV where a kit in a body bag is saying 'you will die like them' which was not what they were experiencing," he said.
"The Government says if you touch drugs you are a bad person, we wash our hands of you. But one in five people in their 20s take drugs. They are not marginalised young people - they are us."
Mr Davidson also offers a drug-testing service at raves and nightclubs, despite it being illegal.
Source: Herald Sun, 07/10/04, pg. 28.
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