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NEWS: News.com.au - 24/01/10 'Cheap, deadly ecstasy pills hit streets'

hoptis

hoptis

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Cheap, deadly ecstasy pills hit streets
By Todd Cardy and Anthony Deceglie
From: NewsCore
January 24, 2010 3:25AM

917542-news-image-drugs-20100124.jpg

There are fears cheaper ecstasy means more overdoses could occur Source: Supplied

ECSTASY pills are getting cheaper and more dangerous, a new national study has revealed.

The drug's street price in Western Australia alone dropped for the first time last year to hit a new low, Perth Now reports.

The National Drug Research Institute said that an ecstasy pill in Western Australia cost on average $35, $5 less than in 2008, after years of stable prices.

Survey results also showed that young users were taking the party drug more often and in bigger quantities.

A study of 100 regular users found the number who binged on the drug rose from 22 per cent in 2008 to 40 per cent in 2009.

Daniel Fatovich, an emergency medicine specialist at Royal Perth Hospital, warned that cheaper prices meant more Western Australians could afford multiple pills, increasing the risk of overdoses.

The drop in Perth's ecstasy price was the first recorded by researchers for the national Ecstasy and Related Drugs Reporting System, which monitors trends in the drug's price, purity and availability.

The 2009 survey also found while other drugs were in decline, ecstasy was more popular. The majority of users took at least two pills a night.

Ecstasy purity also fluctuated, with pills now more likely to contain harmful substances.

Detective superintendent Charlie Carver, of the Serious and Organised Crime Squad, said many seized ecstasy pills contained harmful chemicals such as chalk and washing powder.

There was a significant drop last year in the use of speed, crystal methamphetamine and cocaine.



News.com.au
 

New drug fears as cheap, deadly ecstasy pills hit streets
By TODD CARDY and ANTHONY DECEGLIE
From: The Sunday Times
January 23, 2010 7:00PM

ECSTASY has never been cheaper or more dangerous in Perth, a major new study reveals.

The street price is the lowest it has been - dropping for the first time last year.

The National Drug Research Institute states that an ecstasy pill in WA costs on average $35 - $5 less than in 2008- after years of stable prices.

A new authoritative survey also found that young users were taking the party drug more often and in bigger quantities. The study of 100 regular users found the number who binged on the drug rose from 22 per cent in 2008 to 40 per cent in 2009.

Royal Perth Hospital emergency 2medicine specialist Daniel Fatovich warned that cheaper prices meant more West Australians could afford multiple pills, increasing the risk of overdoses.

"My experience from talking to users is that the price of amphetamine-related drugs like ecstasy has gone down in the past 12 months," he said.

"I would certainly say in the last few months presentations from drug abuse are becoming more common." A 27-year-old man was in a critical condition last night from a suspected drug overdose at the Big Day Out in Sydney.

Last year in Perth, teenager Gemma Thoms collapsed at a Big Day Out event and died in hospital

The drop in Perth's ecstasy price is the first recorded by researchers for the national Ecstasy and Related Drugs Reporting System, which began in 2003 and reports on trends in price, purity and availability of the drug.

Preliminary analysis of the 2009 WA survey, which will be published in full next month, found that while other drug use had dropped, ecstasy was proving more popular. The majority of users took at least two pills a night.

Ecstasy purity also fluctuated, with pills more likely to contain harmful substances.

The survey also found that users were mainly men in their early 20s, mostly tertiary educated and of English-speaking backgrounds.

There was a significant drop last year in the use of speed, crystal methamphetamine and cocaine.

Prof Fatovich said a group of men in their early 20s were recently treated at the RPH emergency department for ecstasy abuse after attending a music festival. "For two of them it caused heart damage and one of them had to be admitted to the Coronary Care Unit for several days," he said. "That's all from one ecstasy tablet."

Det-Supt Charlie Carver, of the Serious and Organised Crime Squad, said many seized ecstasy pills contained harmful chemicals such as chalk and washing powder.

This week, PerthNow revealed that 1060 children were admitted to emergency departments across Perth last year for drug or alcohol abuse, compared with 893 children treated in 2005.


Perth Now
 
Add your comments on these articles:

Cheap, deadly ecstasy pills hit streets

New drug fears as cheap, deadly ecstasy pills hit streets

Am I not the only one who is noticing, and perhaps this is related to school holidays, that more than a majority of comments on these articles so far are anti-prohibition or at critical of supply reduction as a means to address the problem.

Thank you to those of you who regularly join in on these sites to add your opinions, it's especially encouraging seeing the number of comments in support of pill testing as a means to reduce ecstasy-related harm.

NOTE: This thread is not an excuse for price discussion.
 
Daniel Fatovich, an emergency medicine specialist at Royal Perth Hospital, warned that cheaper prices meant more Western Australians could afford multiple pills, increasing the risk of overdoses.
Click to expand...

You'd be hard pressed to overdose on the actual MDMA content these days, unless you got your pills confused with M&M's :|

Anyway, this is nothing that isn't known to the people inside the MDMA scene for years. Purity is dropping, and with it, price. Quality is lower, people are consuming more, and because of that they're refusing to spend as much as they used to.

I do love that they just couldn't resist throwing the 'deadly' in there though, in both cases :|
 
In the Sunday Time's today there was a massive write-up about drug's, and what parent's should no.

Wasn't just about Ecstasy though, they had information about Herion, GHB, Marijuana, LSD, Amphetamine, Coke+Speed. No surprise though that half the information given was bullshit.
 
Deadly? Alcohol is more dangerous than MDMA. That price is just so ridiculios too LOL as if people buy it for that much, and yea agreed with Kingpin, the price only drops because everyone realized that there shit and not worth it.

Where are these journalist getting there information from? MDMA isnt deadly and definitely not cheap even tho it dropped by $5 according to that article.
 
Jakeperson said:
In the last few years the price of pills has almost doubled here in Adelaide, from the same sources.

Quality has degraded though.


This is just ridiculous IMO.
Click to expand...

Def. hasn't doubled for me, I'm finding them cheaper than 2 years ago, not by much though :p
 
GurnEr JoshE said:
In the Sunday Time's today there was a massive write-up about drug's, and what parent's should no.

Wasn't just about Ecstasy though, they had information about Herion, GHB, Marijuana, LSD, Amphetamine, Coke+Speed. No surprise though that half the information given was bullshit.
Click to expand...

That was such a ridiculous article, and some of the side effects were just stupid.
 
Quote:

"Ecstasy purity also fluctuated, with pills now more likely to contain harmful substances"

One sentence???? Just one??? This one sentence is pretty much what the whole problem is about. Pills today are getting adulterated with absolute shit because its harder to get MDMA now and the demand is higher then ever. So the people with the pill press's are going to put what ever they can in their pills to meet the demand.

Its irresponsible for the Sunday Times to write an article like this without the proper research. Just because people are taking pills out there with logo's pressed into them under the pretence that they are buying MDMA, then getting sick from having taken some shitty chemical coctail that is so far from real ecstacy. Then they put the blame on ecstacy/MDMA. MDMA is not the problem its the ecstacy mimic shit thats flooding the streets now.

How many times do you hear about people being busted with pills which they always call ecstacy?? I'd love to know how often the content of these pills turn out to be something else, I'd wager more often then not.

These media outlets need to focus their attention on the fact that pure MDMA is extremely hard to get now days in Australia because of prohibition. And that adulterated pills are whats causing the majority of the problems that we face in this scene in Australia.
 
^^^

Agreed, I hate nothing more then reading articles that give missleading information and agree 100% that it's irresponsible to do so. Especially considering 95% of the readers wouldn't know better.
 
Why don't they realize that people are never going to stop doing drugs and instead of letting people buy their pills from shady dealers who don't give a shit about your safety let people buy safe pills made by professionals who know what there doing! It's so frustrating.

Edit:
Sorry Seith man, didn't read that.
 
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blode said:
Why don't they realize that people are never going to stop doing drugs and instead of letting people buy their pills from shady dealers who don't give a shit about your safety let people buy safe pills made by professionals who know what there doing! It's so frustrating.

Also I can't believe that in W.A you have to pay $xx for a pill!?
In Melbourne it's $xx for normal pills or $xx for high quality pills.
Click to expand...
hoptis said:
NOTE: This thread is not an excuse for price discussion.
Click to expand...

Loved this line "Detective superintendent Charlie Carver, of the Serious and Organised Crime Squad, said many seized ecstasy pills contained harmful chemicals such as chalk and washing powder." Chalk and Washing powder wouldn't be the first things I thought of when talking about adulterated pills.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
blode said:
Why don't they realize that people are never going to stop doing drugs and instead of letting people buy their pills from shady dealers who don't give a shit about your safety let people buy safe pills made by professionals who know what there doing! It's so frustrating.

Also I can't believe that in W.A you have to pay $xx for a pill!?
In Melbourne it's $xx for normal pills or $xx for high quality pills.
Click to expand...

Yeah the prices are pretty crap here compared to over east.
I'll have to scout out for the article and give it a good read
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Both calcium carbonate and calcium sulphate (chalk) are used extensively in the pharmaceutical industry as excipients (binders), so there's little argument as to the potential danger of these if found in Ecstasy tablets i.e. the danger is negligible in relation to normal dosages. Washing powder - if the claim is true - could mean anything. However, anything alkali would react with the MDMA salt if moisture was present, so I'd doubt very much these are commonly found excipients.

That principle reason pills have become more dangerous is that MDMA has been effectively limited in supply due to LE successes. Authorities can state this or that to back their cause, or blame suppliers, consumers etc, but as has been said many times, supply reduction needs to mirror demand reduction for LE practices to lessen the harm of drugs to the individual and community at large.
 
phase_dancer said:
supply reduction needs to mirror demand reduction for LE practices to lessen the harm of drugs to the individual and community at large.
Click to expand...

I dont quite understand this quote PD.

Demand generally stays high for these substances. How can they reduce the demand at the same time as reducing supply? Or should they allow a suitable amount of supply to mirror demand?

The law makers and law enforcers dont really give a fuck about real harm reduction practices.
 
my innerself said:
I dont quite understand this quote PD.

Demand generally stays high for these substances. How can they reduce the demand at the same time as reducing supply?
Click to expand...

They CAN'T.
But what phase_dancer is saying is that that is what they would need to do to reduce harm. Of course it's impossible. So by limiting supply, they are just causing incredible harm because the demand is still massive.
 
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