JB, the main reason given in responce to the question of why lab results from police seizures (even just the 'bad' pills) aren't released to the public, relates to police intelligence. Their problem is what announcing busts of certain brands could do to hampering further investigations.
Assume such a policy existed that required bad analysis results to be publicly announced. If pill X was discovered to be containing PMA, on any moral basis results would have to be announced as soon as were available. But what if the cops were getting ready to bust another part of the syndicate - say in another city. Suddenly everyone is aware pill X men have gone down.
The argument therefore is: would busting all of an already partly distributed shipment - at the cost of withholding info - be less dangerous than releasing the info to the public ASAP and having the rest of the pills disappear then reappear on the street quietly six months later?
Biscuit mentions liability. The state police and health departments are both formidable forces, but each is eager not to encroach on the others ground. If such a policy became protocol, then the liability issue would obviously be a huge headache. A lack of product quality control and contamination from inadequate packaging etc are fundamental issues of non-compliance. If these could somehow be satisfied there is still the problem of MDMA itself. Definitely not benign in nature, it’s certainly not ever likely to be rescheduled for recreational use.
An MDMA related death under such a policy may involve allegations of neglect and condoning use. Insurance companies would rewrite contracts.
Official testing and the releasing of results, appears to be way too hard at present, if simply because it requires so many changes to current legislation.
On the JJJ announcement, Paul Dillon did say one positive thing in amongst his hasty comments. Testing kits CAN indicate the presence of PMA. Of course most of us already know the E2 states this, but to have someone in his position announce it is quite a step forward. After all, surely he wouldn’t have said it in a harm minimisation context if he didn’t advocate using kits as a means of identifying PMA.
Also I think it’s reasonable to assume that if the 9-11 security responses do impact heavily upon drug smuggling, local production would be expected to increase to compensate. And as PMA is considered easier to produce…..
Test your pills, and spread the word about PMA
