Prohibition to Blame for UK Ecstasy Deaths

[ro4eva]

I feel so sorry for the deceased individuals who passed away from unknowingly consuming PMMA. It must have been an especially difficult and distressful way to leave this world; this life.

There is no doubt that they'd still be alive today if they knew exactly what they were consuming, and also the dosage - as is typical in a regulated market.

How many more young men and women have to die needlessly before the prohibitionist twats come to their senses?

What a tragedy - all the more tragic because it has been happening over and over for several decades now. And for what? Because a bunch of politicians with zero first hand experience think they're drug gurus after they watched Blow and/or Trainspotting?

Sad fuckin' story.

 

[poledriver]

Superman ecstasy pills: drugs expert says government failed to act on warning

Dr Caroline Chatwin claims government agencies had not made public information on the dangers of the triangular-shaped pills

Some 120,000 "superman" ecstasy tablets were seized in Dublin in December 2014 Photo: Newsteam

A drugs policy expert has criticised the Government for failing to heed warnings about pills which have been linked to the deaths of four men.

Dr Caroline Chatwin, a criminologist from the University of Kent, said government agencies had not made public information on the dangers of the triangular-shaped pills, which are similar to ecstasy and bear a Superman logo, and had undermined their commitment to policies which claim to reduce harm through prohibition.

The pills are believed to be linked to the deaths of two men in Ipswich, Suffolk, on Christmas Day and New Year's Day, a third man in Rendlesham, and a fourth in Telford, Shropshire.
Ms Chatwin's claims came as tests by Suffolk Police found that the pills contained the dangerous ingredient PMMA.

She said: "The tragedy of the deaths of four young men over Christmas, which has been linked to pink Superman ecstasy pills, has been well reported in the media and has prompted the police to take the unprecedented move of declaring an 'amnesty' on these pills.

"Yet on December 19, five days before the first UK death, the Trimbos Institute, a centre of expertise on mental health and addiction based in Utrecht in the Netherlands, issued its highest alert possible on these same pink Superman pills after testing them and finding that they contained deadly PMMA."

She says the information was not acted on by the Government and only picked up by a few user and harm reduction-based internet research sites such as pillreports.net, ukchemicalresearch.org and the Loop – a substance outreach organisation that has been involved in the provision of pill testing at the Warehouse project in Manchester.

She said: "Although the connection between these recent deaths and a drug policy that is illogical and punitive, and which encourages the development of more toxic substances by cracking down on illegal drugs like MDMA, has been noted, few have picked up on the fact that detailed information on the harms of these pills was available in the week leading up to the deaths in the UK.

"The publication of the Dutch information on user-based internet sites provides an excellent example of harm reduction in action – something that ought to be organised and implemented by the Government and official drug services with their sophisticated European networks for sharing information on drugs.

"The failure on the part of the UK government to make public this knowledge means that they must take some responsibility for the events that unfolded, and seriously undermines their commitment to policies which reduce the harms caused by prohibition."

Just two days ago, Dr David Nutt, a former government drugs adviser who was sacked in 2009 after criticising its decision to toughen the law on cannabis, said current policy had targeted the production and sale of MDMA only to see it substituted by a more toxic substance.

Writing for The Guardian newspaper, he said that PMMA and its close relative PMA had been responsible for the majority of deaths, amounting to more than 100, attributed to ecstasy by the media in recent years.
He said: "The emergence of the more toxic PMA following the so-called 'success' in reducing MDMA production is just one of many examples of how prohibition of one drug leads to greater harm from an alternative that is developed to overcome the block."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...says-government-failed-to-act-on-warning.html

 

[Biscuit]

There is no question that the prohibition of MDMA and reducing its availability results in far worse consequences for the drug taking population and the community in general.

In Australia, and particularly Western Australia, we have a methamphetamine pandemic which shows no signs of abating. There is no question that one of the significant factors which has driven this explosion was the declining availability of quality MDMA pills (which commenced with the worldwide drought about five years ago) that resulted in many younger adults shifting to using methamphetamine in circumstances where many of them would not have done so. Crystal methamphetamine is by far the most popular and pervasive form, it being invariably smoked incessantly by a group of people festering together in a lounge room, as opposed to that same group getting off their arse, going out, and swallowing a tablet or two during a four hour stint on the dance floor (like I did in the late 90's and early to mid 2000s).

More concerning is that even though MDMA has now returned to Australia (albeit in insufficient quantities of generally low quality 40-80mg MDXX pills that those in the northern hemisphere would be embarrassed to be caught holding), drug users here continue to consume methamphetamine as their drug of choice, at a frequency far greater than they would if they just took MDMA when they went out on the weekends. Many users who have only been taking drugs or going out for a few years are not even properly familiar with using MDMA, and the many positives that this drug is capable of bringing to the individual, their friends and the scene in which they are part of (when used responsibly of course).

The police and the courts treat MDMA as just as bad and addictive as methamphetamine, because of course MDMA has methamphetamine in its name and therefore it must also be bad and addictive too. However, the sad reality is the crackdown and demonisation of MDMA has resulted in a far more dangerous and harmful drug taking over amongst the "recreational" drug taking population, a situation which will not alter until the users themselves realise what they are missing out on whilst wasting thousands on smoking crystal. If there was once again a demand for quality MDMA pills in the market, with supply and availability managing to respond accordingly, then I am certain that the use and associated harm of methamphetamine would be reduced on a significant and more sustained scale (a scale far greater than anything that the governments and their law enforcement agencies are ever going to achieve).

The tragedy which this thread is about would not have occurred if MDMA was available and criminals didn't try to peddle alternatives which nobody wants. Similarly, the declining availability of quality MDMA in other areas, drives that part of the population who are always going to use "something" towards more harmful and expensive substances, substances which by comparison are largely devoid of any redeeming qualities which you might expect in return for the negative consequences.

P.S: I am a frequent user of methamphetamine, so this is not about me having a particular prejudice towards this drug. But I grew up on MDMA pills (with speed only ever being merely a sideshow), pills which overall have enhanced my life far more than they have detracted from it. I doubt the same could be said for methamphetamine where, in relative terms, the enhancement is fleeting and the detraction more sustained.