(Victoria) Victorian Coroner recommends drug checking (inquest into 25C-NBOMe/4-FA deaths in Melbourne 2016-2017)

[Tronica]

Hello to the Australian Bluelight community

Some of you may recall the deaths and hospitalisations surrounding a capsule sold as MDMA that actually contained a combo of 25C-NBOMe/4-FA. At the time, Bluelight published a warning after we arranged for a sample of the substance to be tested by the Spanish lab Energy Control.

Over 4 years after those deaths, today, the Coroner Spanos has published her findings into five deaths where this combination was deemed to be the cause of death. I was invited to provide an expert report to the coroner. I've also written a piece for the Conversation.

The Coroner has made the following recommendations:

1. That the Department of Health, as the appropriate arm of the Victorian Government, implements a drug checking service in the State of Victoria as a matter of urgency, to reduce the number of preventable deaths (and other lesser harms) associated with the use of drugs obtained from unregulated drug markets.
2. That the Department of Health, as the appropriate arm of the Victorian Government, implements a drug early warning network in the State of Victoria as a matter of urgency, to reduce the number of preventable deaths (and other lesser harms) associated with the use of drugs obtained from unregulated drug markets.

I'm sure you will join me in congratulating the Coroner for supporting harm reduction initiatives that we at Bluelight have been pushing for over 20 years.

I hope this is only the beginning of further policy movement in access to drug checking services in Australia. If anything can come from these tragic and avoidable deaths, we hope it is policy change that might help communities of people who use drugs avoid higher-risk drugs like these ones in future.

 

[MazDan]

Thanks for posting Tronica.........popped in to do the same.

Hopefully sooner rather than later, someone will actually act on what is becoming an avalanche of recommendations.