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Bluelight Crew
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Pill cooks' deadly recipes
14mar04
REVELLERS are swallowing toxic chemical cocktails containing lethal drugs, caffeine, hayfever medicine and even flour, forensic tests reveal.
Scientific analysis of tablets sold as ecstasy show that more than half the pills seized in Victoria last year contained little or no MDMA - the main chemical in genuine ecstasy tablets.
Pill cooks replaced MDMA with dangerous, unmeasured quantities of other knock-out chemicals found in epilepsy medication, cold and flu tablets and hayfever relievers.
After 10 people overdosed on GHB at the Two Tribes rave last week, the Sunday Herald Sun began an investigation into drug use among rave party-goers. Among the findings were:
REGULAR ecstasy users are snorting the drug Special K, a veterinary anaesthetic, because they no longer get the same effects from "E".
ONE QUARTER of ecstasy users admit they do not know what is in the drugs they are taking.
MOST tablets are cooked in grimy backyard laboratories, even though dealers boast they originate from international party destinations.
BODY-BUILDERS are using GHB to knock themselves out under the mistaken belief that the body releases muscle-building chemicals while comatose.
Paramedics say ecstasy is now the drug of choice among rave-goers, but GHB (gamma hydroxybutyrate) is more harmful because of its unpredictable and extreme effects.
Metropolitan Ambulance Service paramedic Alan Eade said GHB users were risking their lives.
Last year, a staggering 180 people sought emergency treatment at Melbourne's St Vincent's Hospital after taking so-called party drugs, with GHB involved in one third of the cases. The majority, 42 per cent, were linked to ecstasy.
Outreach group Enlighten is concerned that a potentially deadly substance used in perfumes is being substituted for MDMA ingredients.
"It's highly toxic and if a mass batch goes out, people will start dropping - there is no doubt about it," a spokesman said.
The drug PMA, paramethoxy amphetamine, has the same euphoric effects as MDMA but is stronger and more toxic and has caused deaths in South Australia.
Of the tablets described as ecstasy and analysed in the Victoria Police laboratory last year, only 47 per cent contained MDMA as the main ingredient.
In 13 per cent, methylamphetamines were the main drug, 38 per cent had ketamine as the main component and 2 per cent contained either no drugs or minor drugs such as caffeine.
Forensic Services drug branch manager Cate Quinn said it was impossible for users to know what they were getting.
Victoria Police drug and alcohol unit manager Inspector Steve James urged Victorians to expose drug manufacturers by looking for signs of clandestine laboratories such as unusual odours, caravans on the premises or discarded chemical containers.
Link
14mar04
REVELLERS are swallowing toxic chemical cocktails containing lethal drugs, caffeine, hayfever medicine and even flour, forensic tests reveal.
Scientific analysis of tablets sold as ecstasy show that more than half the pills seized in Victoria last year contained little or no MDMA - the main chemical in genuine ecstasy tablets.
Pill cooks replaced MDMA with dangerous, unmeasured quantities of other knock-out chemicals found in epilepsy medication, cold and flu tablets and hayfever relievers.
After 10 people overdosed on GHB at the Two Tribes rave last week, the Sunday Herald Sun began an investigation into drug use among rave party-goers. Among the findings were:
REGULAR ecstasy users are snorting the drug Special K, a veterinary anaesthetic, because they no longer get the same effects from "E".
ONE QUARTER of ecstasy users admit they do not know what is in the drugs they are taking.
MOST tablets are cooked in grimy backyard laboratories, even though dealers boast they originate from international party destinations.
BODY-BUILDERS are using GHB to knock themselves out under the mistaken belief that the body releases muscle-building chemicals while comatose.
Paramedics say ecstasy is now the drug of choice among rave-goers, but GHB (gamma hydroxybutyrate) is more harmful because of its unpredictable and extreme effects.
Metropolitan Ambulance Service paramedic Alan Eade said GHB users were risking their lives.
Last year, a staggering 180 people sought emergency treatment at Melbourne's St Vincent's Hospital after taking so-called party drugs, with GHB involved in one third of the cases. The majority, 42 per cent, were linked to ecstasy.
Outreach group Enlighten is concerned that a potentially deadly substance used in perfumes is being substituted for MDMA ingredients.
"It's highly toxic and if a mass batch goes out, people will start dropping - there is no doubt about it," a spokesman said.
The drug PMA, paramethoxy amphetamine, has the same euphoric effects as MDMA but is stronger and more toxic and has caused deaths in South Australia.
Of the tablets described as ecstasy and analysed in the Victoria Police laboratory last year, only 47 per cent contained MDMA as the main ingredient.
In 13 per cent, methylamphetamines were the main drug, 38 per cent had ketamine as the main component and 2 per cent contained either no drugs or minor drugs such as caffeine.
Forensic Services drug branch manager Cate Quinn said it was impossible for users to know what they were getting.
Victoria Police drug and alcohol unit manager Inspector Steve James urged Victorians to expose drug manufacturers by looking for signs of clandestine laboratories such as unusual odours, caravans on the premises or discarded chemical containers.
Link
