NEWS: Party drug overdoses spark action - Herald Sun - 14/03/04

The code would operate on a voluntary basis and the model adopted would require endorsement by organisers, he said.

But if some organisers refused to comply, it could be made law.

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Pill cooks' deadly recipes
By CARLY CRAWFORD
14 Mar 2004

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.

Information can be given to Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

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The DIY line to oblivion
By Lucy Beaumont, Jamie Berry
John Elder, Nassim Khadem
Mark Russell, Kirsty Simpson
March 14, 2004

It's the DIY party drug for young ravers. So cheap and easy to make dealers are hardly necessary. It's an internet drug that can be concocted in the backyard. It took The Sunday Age 60 seconds to find the recipe online.

All these factors combine to make it a dangerously uncertain hit.

Gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB), also known as fantasy, GBH (grievous bodily harm), liquid ecstasy and liquid E, is a central nervous system depressant, an anaesthetic with sedative properties. It costs less than $5 a dose.

Last Sunday 11 people overdosed on GHB at the Two Tribes 2004 dance party at Melbourne Park. At 4pm the next day, a woman at the Earthcore dance party also ended up in hospital after taking GHB. At least six people have died after using the drug in NSW since 1999, and a long-serving nightclub first aid officer has told a Victorian parliamentary inquiry into "party drugs" he fears "numerous deaths in our state from depressant overdoses" because of poor management of party drugs by venue managers.

Ben Horan, a first aid officer for 10 years, says event organisers do not recognise if someone is overdosing on depressants. They evict them rather than get them help. In his submission he argues "the unstable nature of GHB contributes to the greatest number of medical emergencies I'm aware of out of all party drugs in current circulation".

GHB is a gutter drug - only one step up from chroming, one fiftysomething ecstasy dealer says. "The kids are making it themselves. It's not hard to do it, and it's cheap... The idea that organised crime is marketing the drug is a joke because there's no money in it."

It's the uncontrolled nature of GHB's manufacture and administration that inevitably leads to a rash of overdoses. And that, says the dealer, is bad for business. "If there's a risk that kids are gonna self-administer and overdose on their first hit... well, it's not good business sense, is it?"

Maybe it's the young age of GHB users but it seems that where there is GHB there are overdoses. St Vincent's Hospital emergency doctor Venita Munir has been tracking party drug admissions since late 2002. Her preliminary figures show there were 180 cases in 2003, 63 involving GHB. Most of the drug takers were aged in their early 20s, but St Vincent's has treated patients as young as 16 and one man in his 60s.

"It's not a new problem this week," Dr Munir says. "It's been ongoing and escalating for a number of years."

And it's a problem the kids using the drug know about. "Michelle" and her friends went to Two Tribes last Sunday with provisions for a big night. She passed through the dance party's gates with a small bottle containing GHB liquid. Her group bought 20 millilitres for $50, and each took a couple of millilitres about 11pm.

"Most people have it organised before they go or you can buy it from people there," she says. While aware of the drug's dangers, she hoped GHB would ease the body stiffness she usually got after taking ecstasy and enhance the pill's euphoria.

After the first dose, Michelle set an alarm on her mobile phone to go off four hours later. The alarm would prevent her from taking more G before the first lot had left her system.

"It depends on your size and the speed of your metabolism," she says. "You've got to be pretty wary."

One of her friends, a 19-year-old man, was less careful and she would find him hours later in The Alfred hospital's emergency ward.

At 1.23am ambulance officers collected their first GHB overdose from the rave. In all, six people would be taken to The Alfred and five to St Vincent's with the various symptoms of GHB overdose - drowsiness, tremors, fitting, speeding heart rate, breathing difficulties and, for some, unconsciousness.

Alfred associate charge nurse Peta Cleary was worried she would not have enough staff to meet demand. She feared a repeat of New Year's Day, when the hospital had 10 GHB cases in 24 hours.

GHB is cheap, easy to obtain and easy to take - factors that make it attractive to partygoers.

Its price has plummeted in the past 12 months because of the ease with which the required materials can be obtained, the larger number of people making the drug and its increased popularity.

Paul Dillon, information officer for the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, says: "It's been really fascinating to watch such a dramatic turnaround... where all of a sudden you're seeing it move from a very, very small subculture within a subculture to a far wider group of people."

According to Dr Cameron Duff, director of research at the Australian Drug Foundation's Centre for Youth Drug Studies, GHB can be purchased for as little as $2 a vial. Others, likeRaveSafe, say the average price is $5 to $10 a dose - still cheap compared with other drugs or a drink at the bar.

Inspector Steve James of Victoria Police's Drug and Alcohol Strategy Unit agrees that the drug has become easier to obtain. He says that previously GHB was imported but it is now more commonly produced in the backyard or in "clandestine laboratories".

GHB used to be bought as a powder and users would mix it with water. In this way, they were more likely to gauge the right dose for their body weight. Today, GHB is sold as a liquid and is more commonly made from a substance called 1,4B - a cleaning fluid that, when absorbed in the body, produces the same effect as GHB.

This means there is no way for users to know how much pure GHB they are taking. Just one extra millilitre can be the difference between life and death.

So what action is needed when there is such a fine line?

One of the organisers of the Two Tribes party, Future Entertainment director Jason Ayoubi, says every precaution was taken to prevent drugs being smuggled into the event.

He says a team of six doctors, eight nurses and two first aid volunteers had been on hand. They were in constant radio contact with 160 security guards and response time for anyone in medical need was between one and two minutes.

"We're not putting our heads in the sand. We know that drug use does occur at our events," Mr Ayoubi says.

Enlighten is a volunteer group that is lobbying the Government to introduce laboratories, such as those in Europe, in which the public can test the quality of drugs.

It's a suggestion included in the Youth Substance Abuse Service's submission to the parliamentary inquiry into "party drug" use in Victoria. The group calls for a regulatory framework for dance venues, including temperature management, free water, chill-out areas, on-site drug testing and first aid. So too does the Victorian Alcohol and Drug Association. It says there needs to be clearer duty-of-care requirements.

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Up the Creek, they're raving over dance and drugs
By Renee Barnes, John Elder
March 14, 2004

In a chill-out tent yesterday morning at the Rowallan Boy Scout Adventure Camp, Riddells Creek, liquid light played on the canvas walls, marijuana was burning, beer was bubbling and ecstasy, amphetamines and acid were the drugs of choice.

Where was security?

The young fellow rolling a fresh joint in the corner laughed and said: "I've just been working security at the gate." But the website for the Earth Alien 3 dance party said no alcohol, no drugs. He laughed again and said the directive was a diversion.

Somebody else said: "There's no way they could search you for pills."

(Indeed, when we drove up to the gate of the venue, we were given a garbage bag for our rubbish, best wishes for the weekend ahead, and sent into the party with no questions asked.) A few minutes later the lad in the corner said: "Hey, are you guys interested in buying a couple of pills?"

The Earth Alien 3 website posted its own warning: "We do not want GHB at this event period. If you are found with GHB you will be escorted from the venue."

Posted soon after last weekend's overdose plague at the Two Tribes debacle, the no GHB directive wasn't actively policed - but none of the stoned souls that The Sunday Age spoke with showed any enthusiasm for the DIY depressant.

One 20-year-old woman said the bush rave attracted an older crowd than the Two Tribes event and "you wouldn't get anyone using GHB here".

"It's a gutter drug," said Panda, 21. "It has no place at a rave."

"It's dirty," said Scotty, 18. "Anyone using it is not informed."

Informed about what? "That it's made from CD cleaner," said Scotty, who was giggling on acid at the time.

"This is a more psychedelic event than I've been to before," said Scotty, surveying with wonder the giant, glow-in-the-dark mushrooms planted around the dance area and the pretty circus lights strung over the various marquees. Scotty and mate Peter tried to talk seriously about GHB but were too distracted by their new telepathic powers.

"We can hear each other's voices in our heads," said Scotty.

"We're on a higher plane," said Peter.

Despite the smiley mood of the 170 people dancing in the trees or just wandering around, few would talk to a newspaper - certainly not the little crew snorting lines of amphetamine in the chill-out tent, or the blissed boys sitting in fold-out chairs at the back of the dance area, one of them nursing a mull bowl of marijuana as the bong was passed along.

Between 400 and 500 people were expected to turn up last night, when the party was expected to be "peaking". Most of the crowd looked to be in their 20s, with a smattering of older (even greying) enthusiasts, and many apparently followed the rave circuit around the state.

They described the event, which continues until this afternoon, as "more mellow" and less commercial than last weekend's Two Tribes and Earthcore events. It was certainly a less regulated affair.

Along with its promise of "licensed" security - an uncounted number of pepped-up groovers in fluorescent vests - the Earth Alien website also said there would be trained first aid people on site.

We kept returning to the first aid tent only to find three fire extinguishers, a fold-out deckchair and the DJ schedule - no bottles of oxygen, no warm blanket or stretcher. No bag of medicine either. Of course, everyone had taken their pills by then.

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Police push to change onus of guilt on suppliers
By Kirsty Simpson
State reporter
March 14, 2004

The Victoria Police wants tougher laws to prosecute illegal drug manufacturers.

The police want to remove the presumption of innocence for people found with substantial quantities of ingredients used to make illegal drugs. It would mean that people caught with such ingredients would be presumed guilty unless they could persuade the courts they were not planning to use them to make illicit drugs.

Or, if this was unacceptable, police suggested the Government consider introducing a new offence of possession of precursor chemicals or drug manufacturing equipment without a lawful excuse.

The proposals are being considered by a state parliamentary committee, due to report on its Inquiry into Amphetamine and "Party Drug" Use in mid-April.

A spokesman for Police Minister Andre Haermeyer said the idea of a new offence "had some merit" but the Government would wait until the report was handed down before it commented further.

The police say the overhaul is needed because it is too difficult to successfully prosecute drug manufacturers under the current laws and that a "reverse onus of proof" should apply in cases where it is reasonably suspected the chemicals would be used to make illegal drugs.

"For a prosecution to succeed under the current legislation police must first prove that a defendant found in possession of certain materials has done so in the knowledge that the materials are for the illicit manufacture of drugs. Under this section prosecutions usually only succeed where the accused makes admissions as to their intent," police submitted to the inquiry.

"It is rare for a single individual in a criminal syndicate to possess all the precursors and equipment used in the manufacturing process. Usually the chemicals and other materials required . . . are deliberately stored separately.

"It is only when the actual manufacturing process is in progress and all the chemicals and materials are present that the difficulty of proving intent is lessened."

The Criminal Bar Association, Victoria Legal Aid and the Law Institute of Victoria oppose the proposal, saying it would erode civil rights.

"We are deeply troubled by the view that the law should be altered and citizens' rights to the presumption of innocence be removed simply because the police find it difficult to gather sufficient evidence of the requisite quality to establish a conviction," law institute president Chris Dale told the inquiry.

Victoria Legal Aid managing director Tony Parsons was not convinced the change would produce more convictions.

"The police proposal to reverse the onus of proof in respect of the manufacturing offence... raises the real possibility of innocent persons who, unable to establish their innocence, may be wrongly convicted of serious criminal offences," he said.

The Criminal Bar Association and law institute prefer the second option of creating a new offence of possession without lawful excuse.

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Internet plays a part in escalating drug problem
By Nassim Khadem
March 14, 2004

The recipe for GHB is widely available on the internet, and has been for years, making it accessible for young users, according to police and leading researchers.

A search by The Sunday Age took less than 60 seconds to find step-by-step instructions on how to make the dangerous drug.

One website even had two recipes on how to make GHB, or gamma hydroxybutyrate. It listed the exact chemicals, equipment and dosages needed to make the drug, with safety tips on handling the substances.

Inspector Steve James of the Victoria Police drug and alcohol strategy unit, said that with importations of GHB becoming less common, home production of the drug was on the rise.

He conceded that the internet also played a part in its illegal manufacture. "It's not hard to get the recipe," he said.

Inspector James said the danger was that inexperienced people who tried to make the drug could make mistakes and concoct lethal recipes.

Cameron Duff, director of research at the Australian Drug Foundation's Centre for Youth Drug Studies, said that because GHB was sold in the form of 1,4B, a cleaning fluid, the materials were not difficult to obtain and put together. "I've been told that anyone with basic undergraduate chemistry can manufacture it," he said.

Dr Duff said he knew of cases of medical students making GHB for personal use by "finding chemicals from hospitals and basically cooking up a batch".

Natalie Russell of RaveSafe said she believed "more people are making the substance themselves and selling it themselves", because the ingredients were easily obtained.

But John Davidson from volunteer group Enlighten did not believe the chemicals were that accessible. He said "some people in certain industries" were able to get hold of the materials, but believed it would be difficult for young users who were not familiar with the drug.

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Scotty and mate Peter tried to talk seriously about GHB but were too distracted by their new telepathic powers.

"We can hear each other's voices in our heads," said Scotty.

"We're on a higher plane," said Peter.

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I also heard on Triple J they are planning to increase awareness via peer educators. I especially like the compulsory pass outs, well ventilated chill out spaces and free drinking water. Sounds like positive steps forward, lets hope when the recommendations are drafted we can alert those to which clubs are not complying.

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GHB used to be bought as a powder and users would mix it with water. In this way, they were more likely to gauge the right dose for their body weight. Today, GHB is sold as a liquid and is more commonly made from a substance called 1,4B - a cleaning fluid that, when absorbed in the body, produces the same effect as GHB.

This means there is no way for users to know how much pure GHB they are taking. Just one extra millilitre can be the difference between life and death.

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SUPERVISE toilets to deter drug deals from taking place.

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