Death at Happy Valley Full Moon Festival & Bad XTC?

In today's Sydney Morning Herald (http://www.smh.com.au/news/0002/21/national/national11.html) there was a report of some "bad" XTC going around -allegedly causing 6 people to end up in Hospital and 1 death. Does anyone know what type of pills these were? What were the "brands" and/or "markings"? We sure need to avoid these suckers like the plague!

I think it was not so much a 'bad' batch but the guy having taken too much of everything and generally going too hard. The Telegraph said he hadn't slept for 3 days and had a 'lethal cocktail', but was pretty unspecific.
I would say that the other hospitalisations that occurred were due to personal health problems unrelated to any kind of 'bad' pills. Probably just people not knowing thier limits.
Shitty and very sobering thing to happen though, goes to show that you can never be too careful. My sincerest regrets go out to his family and friends.
Also, Bluelighters- I was at the designated place at the right time. Where was everybody???
[This message has been edited by Milkybar (edited 20 February 2000).]

I heard they were green/gold caps.
So god knows what was in them...
There were other people taken to hospital as well - Anyone know about them?
had a mad night on the new batch of supermen anyway.
theyre Gr8!!
------------------

~** Happy ValleY was unreal, Plus reccomend Blue Crowns ***~ Sad about the death.

I have one word for the poor fool who died:
MODERATION.
d.

I'm knackered after 1 night. I couldn't even think about trying 3 days without sleep, food, or rest.

News on the guy that died.
Damn it sucks that this had to happen cuase you all know that someones irresponsible behaviour has made all of us pill monsters look bad.
A friend from work knew the guy at Happy Valley and was with him lots of the time. This is what she said.
"He did not sleep at all, had been drinking 3 days straight, on sunday alone he had 7 pills and speed to go with it."
Hmmm let me think. No wonder he fucking died. Drinking would have dehydrated him as is and his heart would have been going apeshit from all the other chems.
Go hard people and have a great time but there is no need to go that hard.
------------------
Life is short, Roll hard

yep i am disgusted with the whole thing.
the media, anna wood's parents etc have swung into action, no more raves, we have to do something etc etc.
i think in this case there is a problem with a 3 day rave such as this, it was bound to happen.
but it makes me mad. i feel terrible about what happen to anna wood, but i would be tempted to say to her parents, if she'd been out with me that night, she would be stil here.
and they r still targeting ecstasy specifically, not drugs in general. half these idiots that just go out there and pop any pill probably don't know the difference between speed, MDMA, ketamine etc. poor education. recently i have just dealt with a friend u prob had 100mg of MDMA 3 times in 3 days. well she is lucky to be here. i am sooo angry with her, don't people understand it is a once a 2/3 week thing tops.

just caught an interview with a guy from the drug info agency.
as a chemist what he said shat me off, he didn't know what he was talking about.
he correctly said that many X pills coming from SE Asia probably had adulterants then mentioned locally made paramethamphetamine as a BIG danger.
FUCKWIT. its paraMETHOXYamphetamine. he said it was a very dangerous FORM of ecstasy. it is NOT a form of X, it bears NO resemblance to MDXX compounds, in structure and effects. it is a form of amphetamine and has amphetamine like effects.
God if the spokesman for the drug info agency doesn't know what he's talking about, then what does that say about the organisation itself.

Did anyone watch 'today tonight' last night? They had a little segment on raves and happy valley.
"ecstasy, speed, cocaine, acid and maybe the odd bit of heroin,... it was those drugs that turned happy valley into death valley."
yeah ok! 1 death in 6000 it was really death valley wasn't it. what about the other 5999 or so people that took these drugs and didn't end up dead.

Next wednesday www.kgrindtv.com (Battery channel)is going to have info and a forum on this issue. If anyone wants to hear from the promoters, 'experts', or have their say, it would be good to take a look.
It will also attempt to uncover the 'alleged' death at The Big Day Out.
Well, at least the ABC and the Herald were a bit more balanced about the whole thing. 1 in 2,500 people die from alcohol-related deaths every year (!!!)- not a story apparently.
PLUR, people.
the furry-eared one.

Just a note from someone who has managed to get around the scary bits for over ten years..... three days is just too long, common sense would tell you that, and that is the problem with the "festival" type event, it just begs for trouble from those who dont know their limits.
I actually was full of regret for missing happy valley ( one of my faves of all time) but I was glad I had the next day, its no fun coming down when people have died at the same party!
....and yes PLUR ( notice lack of e for excess)

The Herald's actually been remarkably good about drug-related issues lately. It's kind of interesting - makes you wonder if our more liberal (and basically more RATIONAL) generation is just slowly, slowly, slowly starting to pick up the reins from our parents. It's a good sign, chums.
Cat

Just a note from someone who has managed to get around the scary bits for over ten years..... three days is just too long, common sense would tell you that, and that is the problem with the "festival" type event, it just begs for trouble from those who dont know their limits.
I actually was full of regret for missing happy valley ( one of my faves of all time) but I was glad I had the next day, its no fun coming down when people have died at the same party!
....and yes PLUR ( notice lack of e for excess)

Talking about mixing drugs at Happy Valley,
I was wasted along with a group of new found friends sitting at the back of the podium at Totall Recall stage and some drunken skank comes up and sits down saying "don't worry if i fall on you". I ask him if he's all right and he goes yeah. I asked him what he had and he said he just drank a case of throw-downs, a 750ml of Jim Beam and here's the cool bit, "one ecstacy tablet". Who the hell does that, let alone say what he said? All of the people who i was sitting with just stopped and went off at him for being such a dickhead.
It's people like that that give raves and ecstacy and sensible users like us a bad name.
Why did the 19yr old friend of the dead guy say that after not sleeping and drinking and doing what he did come out and say it was definately the pill? For real of just the news manipulation?
Lastly, when is the truth about Anna Wood going to surface?

Hey hey hey! Settle, kittens! Let's be a bit fair here. Who here HASN'T gone a bit too far in the past? Who hasn't once or twice found themselves after being awake for 48 hours-plus saying "Ooooh, maybe just ONE more..." Who here REALLY knew all there was to know about ecstasy before they ever took it?
I know there was a stage in my life where I was dropping every weekend, and even midweek. I recall another occasion where I had a party at my house and in gratitude everyone there was offering me lines. I was so off my tits that I thought I was snorting speed, but it was only after my 5th or 6th line (with multiple whole pills behind it) that someone told me I'd been snorting pills. Even then it didn't really sink in as to what I'd done. I'm not abnormally irresponsible, neither are my friends, it was just that no-one there was in any state to monitor what I'd taken.
Basically, we do all take this drug too lightly. That guy at Happy Valley could've been any of us - I think it's unfair to label him stupid or irresponsible.
I guess these media-hyped deaths do serve one purpose. Not to ward us off the pill altogether, but to reality-check us into taking a little more care. We've got to remember that we're not invincible.
Cat

Pillcat, your words are pearls of wisdom.
How many of us have gained our experience by screwing up (or having close friends screw up) and be fortunate enough to make it through. I've fucked up in the past and learnt by it, and I can recall the terror thatran amok in my head and body.What must have been screaming in his head.
Though we dont know this lads name, at least we can try to learn from him, and by doing this he will be part of us all.
This is far more than a fad, it's a culture that we live and breath. PLUR is for everyday not just saturday. A.W.O.L
Party hard ppl, party safe, and lets keep the pillmakers honest and clean
AQUARIUS

ignorance is the problem here guys!!!
the majority of the population dosent know a damn thing about XTC and that is why they are scared of it. the only way we will change the public perception is to educate people through lobbying the relevant government bodies to introduce more accurate drug education programs so there is safer drug use.
THIS IS THE ONLY WAY.
so get up and say something about it!
write to whoever you like that has some sort of power and tell them your side!!!
they would love to hear it.

smh.com.au link is excellent, and miss pillcat I have never been that irresponsible, its people like you that shit happens to........

scklinke - you are without doubt a paragon of virtue. I suppose you test every pill you take, never take more than one in a night, never mix it with any other drugs, measure to the drop how much water you drink and time each session of dancing to the second, and then match it with a period of rest.
I think a lot of people do what I did when they start. For most of our childhoods we're told that drugs are bad, if you take drugs you die, druggies ruin their lives etc etc etc...
When a lot of people first take drugs and have good experiences they think, "Fuck! What was all the fuss about? This stuff is as safe as houses!" They might not think it consciously, but the idea is there. I think a lot of this attitude is still displayed by people on this board - almost every negative thing people say about E is dismissed as irrelevent, inaccurate, or avoidable if more care is taken.
Because of these initial positive experiences, people get complacent and that's when the trouble can happen.
It's only through this board, other research, and experiences that I have either had myself or witnessed other people having, that I REALLY learnt about this drug. So like ADD and MrD said, education is the only way forward. Crucially, because drug users have an inherent distrust of the law, scientists, the media and drug "experts", it is up to other informed users, such as most of us, to spread the message. Just like you wouldn't trust someone who'd never driven a car to teach you how to drive, people find it hard to trust people who haven't "driven" drugs. It's up to us to learn from our own and each other's mistakes, and share our knowledge.
Cat