Bootlegger
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Dec 9, 2000
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Child drug deals: 500,000 pills sold in playgrounds
By Ben Harvey
UP TO 500,000 dexamphetamine tablets are sold in WA school playground drug deals worth hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, authorities say.
Family doctors are the unwitting Mr Bigs of the trade in the attention deficit disorder drug.
They prescribed nearly 13 million dexamphetamine tablets last year - 90 per cent to school-age children.
Education Department acting director Kevin O'Keefe said the dexamphetamine trade was a growing problem but WA schools did not have an endemic drug problem. Hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin were extremely rare in schools, as shown by the lack of police involvement in school drug issues.
Police said dexamphetamines, which give a rush like the party drug speed when taken by non-ADD sufferers, are dealt in private and State schools. Seven students from Sacred Heart College, Sorrento, were forced out of the school for selling hundreds of "dexies" to classmates at 50¢ or $1 each last week.
The trade can be traced to doctors, who last year wrote 84,135 scripts for 16,636 patients in WA. More than 11 million tablets were prescribed for children. Many drug experts and several police said at least 5 per cent of tablets ended up in the wrong hands.
Health Minister Bob Kucera said he was concerned that dexamphetamine tablets were being sold in schools. He said WA Health Department chief psychiatrist George Lipton would soon present a policy direction for tackling over-prescription.
Perth general practitioner and former State vice-president of the Australian Medical Association Joe Kosterich said students had sold dexamphetamines for six years.
In 1988, doctors prescribed 44,000 tablets. Last year, they prescribed nearly 13 million. Police seizures of the drug have reflected that increase. Between 1998 and 1999, seizures of dexamphetamines by police rose 88.6 per cent. Last year tablets were found during 11,000 drug raids.
WA Pharmaceutical Association president Kevin McAnuff said he had heard of students intimidating other children to get their drugs.
Mr McAnuff said the number of tablets sold together should be restricted. "At the moment we have people walking out of a pharmacy with a bottle of 400 tablets," he said. "When you think that people can get up to $5 or $10 a tablet then you are looking at big money.
"It worries me when I see kids walking to school with 100 tablets on them. It's just a starting point for these kids. When they can't get enough of a rush from these things they move on to speed or other drugs."
Dexamphetamines are increasingly popular with nightclubbers seeking a cheap and convenient alternative to amphetamine powder.
From todays west http://www.thewest.com.au/20010811/news/state/tw-news-state-home-sto19730.html
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And the Mission is the Mouse...
By Ben Harvey
UP TO 500,000 dexamphetamine tablets are sold in WA school playground drug deals worth hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, authorities say.
Family doctors are the unwitting Mr Bigs of the trade in the attention deficit disorder drug.
They prescribed nearly 13 million dexamphetamine tablets last year - 90 per cent to school-age children.
Education Department acting director Kevin O'Keefe said the dexamphetamine trade was a growing problem but WA schools did not have an endemic drug problem. Hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin were extremely rare in schools, as shown by the lack of police involvement in school drug issues.
Police said dexamphetamines, which give a rush like the party drug speed when taken by non-ADD sufferers, are dealt in private and State schools. Seven students from Sacred Heart College, Sorrento, were forced out of the school for selling hundreds of "dexies" to classmates at 50¢ or $1 each last week.
The trade can be traced to doctors, who last year wrote 84,135 scripts for 16,636 patients in WA. More than 11 million tablets were prescribed for children. Many drug experts and several police said at least 5 per cent of tablets ended up in the wrong hands.
Health Minister Bob Kucera said he was concerned that dexamphetamine tablets were being sold in schools. He said WA Health Department chief psychiatrist George Lipton would soon present a policy direction for tackling over-prescription.
Perth general practitioner and former State vice-president of the Australian Medical Association Joe Kosterich said students had sold dexamphetamines for six years.
In 1988, doctors prescribed 44,000 tablets. Last year, they prescribed nearly 13 million. Police seizures of the drug have reflected that increase. Between 1998 and 1999, seizures of dexamphetamines by police rose 88.6 per cent. Last year tablets were found during 11,000 drug raids.
WA Pharmaceutical Association president Kevin McAnuff said he had heard of students intimidating other children to get their drugs.
Mr McAnuff said the number of tablets sold together should be restricted. "At the moment we have people walking out of a pharmacy with a bottle of 400 tablets," he said. "When you think that people can get up to $5 or $10 a tablet then you are looking at big money.
"It worries me when I see kids walking to school with 100 tablets on them. It's just a starting point for these kids. When they can't get enough of a rush from these things they move on to speed or other drugs."
Dexamphetamines are increasingly popular with nightclubbers seeking a cheap and convenient alternative to amphetamine powder.
From todays west http://www.thewest.com.au/20010811/news/state/tw-news-state-home-sto19730.html
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And the Mission is the Mouse...
