NEWS: Daily Telegraph 04 Jun 03: Dealers spike drinks at u/18 disco

Dealers spike drinks at u/18 disco
By Brad Clifton
04jun03

IT was supposed to be a safe haven for schoolchildren to dance to the latest top-40 hits in a friendly environment of soft drinks and high security.

But, the under-18s disco at the Bathurst Panthers' "Roar Niteclub" last Friday night became a parent's worst nightmare when at least 14 children were rushed to hospital after their drinks were apparently spiked with drugs.

A nine-year-old-girl was among the young attendees who became violently ill with symptoms including vomiting, nausea, abdominal pain and shortness of breath. She later had her stomach pumped to remove toxins.

The disco was abruptly halted as security officers whisked sick children to waiting ambulances which ferried 10 children to the Bathurst Hospital emergency department, while four other children were transported to hospital by their parents.

The incident has shocked the community and has led to a police investigation amid claims that a youth had tried to sell ecstasy to children at the dance.

Inspector Gary Megay of Bathurst Police said detectives were viewing a security video of the night and were awaiting test results of urine samples taken from the stricken children in an effort to determine what they had ingested.

Inspector Megay said officers had located a plastic bag containing "two tablets of prescription medicine" in a toilet cubicle at the club.

But, several schoolchildren who attended the disco said they had been approached by a youth who was offering "blue ecstasy" for sale – with one teenager claiming the youth spiked the drinks after he was unable to find any buyers for the drugs.

Kelso High School students Melissa Williams and Alison Beadman, both 14, were among those who were hospitalised.

Melissa and Alison had been sharing a glass of cola and had placed it on a table for about five minutes while they danced. Within 15 minutes of finishing the drink, both became violently ill.

"My head started spinning and I was throwing up a lot," Melissa said yesterday.

"It was a sensation I had never felt before. My eyes hurt, everything hurt and I couldn't breathe."

Alison watched another friend fall ill before she too was overcome by the same symptoms.

"My face got hot, I was dizzy and started to shake," she said.

Melissa said she was aware of a person at the dance who was offering drugs for sale.

"My friends were approached by someone who was trying to sell ecstasy," she said.

Fellow Kelso High student Josh Puebla, 14, said he had also been approached.

"This guy, who I had never seen before, goes to me 'I got some blue eccies, want to buy any?' and I went to a security guard and told him and that's when I found out that some girls were sick," he said.

Inspector Megay confirmed police had spoken to two people who had been pointed out by nightclub workers as "standing out from the crowd" but he said the officers were "unable to take it any further".

"If someone has indeed spiked drinks it would have to be under-18s who were participating," he said.

"We are treating it very seriously. You can imagine there are a few irate parents around.

"They are pretty angry that this could occur at a place where they could drop off their kids feeling it would be safe.

"But, the general message is you can't guarantee there won't be some ratbag that might undertake a practical joke that goes sour or deliberately, through some sort of malice, wants to hurt people."

Inspector Megay said there had recently been several reports of drink-spiking in the Bathurst area.

Ironically, a conference dedicated to the problems of sexual assault and drink spiking – which was organised weeks ago – took place at the Bathurst Council Chambers on Monday.

Those in attendance included Panthers spokesman Rob Weaver, who yesterday maintained security at the disco was as high as could be expected without officers conducting body searches.

Mr Weaver was reluctant to concede a drink spiking incident had occurred, but said the club was co-operating with police by providing video footage of the interior of the dance hall.

"We don't know what happened in terms of what caused it and that will be determined by the police," he said.

From: http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,6541457%5E421,00.html (via news.com.au)

Click to expand...

one teenager claiming the youth spiked the drinks after he was unable to find any buyers for the drugs.

Click to expand...

apollo said:

can anyone spell sensationalism?

Click to expand...

IT was supposed to be a safe haven for schoolchildren to dance to the latest top-40 hits

Click to expand...

phase_dancer said:

You could well be right Pleo. Surely supervisors would have recognised pissed symptoms though?


/QUOTE]

Um. I've worked a few underage's in my time, and let me tell you they're all chain-smoking, pissed 15 yr olds, and there ain't a damn thing you can do, cause half the time their parents dropped them off like that, or at the very least are expecting you to take responsibility for their little shits for a few hours till they pick them up.

Click to expand...

SupaDiscoBreaka said:

Indeed...

Blue Ecstacy sounds like 1,4b or G with the blue dye in it. People feeling ill in the stomach after 15-20 mins...

Click to expand...

'I got some blue eccies, want to buy any?'

Click to expand...

Police rule out drink spiking

June 5 2003

Take a bunch of teenagers who fall ill at an underage disco, add a reported sighting of two blue pills and you have a drink-spiking scandal.

Actually, no you don't.

Police have now ruled out drink spiking at a Bathurst under-age disco on Friday, after 14 teenagers were treated in hospital for vomiting and dizziness.

Yesterday, police issued a statement saying tests has revealed that neither drugs nor alcohol was present in any of the children and that its investigation had finished.

That was after the Daily Telegraph a story under the headline: "Drug dealers spike soft drinks at under 18 disco".

The issue and its reporting has irritated the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre.

Spokesperson Paul Dillon said: "I think undoubtedly drink spiking does occur, but it is a phenomenom that is in the social consiousness." There was an perception that drink spiking was a much greater danger than it actually is. "It's getting completely out of hand," he said. People are "putting two and two together and getting 86. We really do need to be careful about how we cover this area," he said.

There were three main types of drink spiking: the prank; the drug-assisted sexual assault; and the drug-assisted robbery, Dillon said. Most pranksters know their victims and stick around to look after them, he said, while in robberies and sexual assaults, "most occur when the person takes the other person home." That is, Dillon believed most drink spiking happens not in venues such as pubs and clubs, but in private homes, "where it's easier for a predator."

Reports of drinks being spiked with ecstasy and cocaine should be treated with scepticism, Dillon said. "Why would you put an ecstasy into someone else's drink?" The perception that the drug would either knock the person out or make them want to have sex was mistaken, he said. "That's not what it does," he said. "It's very difficult to actually spike someone's drink in a venue," he said, particularly when they are with friends.

Although the number of drink spiking reports made by people to police had increased, Dillon said it is important to remember that these are reports of belief, rather than actually executed spiking incidents. "There are times where people report days after [the incident], because they already have had other drugs in their system," he said.

Instead, Dillon cites alcohol, not illicit drugs, as "our greatest problem", including for drink spiking. He points to changing drinking habits that have women drinking as much as men, including high consumption of alcholic sodas. "They are not aware of how much they are drinking."

The NADRC said social attitudes to drinking were more of a threat than drink spiking, and Dillon gives the example of people buying triple-measures of alcohol for unsuspecting friends. He said the attitude that such practices are a favour are wrong. "That's a crime and you can be charged with physical assault," he said.

- SMH

Click to expand...