NEWS : 15.6.09 - Drug dogs bite into ecstasy use

[kingpin007]

Drug dogs bite into ecstasy use

15 Jun 09

A 400 per cent surge in the amount of ecstasy seized by police in the past six months has dried-up the supply and forced up the price per pill to $30 on the street.

Police say legislation passed last October, which allows them to use drug dogs to “screen” people at pubs, clubs and on public transport, has increased the number of busts and made street level dealers fearful of carrying ecstasy.

Drug Investigations Branch Operations Inspector John Decandia told the Southern Times Messenger the amount of ecstasy seized so far this year was 400 per cent higher than in the final six months of 2008.

Without providing specific numbers, he said the figures were slightly skewed by a seizure of 4000 tablets with a street level value of $100,000 at Brahma Lodge in May.

Insp Decandia believed the number of people caught in possession had spiked as a result of the drug dog checks.

Drug Dog Operations Unit officer-in-charge Senior Sergeant Paul Kolesnikowicz said since the laws came into force his unit had arrested 327 people in possession of drugs across SA and had seized 577 ecstasy tablets.

Snt-Sgt Kolesnikowicz said 182 people had been charged with drug offences.

On January 12, two people were caught by the dog unit in possession of drugs on the Noarlunga train.

“I would not say there is a decline in the amount of ecstasy,” Snr-Sgt Kolesnikowicz said.

“By making it harder to get the drugs out there through our operations, the dealers are becoming more afraid of holding on to the stuff and pushing it out there.

“That may be having an effect on the overall availability of ecstasy.”

South Coast Police acting officer-in-charge Dennis Lock said the legislation would help stamp out the use of illicit drugs, including ecstasy, because drug dogs were “very accurate”.

“We’ve attended the Noarlunga Shopping Centre twice with the drug dogs, used them on railway lines, bus routes, shopping centres and in drug operations,” he said. “They’ve had a number of positive hits.”

He said police would look to increase the use of the dogs throughout the south because crime rates “wouldn’t be anywhere near as bad” without drug use.

“Any illicit drug use is a worry.

“Not only does it impact on the health of the people involved but there’s a secondary impact on crime.

“Illicit drug use contributes greatly to serious criminal trespass and vehicle theft.”

An ecstasy user, who spoke last week to the Southern Times Messenger on condition of anonymity, said the price of ecstasy had risen from about $20-25 per tablet to $30.

Drug and Alcohol Services SA director Robert Ali said his unit currently was conducting a study on recreational drug use.

“Recent research in SA indicates that ecstasy is still the second-most commonly used recreational drug behind cannabis,” he said.

http://southern-times-messenger.whereilive.com.au/news/story/drug-dogs-bite-into-ecstasy-use/

 

[kingpin007]

^^

only just spotted this , better late than never ...

 

[baysieguy1]

“Recent research in SA indicates that ecstasy is still the second-most commonly used recreational drug behind cannabis,” he said.

can they please start reporting "pills" here instead of ecstasy? It would be a more accurate statement that way!!!!

 

[Jakeperson]

Won't work for much longer. Most of the pills are starting to contain things the dogs aren't trained for.

 

[Iconoclast]

Won't work for much longer. Most of the pills are starting to contain things the dogs aren't trained for.

Which sucks to be honest!

I dont want to have pills with no E in them!

 

[hyroller]

Who would want to knowingly have adulterated pills?

Reality is this is where we're headed, on the whole. It sucks, granted, but it's beyond any of our control in the grand scheme of things...

 

[static_mind]

*facepalm
And the cops are claiming credit for it. There is still MDMA out there, I tested some in some friends pills the other week.

10 years I wonder if dogs will be totally obsolete. Ionscanners might be the way of the future and I wonder what the next counter move will be after that.

 

[jenkem]

A 400 per cent surge in the amount of ecstasy seized by police in the past six months has dried-up the supply and forced up the price per pill to $30 on the street.

Hmm, let's look at this a bit closer.

Ecstasy pills used to be, what, around $40? Even more the further back you go?

Let's hold the assumption that police efforts to reduce supply have only been improving since this price point.

So supply has reduced... yet price has also reduced (even if it is $30 - still lower than 40)? How could such be economically possible?

Well one thing that has reduced dramatically is purity/pill quality...

So, if 1+1=2....

...Police efforts to reduce supply only reduce the quality of pills, rather than increasing the price. Thus such efforts indirectly harm users, and thus the above claim as to a causal link between supply reduction and price is a false one?

My best guess is that their price figure is based on bull-to-the-SHIT!

 

[jenkem]

Just another thought... wouldn't most of the 327 or whatever people that they busted have been just users, having if anything a reductive effect on price due to deterrence reducing demand?

I spose if you compared the presence of dogs in customs docks, etc, with what the situation would be like were dogs completely unused, you could draw effectiveness claims like those in the article, but definately not because police decided to send them to a few more festivals, etc.. bahahaha...

 

[Jakeperson]

Exactly. The police aren't really trying to help us, we're drug users.

 

[The-Munt]

A dealer I know had two different pills on him, purple stars which we know now to contain BZP and white smiley faces which I tested myself and showed up black with marquis and mandelin.

Now the purple stars he was selling for a price a fair bit above the white smileys, and having tested both I took the smileys.

I have found that over the last year prices have gone down a fair bit, for the MDxx pills I am still managing to get.

I did find it surprising that BZP pills were costing a lot more than MDxx ones though!

 

[Somewhat-damaged]

Probably telling people that they're $30 because they're "THE SHIT, Double pressed imports"

Trying to get rid of the crap

 

[drug_mentor]

They aren't stopping users at all or even reducing supply. You can't reduce supply with pills, if 100,000 high MDMA pills got busted then the syndicate they belonged to would just press that many duds, speed bombs, pipes, etc. to make back up for it.

When you think about it almost all the pills dogs bust would probably contain MDMA or atleast MDxx, that is what they are sniffing for. I bet the dogs don't catch scent of all the shit out there. If they really wanted to increase public safety they would have those dogs sniffing for pipes and RC's and crap like that.