A dangerous taste for the high life
September 2, 2005
Testing ecstasy could keep young people out of hospital, writes Steve Cannane.
Bikini one day, burqa the next. Those fashion choices might make Michelle Leslie a pretty unusual Australian girl. But if she is, as the Bali police believe, a party girl who pops pills at nightclubs, she's not so unusual. Twentysomethings in Australia have a taste for ecstasy and other party drugs. And it's a taste that doesn't seem to be diminishing.
The national drug strategy household survey says 22 per cent of Australians aged 20-29 have tried ecstasy. The number reporting ecstasy use in the past year has tripled over the past decade. When it comes to ecstasy consumption, we're world's best practice. While other countries have declining ecstasy use, our figures continue to rise. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime says Australia has "the highest level of ecstasy abuse worldwide", though some researchers argue that is only because we keep the best statistics.
Despite these figures, the Federal Government continues to push the line that it is winning the war on drugs. Heroin use has declined significantly, and the Government claims it is responsible for the heroin drought. Strangely, you never hear it take credit for increased ecstasy use, but it is trying to reverse the trend. This year it launched a $12 million anti-illicit drug campaign. The ecstasy ad climaxes with a scene where a young man is experiencing toxic meltdown from ecstasy use. "I don't know whether he's going to make it … he just wanted to try something new," his distraught friend says.
But do these scare tactics work? Yes, you can die from ecstasy use, but it is pretty rare. Young people know this. They see friends popping pills every weekend and they're not dropping like junkies. They are more likely to suffer panic attacks, depression, anxiety or suicidal thoughts. As the old saying goes - what goes up must come down.
When Christopher Pyne, parliamentary secretary for health, launched the campaign, he said: "The message from these ads is you don't really know what's going into these drugs that you might be taking." Incredibly sensible words. As Dr David Caldicott from Royal Adelaide Hospital's emergency department said: "I've never heard a more ringing endorsement for pill testing in my life."
But when a group called Enlighten turned up at a rave in South Australia in July and started testing pills, Pyne called for them to be arrested. Enlighten promotes harm reduction among ecstasy users. Its volunteers test pills at parties and nightclubs and provide information about what's in them.
Technically this is illegal - they're in possession of illicit drugs when testing them. In some states police turn a blind eye to this. NSW is not one of those states. You will never find Enlighten testing pills here.
When volunteers from Enlighten test pills they don't measure how "good" they are. They don't endorse the pills. They don't place a value judgement on what the owner of the pill is doing. They identify the main substances, point out any possible adulterants, and let users know what the effects might be.
An ecstasy user is more likely to trust an Enlighten volunteer and their information than an emotive government ad campaign. However, Caldicott sees a role for both: "A rational, national pill testing campaign would complement the campaign. It seems quite obvious to introduce the two together."
Pyne might not appreciate Enlighten's work, but ambulance officers do. If someone at a rave drops from a bad pill they can approach Enlighten's volunteers and ask them what they've been picking up in their tests that night.
Enlighten is hoping to take testing to a new level this summer. It wants to publish the test results instantly, online, so that hospitals can download the information. Dr Gordian Fulde, director of emergency medicine at St Vincent's Hospital in Darlinghurst, supports this kind of information sharing: "Any information that helps keep someone out of hospital is a good thing."
But while pill testing might keep young people out of hospital it won't be endorsed by the Government. That would be sending the wrong message. Which leaves us with the messages in the advertising campaign, such as don't use ecstasy. They might think that's the right message, but it doesn't seem to be getting through to young people.
Steve Cannane is a Triple J broadcaster.
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