NEWS: Cairns Post - 22/4/09 'Charged over 'death' drug'

[lil angel15]

Charged over 'death' drug
Margo Zlotkowski
Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Going to trial: Ross John Jorgensen at court.

A CAIRNS man will stand trial for allegedly setting up Queensland's first home laboratory of a deadly synthetic drug said to be five times more powerful than "ice" amphetamine.

Cairns has yet to record any seizures of PMA (paramethoxyamphetamine) … one of the world’s most dangerous and toxic hallucinogens that is aptly known on the street as Death as it has led to the fatal overdoses of 10 young Australians in the past decade.

Ross John Jorgensen, 41, did not enter a plea in Cairns Magistrates’ Court yesterday to charges of producing PMA or publishing instructions to make amphetamines after a PMA lab was allegedly found in a bedroom of his Mooroobool home on September 25 last year.

He was committed to stand trial in the Cairns Supreme Court on a date to be set.

Other charges, including possessing equipment to make PMA, were adjourned to July 21 for mention.

At the committal hearing yesterday, defence barrister Michael Sumner-Potts argued that the police case was purely
circumstantial.

He said the ingredients and equipment found at Mr Jorgensen’s house were for the legitimate extraction of essential oils from native flowers which Jorgensen sold as arthritis remedies to elderly Aboriginal women.

"They have a case of suspicion," Mr Sumner-Potts said.

He said no PMA or residue of the drug had been found on the premises.

But police prosecutor Peter Krebs described the defence’s claims as "a smokescreen."

"We do not have any essential oils found in his residence, there were no wildflowers or anything of the sort, no books about wildflowers or distilling essential oils or homeopathy books that would give some corroboration to that assertion," Mr Krebs said.

By contrast, he said police found "a substantial sophisticated laboratory" with all the chemicals and glasswear needed for making PMA, as well as four books on how to manufacture amphetamines and other instructions downloaded from the internet about making drugs without using "suspect chemicals".

Mr Jorgensen is alleged to have used anethole, a main constituent of aniseed oil, as a precursor to making PMA. The main ingredient in most home methamphetamine labs is pseudoephedrine, found in cold and flu tablets.

Giving evidence at the hearing, Brisbane chemistry expert Dr Peter Culshaw said he had never before seen Mr Jorgensen’s alleged manufacture process using aniseed oil so he did his own experiments and found the method to be "viable."

It's interesting to see that there may have been PMA produced in the North.

I'm wondering if the lab was solely utilised to produce PMA or if this Jorgensen character was a sloppy cook just after a quick buck.......

 

[PsiloSubNaut]

Very interesting indeed

I'm also interested in knowing how far it would have gotten from Cairns as there were a couple of PMA scares and a death from memory in S.E Qld over past 12 or so months

He's lucky i'm not the judge

Sentence: I.V administration of PMA

 

[hyroller]

geeze he looks like a bit of a crook.

good thing he was nabbed when he was.

why the fuck would anyone want to cook up PMA - of all things..

 

[mezid]

it says they didnt find any pma residue, so maybe he was just cooking meth? why are they trying to claim he was making pma?

 

[Doctor War]

I strongly doubt it was his intention to cook PMA, but you never know. Gives his cover stoy I'd be inclined to say he was probably pulling brown camphor oil and not distilling it right, so there was a proportion of PMA present ion the final product because of the mixed oil input...

Guy seems clever, doubt he'd have been deliberately going to synth PMA.

 

[cudds]

if he was producing PMA i hope they throw the book at him. even if he wasn't going to try and pass it off as extacy, someone else lower down the chain would of. with the ineviatable result been a mistaken, possibly fatal, overdose.
throw away the key!

 

[Crankinit]

If he was seriously trying to cook PMA, I hope he fucking rots in prison.

 

[ActiveA]

If he was seriously trying to cook PMA, I hope he fucking rots in prison.

100% agree.


As if we didn't have enough shit in the pills in this country

 

[mushi mushi 88]

why the fuck would anyone want to cook up PMA - of all things..

Well PMA has similar effects to MDMA although a much smaller dose is needed for this to happen, hence some dirty crooks can make some big cash and not give two shits where the end user decides to double them or not. The difference in dose between a good time and a OD on PMA is very small and I don't think the people producing it really thought about that...

I think it depends whether they were going to press them into pills or sell it in it's pure form as to whether he is such a bad person or not, in saying that though, even if he did sell it in it's pure form and tell the buyers of what it was I'm sure it would of ended up in either pills or some caps anyways.

Hope he never sees freedom again!

http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/pma/ <---- Just a little bit of info to be found their for those interested in reading up on it.

 

[satricion]

One of the things I notice about this article is that meth is mentioned a number of times despite being totally irrelevant to this guy having supposedly made PMA.

"Ice" is the current "bad thing", the current threat to our nation's youth, whereas nobody has heard of PMA, despite the fact that it's a far more dangerous drug. So to make the story a little more exciting, they just throw the word "ice" in there a few times and hope people give a shit.

 

[hyroller]

Well PMA has similar effects to MDMA although a much smaller dose is needed for this to happen, hence some dirty crooks can make some big cash and not give two shits where the end user decides to double them or not. The difference in dose between a good time and a OD on PMA is very small and I don't think the people producing it really thought about that...

yeah, i know enough about what it does - but i was getting at the fact that if he is smart enough to cook up drugs in the first place, there are far more profitable/less toxic kinds of drugs to go & do that for.
the dollar always prevails

 

[drug_mentor]

5 times more powerful than ice? Where the fuck do they get these stats from? I love how the media always make out PMA is called 'death', what a load of shit. Of the very few people I know who actually have a clue what PMA is, they merely call it PMA.
I hope this guy does see some serious prison time if it WAS his intention to cook PMA, without knowing all the facts, I would guess thats a fairly big if.

 

[tadfish]

Well PMA has similar effects to MDMA although a much smaller dose is needed for this to happen, hence some dirty crooks can make some big cash and not give two shits where the end user decides to double them or not. The difference in dose between a good time and a OD on PMA is very small and I don't think the people producing it really thought about that...

I think it depends whether they were going to press them into pills or sell it in it's pure form as to whether he is such a bad person or not, in saying that though, even if he did sell it in it's pure form and tell the buyers of what it was I'm sure it would of ended up in either pills or some caps anyways.

Hope he never sees freedom again!

http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/pma/ <---- Just a little bit of info to be found their for those interested in reading up on it.

like fuck its nothing like it
its like a drunken overheating shit
but some people get trippy mda toxic like effects.
its effects everyone different i know people who have had 100's of mgs and felt nothing but shit
other trip balls off 60mg but most die from mxing it with mdma
mixing it with mdma makes it good but you are likely to die
a BL on here used to talk up PMA heaps and mixing it with mdma. but he died

 

[filenet]

a BL on here used to talk up PMA heaps and mixing it with mdma. but he died

he was a friend! he pushed the envelope! he thought he was invincible! he thought he knew all about it...and he did! but his parents still had the painful task of turning off the life support! RIP bro

I don't care what Ross "Fat Fuck" Jorgensen's intentions with the PMA, but I pray to high that he lands in Big Bubba's cell and gets the tap on the shoulder every single night! Rot in hell you piece of shit...

 

[phase_dancer]

While I sympathise with you filenet in regards to your friend's death, it must be said that nothing in this story has been conclusively proven.

To be honest, I find it utterly disgusting that so many Bluelighters are willing to shoot first. When are you going to learn that sensationalistic journalism is just that. IT'S WHAT NEWSPAPERS DO.

Even filenet acknowledges the lowlife nature of some tabloid journalists

aw gawd! which is worst...the used car salesman or the tabloid journalist!

I know this was said somewhat tongue in cheek, but I would say the jounalist by far. It's far easier to silence a used car salesmen, and generally speaking, they have far less effect on the general public.



Let's turn to hipocracy then shall we 8)

As a well proven example, many of you are all too ready to lay shit on any journalist or article that implicates MDMA (or your fav substance) as a cause of death and/or a substance capable of causing potentially serious acute side effects, but these same people will immediately jump on board to "kill the crook" whenever something like this is published.

Just stop for a bit and remember a while back when 4-MMC was labelled incorrectly as 4-MTA -"Flatliners" another "Death Drug". In case you'd forgotten, that came from a Cairns newspaper as well. IT WAS COMPLETE BULLSHIT!! but probably was seen by the prohibitionists as having served well to scare a few away from 4-MMC. But for anyone with a scrap of knowledge or sensibility, it didn't take much to smell the poo.

Let's say the guy in this story did have anethole or aniseed oil. We don't know whether or not he had other essential oils or essences. It could have been one of hundreds. How many people have a few different essential oils at home? When I was experimenting with aroma producing hazer fluids I had a cupboard full of essential oils, but I had no intention of making drugs from them.

....And of the other chemicals, did he have only those required for drug syntheses? Depending upon the proposed synthesis route to PMA, many of the chemicals could be found in or around the home - that's how simple an OTC synth of anethole would be.

So, let's say he was intending to produce PMA. The big question then is; was he intending to use/sell it? Virtually since the advent of Internet drug chemistry discussion, it's been widely suggested that anyone attempting an MDMA synth for the first time who hasn't a background in chem, start by practicing with synthesising PMA. If it goes wrong, the cook hasn't wasted an expensive and hard to get precursor. So, if he was intending to make PMA, was this merely a practice run to see if he could pull off the synth without wasting the more valuable amine and starting materials such as those used for an MDMA synth? I don't condone the making of any illicit drug, but that's not my point. The point in question is: Is the journalist/editor/ newspaper reputable enough with their facts for you to believe this article 100%?

Until this can be conclusively proven, or at least more details provided, this should be seen as it's currently presented; i.e. A hyped up story full of holes. As for the consultant chemist; any chemist who couldn't automatically see whether a synth route is possible or not from the chemicals found, isn't worthy of being called a consultant, litte lone a chemistry expert IMHO. I wouldn't employ him to evaluate my effluent

 

[filenet]

oh! did i somehow omit the words "eligibly" & "if proven guilty" in my last post?

fair call PD & interesting to learn of one reason behind why PMA is cooked in the first place! Having lived through a period in a certain city where PMA was knowingly passed off as MDMA has me somewhat tainted!



btw, isn't that a hardcopy version of PiHKAL he is holding?

 

[dryandcola]

i live up north and ive actaully had contact with this guy through work.. strictly professional/work relationship... crazy as.

 

[drug_mentor]

Good post P_D. I never knew PMA synthesis was often used as a trial to see if you were worthy to make MDMA. I find that very interesting, one does have to wonder though, if many of these "cooks" after their trial run, decide to make some profit off of it and that is the reason this shit ends up on the streets.

 

[tadfish]

they should make him take all his PMA.
like fucker wonder what his intentions were with that PMA.
its such a shit drug.

 

[permastoned]

PMA is only dangerous if you don't know that the drug is PMA, phase dancer is right about everyone here jumping the gun before they know any of the actual details of the situation.

Sensationalist journalism is tailor-made to sell papers. You should know that from all the other bullshit articles you have read, e.g. LSD, heroin and glass in pills.