***Taken from today tonight web site
www.todaytonight.com.au***
As we prepare to welcome in the New Year, Australians are being urged to remember that there is a dangerous side to party drugs.
Detective Paul Willingham of the New South Wales Drug Squad said one of the many dangers of party drugs was that there was no way of knowing exactly what you are taking.
"You literally don't know what you are getting," Willingham said.
"There's no standards, there's no controls."
He said that it was common for drug dealers to add other ingredients such as caffeine or a veterinary anesthetic like ketamine to ecstasy tablets.
Psychiatrist and head of the Brain and Mind Research Institute, Professor Ian Hickie, said party drugs were harmful substances and can even trigger the onset of mental illness.
"If you care about your brain and if you care about your memory, your concentration, your emotions, your behaviour, being able to function as an adult then avoid these substances at all cost," Hickie said.
"We would give a clear warning, it's dangerous in animals and it's highly likely to cause brain injury in humans."
Tony Wood, whose daughter, Anna, died of an ecstasy overdose 10 years ago when she was just 15, wants Australians to know that party drugs are killers.
"Ecstasy destroys your brain, what it did with Anna, the only organ in Anna's body that was damaged was her brain all her other organs were donated," Tony said.
"Anna stopped breathing in my arms on the staircase of that house, I know she died in my arms."
Anna was the first person known to have died from taking ecstacy in Australia.
"Our life altered from there on and we're still doing this sort of anti-drug campaigning now and I'm trying to warn kids that this stuff is dangerous," Tonysaid.
Despite their hard work, Tony and Angela believe Australia has learnt nothing in the decade since Anna died.
"Ten years ago we knew exactly what we know now nothing has changed," Angela said.
"Well actually it's just got worse, the evidence that we're finding is that the drug situation is far worse with our kids today than it was 10 years ago," Tony said.
Detective Paul Willingham said police recently discovered the country's biggest ecstasy laboratory so far in Riverstone in Sydney's West.
"The main reaction vessel was a thousand litres," Willingham said.
"There were 3,300 litre reaction vessels and there were three pill presses in addition to about 30 kilos of end MDMA that was found."
"Just the drugs there at the time were capable of producing 350,000 tablets so you're looking at a multi-million dollar venture."
Despite the dangers, ecstasy use is not uncommon among young Australians.
Amy*, now 20, said she first took the drug when she was about 17.
"I just had one and it was just a really good feeling," Amy said.
But then she got hooked on ecstasy, taking up to four tablets a day.
She lived with dealers who gave a free and unlimited supply.
"I had long periods of time when I didn't sleep a blink and then the downfall of it was really bad, I'd lay there and just couldn't be bothered doing anything for days," she said.
"I would get involved in really bad stuff… criminal activity… just really causing trouble around the shire where I lived," she said.
"It just wasn't good, stealing..."
After a four day bender with no sleep, Amy checked into rehab and has since managed to stay off drugs.
Amy said getting hooked on ecstasy is a bad mistake.
"It just ruins your life, big time," she said.
Michael Milojkovic has also been affected by drugs.
He has just kicked a five-pill a day habit and warns of the addictive nature of ecstasy.
"It made me feel good, happy, I felt like dancing and it put me in a very good mood," Michael said.
"I used to spend my whole pay cheque in that and other stuff."
"Once you get hooked, it's pretty hard to get off and you shouldn't use it regularly… because it loses its effects, you have to take more and more to get the same effects."
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
