Pubdate: Fri, 02 Feb 2001
Source: Age, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2001 The Age Company Ltd
Contact:  250 Spencer Street, Melbourne, 3000, Australia
Website: http://www.theage.com.au/
Forum: http://forums.f2.com.au/login/login.asp?board=TheAge-Talkback
Author: Meg Mundell

ECSTASY CON: IT'S THE UNREAL THING

Ecstasy is touted as the risk-free, feel-good drug of the world's thriving 
dance and club scene. Deaths are relatively rare, and official figures 
suggest the use of the drug is widespread.

According to the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, about 5 per 
cent of Australians over 14 have tried ecstasy - but the alarming fact is 
that most of these people have taken nothing of the sort.

According to the Victorian police drug squad, less than 10 per cent of the 
"ecstasy" on the Australian market comes from overseas. The real thing - 
likely to be these imported tablets - generally contains MDMA. The 
remaining 90-plus per cent is Australian made and the chances of a locally 
made tablet containing even a trace of ecstasy are negligible.

Most users don't realise that almost all of the ecstasy tablets made in 
Australia are imitations of the real thing. And in a country where real 
ecstasy is in short supply, Australian users are swallowing thousands of 
the fake product, paying $40 to $60 for a pill made from a hotchpotch of 
pharmaceutical ingredients, often in dangerous combinations.

"These people do not know what they're taking," says Detective Senior 
Sergeant Jeff Maher of the drug squad. "We get these tablets analysed quite 
regularly and were quite shocked to see what's in some of them. (Users are) 
purchasing what they believe to be ecstasy, taking these things on face 
value that they're a safe drug.

"They're not safe at all. They're produced by criminals in some of the most 
horrendous and unhygienic conditions, from cocktails of chemicals."

Cate Quinn, manager of the drug branch at the Victorian Forensic Science 
Centre, says there has been a change from the early days when all ecstasy 
was imported. "The seizures we saw were true ecstasy," he said. "There have 
been attempts to manufacture ecstasy in Australia, but it's very rare that 
we bust an illegal lab that's manufacturing ecstasy rather than 
methylamphetamine. Australia does not supply its own ecstasy market."

The forensic centre analyses tablets seized across the state, as well as 
seizures by customs, federal police and private prisons. Quinn estimates 
that "probably less than 5 or even 2per cent contain real MDMA". The real 
stuff, what Quinn calls "true" as opposed to "fraudulent" ecstasy, is 
usually imported from Holland and Britain.

"I have not come across a manufacturer in Australia who has produced MDMA," 
confirms Detective Senior Constable Matt Bunning of the drug squad. "More 
than 90per cent is made here, and isn't really ecstasy. Most of it's 
amphetamines, but we recently came across heroin, cocaine and amphetamines 
together in one pill."

Ecstasy is sometimes sold as a powder (in a bag or capsule), but it is more 
commonly seen as a tablet stamped with a symbol or logo that helps users 
recognise different brands. "(Pill producers) put designs on them. You'll 
say `I tried one of those pink elephants, it was great, I want to get one 
of them again'," says Bunning.

Local producers hear about a popular, high-quality tablet doing the rounds 
of overseas clubs. They then copy the design of this original tablet, 
capitalising on its reputation by making a pill that looks identical but 
contains no MDMA.

"You might read on the Internet that the moon design is a great new 
ecstasy," says Quinn. "But by the time that moon hits Australia, local 
producers have mimicked it."

The rise in ecstasy's popularity has been a boon for local speed producers 
looking to maximise their earnings, says Bunning. "People who have 
previously sold speed have found that if they buy a pill press they can 
turn $10 worth of speed into a $50 pill. The market is prepared to pay a 
lot more for a tablet.

"Tablets can be sold in clubs to people who don't really think of 
themselves as drug users," says Quinn.

So what's in these tablets? Amphetamine is the main ingredient, says Quinn, 
"but in an attempt to mimic some of the effects of real ecstasy - euphoria, 
increased energy, pleasurable rushes, feelings of empathy, dreaminess and a 
hallucinogenic-like glow - producers of the fake pills typically combine 
various stimulants, hallucinogens and sedatives, depending on what 
chemicals they have access to."

In recent years, analysis of Australian-made tablets has revealed a sharp 
rise in the use of the veterinary anaesthetic Ketamine, says Quinn.

"We've been tracking it since the end of 1997. It's very common." She says 
that in humans, the tranquilliser can cause coma-related problems, 
depending on the dose, where people just don't wake up.

"We're also seeing paracetamol; the stimulants pseudoephedrine and 
ephedrine; and heroin, codeine and cocaine all mixed up in the one tablet. 
And we've found tiny pieces of LSD tickets pressed inside tablets.

"We're finding benzodiazepines Temazepam, Diazepam, and Rohypnol, which are 
all sedatives. There's sometimes caffeine. We've also found Promethazine, a 
motion-sickness medication, which makes you feel woozy, cloudy, dissociated."

Quinn says the appearance of a tablet containing MDMA is no different from 
one made of speed. "The better-looking tablet is not necessarily superior."

The vigilance of Australian customs probably has an indirect effect on the 
situation: since customs first identified ecstasy as a separate category of 
drug in 1994-95, both smuggling attempts and customs seizures have risen 
steadily. In 1995-96 there were 78 seizures, yielding 31.4 kilograms of 
ecstasy, says Leon Bedington, director of corporate communications at 
Australian Customs. In 1996-97 there were 133 seizures, netting 69 
kilograms, and in 1999-2000 105 seizures collected 144 kilograms of the drug.

The use of multiple drugs is particularly risky, says Quinn. "Some drugs 
negate each other or cancel each other out; some drugs compound the effects 
of others."

While some users don't know or don't care what they're taking as long as it 
keeps them awake, others are steering clear of buying pills with 
increasingly uncertain effects. "These days most of it's rubbish," says 
Jenny, 24. "I don't bother taking one now unless I know it's real ecstasy. 
I've taken so many dodgy pills that have wrecked my whole night."
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