Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Ecstasy ODs Surge Down Under

If anyone can help us get the word out in Austrailia, please help! Forward this to friends Down Under and ask them to pass it along. People there need to know how dangerous this drug is!


Geelong Advertiser
Paramedics agonise over ecstasy overdoses

GEELONG paramedics are treating at least six ecstasy overdoses a week. About half are taken to Geelong Hospital in a more serious condition, a Geelong emergency worker said in the wake of Australia's largest ecstasy bust in Sydney.
Police seized about$200 million worth of the party drug, readily available in Geelong's pubs and clubs, according to the emergency worker who ranked Geelong's night spots alongside coastal house parties as the region's two ecstasy "hot spots". "
At least three or four ecstasy overdoses would be treated in the hospital each week," the emergency worker said. "About four years ago we might have treated the occasional ecstasy overdose but now we are treating them all the time."
Health services are reluctant to release exact figures, while a police spokesman was unable to give a snapshot of ecstasy use in Geelong. I t is why the Geelong Hospital staff member preferred not to use their name while desperate to warn parents that ecstasy use was rife among 16 to 30-year-olds in Geelong.
The staff member knows because Geelong's doctors are sick of treating the potentially-life threatening symptoms including seizures, heart failure and bleeding on the brain almost every second day and every weekend.

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