Monday, April 25, 2005

A Good Ecstasy Refresher Course

From the St. Catharines Ontario Standard:
Known by the monikers of E, X, XTC or the Hug Drug, ecstasy is both a stimulant and hallucinogen.

A synthetic drug developed by underground chemists, ecstasy contains the chemical compound methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or MDMA, but its true contents are relatively unknown.

"You can never really know what you're taking," Bleich said, adding the pills are often laced with other chemicals.

"Some people try one pill and don't get much of a reaction, so they feel like they should double up the next time and that's when they start getting into real problems."

Ecstasy interferes with the body's temperature regulating mechanism, and body temperature can increase to dangerous levels.

Essentially, ecstasy causes the heart to work harder, but less efficiently.

Risks include severe dehydration and heat exhaustion, abnormal heart beat and liver problems. It can also lead to anoxic enceophalopathy, or lack of oxygen to the brain, resulting in coma or death. Taking additional drugs, or alcohol, increases the risks.

Little is known about the long-term effects of the drug, but preliminary research suggests ecstasy use can damage the brain's ability to regulate emotion and memory.

The drug also dries out the mouth and throat, which users try to combat by drinking large quantities of water.

Drinking too much water, however, can cause the brain to swell, leading to coma or even death. In one case in Toronto, a man died as a result of drinking too much water.

Monster Designer Drug Bust

Way to go, Quebec cops! They found 14,000 litres of GHB (over 3,000 gallons), 14,000 ecstasy pills and 7,000 speed pills at a home. An unidentified 44-year-old man is under arrest.

Reports of Lower Ecstasy Use

Thanks to the efforts of so many -- and 9/11 -- Ecstasy use among teens in teh US appears to be dropping. First, 9/11:
Tighter airport security since the 9/11 attacks has pinched the flow of the drug into the USA from chief suppliers in the Netherlands and Belgium, making it less available and more expensive.
And some experts think the messages against Ecstasy coming from Voice of the Victims and numerous other sources may actually be working:
Teens and young adults have taken note. Last year, 57.7% of high school seniors said they believed that taking Ecstasy just once or twice could harm them, up from 33.8% in 1997, according to an annual survey of teen drug use by the University of Michigan.
That's all great, but a couple things worry me. Ecstasy use is crazy popular in Europe and Asia, and manufacturers there will work hard to penetrate the vast American market.

And there's a big difference between understanding the risks of drugs and making the right choices in the emotional venue of parties, friends and peer pressure.

For more information, see USA Today coverage here and here.

GHB Rape Conviction Stands

A judge in British Columbia has let a conviction for GHB rape stand. From the Victoria, British Columbia Times Columnist:
A Victoria man convicted of sexual assault while he and the female victim were high on the "date-rape" drug GHB has had an appeal of his conviction dismissed by the B.C. Court of Appeal.

Michael Ryan Goodliffe was sentenced on July 8, 2003, to 30 months in a federal penitentiary after being convicted on one charge and acquitted on two others.

The December 2001 assault occurred after the 17-year-old girl came home to her Fifth Street basement suite to find her boyfriend and Goodliffe there. She was drunk after visiting friends and accepted a dose of GHB from one of the two males. She passed out and awoke later to find Goodliffe having sex with her.

Saturday, April 16, 2005

One Less Scumbag

Police in Indonesia are not known for their human rights sensitivity, but I can't say I see too big of a problem in this recent case:
Indonesian police have killed a drug baron in a raid on his factory that produced more than 232 million dollars worth of ecstasy pills a year, state media said Wednesday.

Hans Phillip was shot dead in the raid last Friday in Bogor, south of the Indonesian capital Jakarta, the head of the National Agency on Narcotics, General Commissioner Sutanto, said, according to the Antara news agency.

Police arrested two others in the raid, he said.

Sutanto said Phillip was one of the most wanted drug traffickers whose factory had produced ecstasy pills worth 2.2 trillion rupiah (232 million dollars) every year since 2000.

"He was also known as a chemical expert, lab architect and controlled drug trade of international scale," he said.
Recently, Indonesia has become a significant manufacturer and user of drugs, despite the fact that the death penalty can be imposed for drug offences.

Vet Used Ketamine To Kill Hubby?

Investigators in Texas have charged a vet with hiding evidence of a crime -- specifically, her husband's body, by tying it to cinder blocks and throwing it in a pond.

The story in the Bangor Daily News (sorry, the site's search engine was down, so I can't provide a link) says Texas police searched the vet's home for ketamine, a common animal traquilizer frequently used by vets. Their theory: The vet knocked out her hubby with the colorless, almost tasteless drug, killed him, and tossed him in the pond. The story notes:
Ketamine is a lethal, rapid-acting anesthetic marketed to veterinarians. It is also a party drug that can produce numbness, muscle rigidity and slurred speech.
It is often used in drug-assisted rapes. For more on Ketamine, click here and here.

Friday, April 15, 2005

Another Ecstasy "Overdose"

A common misperception with Ecstasy deaths is that they are caused by overdoses. How does that jibe with this detail from a coronors inquest in Australia?
James Andrew Dzundza, 34, an information technology contractor, was declared dead in an ambulance about 4.35am on Sunday, July 18, 2004. He had collapsed on to the floor of the Minque nightclub in Manuka about 4am while leaving to go to another club. Ivica Aleksic had supplied Mr Dzundza -whom he had known for about six months through his brother Brojan Aleksic -with one ecstasy tablet.
One tablet can kill. One killed Cathy, whose story I tell in my film, and one killed James Andrew Dzundza.

Ecstasy Now #2 Drug In Europe

The European Union's annual drug report has found that Ecstasy is the second most popular drug in Europe, after marijuana.

This surge in Ecstasy use is also seen in Asia and, I believe, here in the US, even though US drug agencies say that Ecstasy use is declining here. I believe in the US surveys, they're just asking the wrong question. Kids often call Ecstasy by the name of the Ecstasy pills they've taken recently, not by "Ecstasy" itself.

Monday, April 11, 2005

What's Wrong WIth Our Courts?!

Regular readers know my concern is about drugs that harm our families. I just don't want there to be any more victims of the heartbreak drugs can cause.

Of course, there are victims of other crimes, and my heart goes out to them, too. That's why this story, from the San Jose Mercury News, so infuriated me:

Federal court reverses 1995 murder conviction
FAMILY PHOTO BUTTONS CALLED INFLAMMATORY



Mercury News
The appeals court ruling stems from a fatal May 1994 confrontation in the driveway of Pamela Musladin's mother's home in South San Jose. At the time, Pamela Musladin had been separated for months from her husband and had been living there with the Musladins' 3-year-old son and Studer, a 31-year-old plumber and her fiance.

A federal appeals court on Friday overturned a 10-year-old San Jose murder conviction, finding the defendant did not receive a fair trial because the victim's family was allowed to sit each day in the front row of the courtroom wearing buttons bearing photographs of the victim.

In a 2-1 decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Mathew Musladin is entitled to a new trial for the 1994 killing of his estranged wife's boyfriend outside a Blossom Valley home. Musladin, 45, is currently serving a life prison term for the first-degree murder of Thomas Allen Studer and the attempted murder of his now ex-wife, Pamela.

The state has the option of asking an 11-judge 9th Circuit panel to reconsider the decision, or send the case back to San Jose for a new trial. Santa Clara County prosecutors vowed to retry Musladin, 45, who has maintained that he was acting in self-defense and that Studer's death was an accident.

Musladin will remain in prison while the case proceeds. ...

Mathew Musladin arrived at the home to pick up his 3-year-old son for a weekend visitation when an argument broke out in front of the house. Court records show that Musladin fired shots at Pamela and Studer, hitting Studer in the shoulder and then in the head with a bullet that ricocheted off the pavement. [Note: O'Reilly said Studer was shot from behind.]

Musladin admitted shooting Studer, but claimed that he believed Studer had a gun and that another man at the house had a machete. He testified that he feared for his life when he fired the shots.

In the appeals court ruling, 9th Circuit Judges Stephen Reinhardt and Martha Berzon found that allowing the family to wear the buttons in front of the jury was particularly inflammatory because of Musladin's argument that he was acting in self-defense. The trial judge had rejected Musladin's lawyer's request for the family to cease wearing the buttons. ...

The Ninth Circuit has proved, once again, that it is capable of making the most bizarre decisions imaginable. My heart goes out to the Studer family. They should not have to live through the pain of this trial again.

Sunday, April 03, 2005

Talk To Your Kids About Drugs

The San Antonio News Gazette has a good story about how important it is for parents to talk to their kids about drugs:
Ginger Katz was about to head out for her 6 a.m. run when she noticed son Ian's television was still on in his basement bedroom. This was the day he had agreed to check himself into rehab for a heroin addiction he had acquired his sophomore year in college.

When she entered her son's room, he was dead, his body cold.

Ian, a former soccer star, had apparently decided to do one more dance with his drug of choice and overdosed.

"You don't want to hear the sound a mother makes when she loses a son," says Katz, speaking by telephone from her home in Connecticut. "It's an unnatural sound, a horrible sound."

Although Ian died eight years ago, the pain is still fresh for Katz, who went on to found The Courage to Speak Foundation, for which she travels the country, teaching kids and adults about the dangers of substance abuse.

"This is my cross to bear, and I will carry it the rest of my life," she says.

The last time Kate Patton saw her beloved daughter, Kelley, was on Nov. 3, 1999 - Patton's birthday. The family had a lovely time together, then Kelley left her Rolling Meadows, Ill., home for the East coast to catch a Bob Dylan concert with friends.

Eleven days later she was dead, overdosed on the club drug Ecstasy.

"When the police came I thought she had died in a car crash or something," says Patton. "When they told me it was Ecstasy, I was totally blown away. I had no idea of what had taken my daughter's life, not a clue."

Like Katz, Patton has since educated herself and started her own nationwide program called the Kelley McEnery Baker Foundation to warn youth and their parents on the dangers of drug addiction.

The two women share another similarity: Neither initiated in-depth and ongoing discussions with their children about the evils of substance abuse, falling prey to the "it can't happen to my child" syndrome. While they did talk some, the conversation about drugs wasn't a concerted, serious effort, and it didn't start early on, before the teen years hit.
Katz and Patton have the same lament that most parents have when their kids die from drugs: Why didn't I talk with my child about drugs? My film is designed to help parents have this all-important conversation. Lots of parents have thanked me for how well it works. There's a summary of the Voice of the Victims approach here.

Spring Break Drug Rape Alert!

It's spring break in Daytona, and drug-facilitated rapes are in the news:
Since mid-March, the start of spring break for many, 20 women have sought help at the center, including 10 whose assaults were classified as "drug-facilitated," meaning they reported being impaired.

Usually one of 10 sexual assaults fits the category, Williams said.

The women may have simply consumed too much alcohol or unwittingly swallowed drinks spiked with such date-rape drugs as GHB or Rohyponol. The center tested the women for drugs.

Eight of the 10 "drug-facilitated" assault victims were under 21, the legal drinking age in Florida. Three were 16 or younger. Some did not remember what happened.
This story is repeated at spring break towns all over the country, and at university towns when it's not spring break. What has happened to our young men? When did this type of criminal behavior become something they embrace so easily?

Ecstasy: The Almost Kill Your Baby Drug

Ecstasy, the "love drug." That's what lots of kids think, but how do you explain this? (From the Minneapolis Star Tribune, registration required):
Timothy Staten shook, bit and dropped his 2-year-old daughter and threw her into a wall and down a stairway, leaving the child fighting for her life with a fractured skull, bleeding of the brain and facial injuries, authorities in Red Wing, Minn., said Wednesday.

Staten appeared to be in a drug-induced rage when he bloodied the toddler and another child early Tuesday, punched his pregnant wife as many as 100 times, struggled with five police officers, broke a leather restraint and fought with jailers, according to a criminal complaint.

His daughter was in critical condition late Wednesday in St. Marys Hospital in Rochester, where she was taken by air ambulance. An emergency room staff member said initially that the child was expected to live, but Goodhue County Attorney Steve Betcher said Wednesday that she underwent several emergency surgeries and "has been on the verge of death."
Found in Staten's house: blue pills, what appeared to be marijuana and "a whole bunch of ecstasy."

Wisconsinites, Unite Against Huffing!

Here's a sad letter from the Green Bay WI Gazette, that shows how tragedy can lead to activism, which can lead to big changes for the better.
Tell the lawmakers to pass this bill

SISTER BAY -- On June 29, 2001, my son Aaron Wake tragically died from "huffing" butane. Huffing, bagging and sniffing are terms for inhalant use, a cheap and easy way for our children and young adults to get high.

Parents and adults are out of the loop when it comes to inhalants. Children discuss it and practice it; adults stay in the dark. Most parents try to talk with their kids about alcohol, marijuana, ecstasy and date rape, but not about inhalants abuse.

The numbers are startling. At least one in five 8th graders has intentionally inhaled everyday products at the risk of brain damage and even death, reports the 2003 National Institute on Drug Abuse "Monitoring the Future Survey."

Inhalant abuse, most common in the 10-12 age group, is also considered a "gateway drug," a student's first form of substance abuse before graduating to other drugs. Assembly Bill 818 has been introduced to the Legislature to make the intentional misuse of household products and nonprescription drugs to get high illegal. Please call or write your state legislator in support of this necessary law. It will assist our police officers in working with our youth.

For further information: www.inhalants.org; www.wisinhalantprevention.com or Wisconsin Poison Control Center, (800) 222-1222.

Laurie Culp, Aaron's mom
My heart goes out to Laurie in her tragedy, and I hope you'll pass this post along to anyone you know in Wisconsin. Huffing is taking a terrible toll on pre-teens and teens.

Justice Comes To Drug-Raper

From the New Zealand Herald, news of a slime getting his due:
He slipped drugs into friends' wine glasses and fed women ketamine-laced Ecstasy. He plied others with alcohol and led the way in drinking games - all so he could rape and indecently assault his victims.

Now 29-year-old Neville Victor Chubb is into day two of a 12-year prison stretch.

The thick-set, scruffy-haired former drainlayer showed no emotion as Justice Colin Nicholson yesterday handed down concurrent terms of 12 years on three rape charges, four years on each of two indecent assault charges and seven years for administering the Class B drug Ecstasy.