Pubdate: Sat, 26 Feb 2000
Source: Herald Sun (Australia)
Copyright: News Limited 2000
Contact:  http://www.heraldsun.com.au/

$5M ECSTASY SCAM

VICTORIANS are spending up to $5million every weekend on ecstasy tablets
laced with heroin, speed, cocaine and horse tranquillisers.Police say drug
manufacturers are putting "whatever they can get their hands on" into the
pills and selling them as ecstasy.

Forensic tests have shown up to 98 per cent of "ecstasy" being seized by
police does not even contain the ecstasy drug MDMA.

A special investigation by the Herald Sun has also found:

UP to 100,000 "ecstasy" pills are taken every weekend in Victoria.

TWO prominent Melbourne nightclubs have been identified as ecstasy hotspots.

SIX Victorian crime organisations, including outlaw bikie gangs, are behind
the state's ecstasy trade.

DJs have been investigated for ecstasy dealing.

Yesterday Det-Insp. Dave Reid from the drug squad revealed the horse
tranquilliser ketamine was now among the drugs being found in "ecstasy"
tablets.

"What we are getting are people making up a cocktail," he said.

"They're using whatever is available to them, whatever they can get their
hands on and putting it all together.

"It's a significant problem 96 we have people hurting themselves."

Drug analysis results obtained by the Herald Sun of three batches of seized
"ecstasy" pills showed they had no MDMA with:

BATCH ONE containing: speed, pseudoephedrine, ketamine and stearic acid.

BATCH TWO containing: speed, heroin, ketamine, and pseudoephedrine.

BATCH THREE containing: speed, caffeine and glucose.

Police believe criminals are substituting the MDMA for harder drugs because
of difficulties obtaining MDMA ingredients and high demand for ecstasy
tablets.

A police source said yesterday that ecstasy use was common and two
prominent Melbourne nightclubs were being investigated.

'You go there and say to someone 'can you help me out'," the police source
said. "They don't even think of themselves as drug dealers.

"It's fairly easy 96 we have had people do this very easily."

Undercover officers are ready to penetrate the dance club scene to trace
ecstasy from the street to dealers and suppliers.

Sellers of chemical supplies and pill presses are also being monitored by
police to identify drug producers.

Health authorities and police sources estimated 100,000 $50 "ecstasy" pills
were taken every weekend with many users taking more than one tablet over a
weekend rave party.

Kirsty Morgan, of drug-user group Vivaids said: "There's people that go on
benders for several months and develop psychosis.

"Most people take one or two and then take something else to come down with.

"Most of the ecstasy around doesn't have any ecstasy in it."

The concerns about ecstasy follow the death of a 26-year-old Sydney man at
a weekend rave, who fell into a coma after taking a drug cocktail,
including ecstasy.

The man had been dancing and taking drugs for three days.
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