Pubdate: Sun, 07 Jan 2001
Source: Sun Herald (Australia)
Copyright: 2001 John Fairfax Holdings Ltd
Contact:  http://www.sunherald.com.au/
Author: Eamonn Duff
Bookmark: Ecstasy http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm

ECSTASY TESTS HEAD FOR SYDNEY

They look like a group of volunteers selling raffle tickets at a 
school fete. But these people are creating history.

A Melbourne youth dance festival secretly played host to Australia's 
first ecstasy testing station last week. Now the tests are heading to 
Sydney.

The initiative allows users to test the purity of pills before using 
them. The news is certain to spark further debate over whether 
ecstasy is becoming legitimised by stealth.

The test kit manufacturers say the kit is legal, so there can be no 
objection to it being distributed, free, as a harm minimisation 
strategy.

It could potentially save lives, they say, and assist the fight 
against manufacturers who profit from pills which are cut with 
substances such as rat poison, heroin and glass.

In May last year, a consortium of Melbourne chemists called Chemical 
Generation developed an Australian-made ecstasy testing kit called E 
- - A Quick and Simple Test, based on the spot test once used for 
forensic analysis. Users place a special solution on a tiny sample of 
their tablet. The test indicates the presence of ecstasy (MDMA) by 
turning purple to black, or a variety of other colours if it contains 
unwanted substances such as heroin.

Chemical Generation spokesman Brett Wilkins said: "Sales have 
confirmed everything we suspected about the number of people now 
embracing this drug.

"The obvious next stage was to follow the example of the Dutch and 
make this harm minimisation available at dance-oriented clubs and 
festivals where people, like it or not, are going to take ecstasy."

Mr Wilkins set up Australia's first ecstasy testing station at last 
week's Earthcore five-day youth dance festival in Melbourne.

"We decided not to publicise the initiative beforehand because we 
wanted to demonstrate the benefits before it got cut down and 
criticised," he said. "We ran the station for two days and more than 
70 people came up to test the purity of their pills. The number of 
inquiries was probably double that. It was a huge success."

Mr Wilkins said Melbourne police and festival security checked out 
the stall. "Once we explained to them the aim of harm minimisation, 
they were all fully behind it.

"We now plan to do something similar in Sydney soon."

Ecstasy testing kits have been available in Sydney shops for almost 
two years after a northern beaches teenager tested the law - and 
found he was perfectly entitled to buy and sell them.

The young man said: "I searched the internet and discovered these 
kits were available from Holland. It seemed stupid they were not 
available in Australia."

He said police, Customs and the Department of Fair Trading were aware 
he was trading in the kits and had raised no objections.
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MAP posted-by: Kirk Bauer