UK Ecstasy Warning - Avoid Lime Green 'Euros'

The death of 19 year old student Lorna Spinks last weekend, who reportedly took just 2 "extra-strong' ecstasy pills prompted British cops this week to issue a warning against the lime green coloured 'Euros' linked to the teenager's death. "From the enquiries we have made it does appear that these tablets were of exceptionally high strength," Superintendent Tony Southern of Cambridge police told the Telegraph. "I cannot expect everyone will stop taking ecstasy in light of this tragic incident but we are extremely concerned about the potentially fatally high strength of these pills."

Ms Spinks died after taking the pills at Cambridge's Junction nightclub and her death was rapidly linked by police and the media to another suspected poison pill fatality in East Anglia, which happened the week before. However, local Green Party press officer and harm reduction activist Derek Williams suggested that ecstasy's ongoing illegality presented the greatest risk to users' health.

"The Junction has an anti-drugs policy of course (it has to have one as a
condition of its licence)and this involves door searches," Williams pointed out. "It's not unknown for people to neck (swallow) their pills before going in, to avoid getting caught in the door search. She took two ... did she neck both before she went in- Would this have happened if the Junction had been able to admit that people use drugs in there and not been forced to sweep the issue under the carpet with ineffective anti drug searches-"

"Secondly, the pills were "unusually" strong," he continued. "Pills can also be contaminated or even outright fakes. This is because they're illegal. If they weren't illegal, they could be made under proper conditions in real factories. No matter how dangerous MDMA is, the situation now caused by its prohibition is far, far more dangerous and destructive than it need be." Williams, who's long been involved in promoting harm reduction policies, including providing ecstasy testing in clubs, warned that the other suspect pills linked to the earlier death are 9mm in diameter, 4.4mm thick with no logo and are yellow with brown flecks.

Meanwhile, in the States, Ethan Nadelmann, boss of the George Soros backed drug policy organisation, the Lindesmith Centre, also called for harm reduction to replace prohibition though denied he was in favour of legalization. "What I advocate is that we recognize that this has never been a drug-free society and never will be, so let's stop pretending," he told the Washington Post. "Let's even stop trying to get closer to a drug-free society and instead just accept that drugs are here to stay. Then we can focus on reducing the harm both of drug use and of drug prohibition. An ideal strategy would reduce the negative consequences of both."
<http://www.drugpolicy.org> (the Lindesmith Centre)
<http://www.ukcia.org> (Webteam UK cannabis Internet Activists)
<http://www.norwichgreenparty.org>
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1319000/1319460.stm> (BBC article on Lorna Spinks' death)

Tags

• Drugs