Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Know Your Stuff: getting real…, in reply to
Additionally, KnowYourStuffNZ tested a lot of pink crystals this year, and found 39 different psychoactive substances.
I have a couple of people I can talk to to stay up with things in Auckland. One of them has seen a couple of instances of god-knows-what powder (supposedly of Chinese origin) treated and stained brown to make look like MDMA. Good enough for the kids, apparently. And South Islanders, who apparently get Auckland's reject recreational drugs.
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Hard News: Know Your Stuff: getting real…, in reply to
So we’re not just telling people that what they have is not what they presumed, we can say something like “in the sample you have, we haven’t detected MDMA, but we have detected X, Y, and Z”. Then people can make their decision based on that information.
Which I guess might be: "Yeah, this white powder you've spent a shitload of money on? Not cocaine. But it is amphetamine and nothing else."
It's not an entirely irrational choice to still choose to proceed in that situation.
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Fark. Here’s what can happen.
Ten people who were hospitalised after thinking they had bought MDMA had actually taken a crystallised form of ‘zombie drug’ Spice.
Ten people were taken to hospital after taking the drug and police said this is the first time they have seen it in a more potent form.
Officers said that people believed they were buying MDMA – a form of ecstasy – but had in fact taken a powerful new form of the synthetic high in Greater Manchester.
The Daily Mirror story itself is a shambles. Stop calling synthetic cannabinoids “Spice”, ffs.
And it’s not “in crystalised, and much more potent and unrefined form”, it’s just the drug before it’s sprayed into random vegetable matter. There’s no excuse for drug reporting being this bad and stupid.
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Hard News: Know Your Stuff: getting real…, in reply to
Great work, Russell! The link where I can chip in to support your work doesn’t lead me to any such page (but another story) – did I overlook something?
The link's in the story!
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Hard News: Know Your Stuff: getting real…, in reply to
Thank you Russell for being the lone voice for so long on this issue. It was because of you that we got any traction at all, and 3 years on your reporting is still the best. :)
Aw, cheers Wendy. I still remember having about two minutes to talk after we met to run a session at Foo and both discovering that at last here was someone else who got it :-)
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More from Q+A this morning: the panel agrees this is a good idea, drugs are a health issue and the law should be changed.
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Hard News: Friday Music: a New Zealand story, in reply to
Where’s Kaye Woodward from The Bats & Minisnap ?
The amazing thing about Kaye is that her guitaring just seems to have become better – and more important to the band(s) – as the years have passed.
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Hard News: Meth Perception, in reply to
The Drug Foundation Twitter posted this shot of the standards committee today.
I guess you could argue Hill Laboratories, who make money from the industry, but – unlike the others – actually have some expertise. Well, okay, maybe also Forensic and Industrial. But MethSolutions, who've played a major role in this whole debacle? FFS.
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And lo, the standard has just been published.