Ketamine Floods Into BC

Police in British Columbia are worried about the sudden appearance of Ketamine on the streets of western Canada — for good reason. 

Recent police intelligence indicates that Ketamine is fast becoming a popular street/club drug throughout the province. Police say a significant Ketamine bust in Richmond at the end of September — in which 28 kilograms of the drug was seized along with several firearms — indicates organized crime involvement.

Ketamine is used by doctors and vets to knock out patients for surgery.  As such, it is carefully applied by specialists — vets or anaesthologists — under controlled situations.  On the street … well, let’s just say controls are not quite so good.

If you want to see first hand what can go wrong if a person inadvertently overdoses on Ketamine, watch the Erin Rose clip at Voice of the Victims. 

While you’re there, please buy a set.  Beth Pearce tells me she’d like to do another film — this one covering DXM, GHB and alcohol — and your purchase will help her achieve that goal.

Drugs Lead to Coma and a New Life

Corey Haughn has the unfortunate job of being the poster boy for everything that’s wrong with taking massive amounts of drugs and alcohol.  He speaks (as well as he can) to kids, begging them not to follow in his footsteps (or wheel chair tracks).

Here’s what he took, according to the Tulsa World:  more than 20 tablets of Xanax, countless bottles of liquor and several doses of methadone over a three-day period .  Corey says he wasn’t trying to kill himself, rather:

“I was just working on a ‘really good’ high.”

Aaarrgggh!  How come so many kids think it’s just fine to take such an insane amount of drugs? 

Here’s what Corey’s life is like today:

“I wasn’t supposed to come out of that coma. I was supposed to be brain dead,” Haughn said. “Once I woke up, doctors said I would be lucky to have the brain capacity of a lizard.”

A drug-induced stroke had caused his coma, his family realized, and the journey to recovery was going to be a tough one.

Today, the now 20-year-old is partially paralyzed and lives in a Glenpool nursing home. He wheels himself around in his wheelchair.

He dresses like any other young man his age: Jeans, green-and-white striped golf shirt, sports shoes.

He looks people in the eye when he speaks to them, but he speaks softly. His handshake is confident but without force.

When he speaks, he struggles to breathe and sometimes wheezes. Verbalizing his thoughts takes longer than it used to.

If you doubt this description, watch the clip of Erin Rose at Voice of the Victims.  And consider this — it was one “normal” dose of Ketamine that put Erin into her coma — not a three-day-long dope-and-booze-athon.

Please, please buy the two Voice of the Victims videos.  It’s only $25 for the set, and it is the best tool you can find.

North Korea Feeds Asia’s Drug Appetited

The Australian ran an interesting story last Tuesday about the growing appetite for drugs in Asia, and North Korea’s role in feeding it:

WHEN the North Korean ship the Pong Su mysteriously appeared off the Victorian coast in 2003 to dump its deadly haul of heroin here, authorities hoped it was a one-off crime, a brazen act by a desperate nation.

That now seems unlikely. A significant new report, obtained exclusively by The Australian, shows Australia is almost certain to be targeted by other heroin ships.

What’s more, it reveals there is a ghostly armada of Pong Sus out there today, plying the waters of Asia and the Pacific carrying drugs to unsuspecting victims around the world.

In one of the most chilling studies of its kind, the Australian National Council on Drugs, the principal advisory body to the federal Government on drug policy, has taken a rare and comprehensive snapshot of the Asia-Pacific region. Its 215-page report finds that, despite record numbers of drug-related arrests, the region is awash with illicit drugs, from heroin to amphetamines to schoolyard glue.

The report goes on to describe increased use of Ecstasy, meth and ketamine in cities throughout Asia, and the authorities’ struggles against the rising tide.

”The numbers of people using and dependent on illicit drugs run into the millions across the region. Issues of such magnitude challenge the capacity of developed nations, let alone those that are attempting to hasten social and economic development, often from a low base,” says the report, Situational Analysis of Illicit Drug Issues in the Asia-Pacific Region.

My fear is that use of the drugs is increasing exponentially faster than education about them.  Usually, it takes a number of tragedies before the media wakes up to a problem.

Sex And Violence At Raves

Some pro-drug people who attack this blog claim that there is no violence at raves.  I offer this point of view as an alternative view, from the Hong Kong Standard:

A former drug abuser who identified herself as Ah Sze said once she entered a disco she felt compelled to take drugs.

“The atmosphere made me want to take drugs. Even if I didn’t want to take drugs for some days, when I went in and saw everyone having drugs, I felt that I wanted to join them,” the 20-year-old said. …

She said Ecstasy cost HK$100 a pill, and ketamine HK$150 a packet. Friends spent up to HK$1,000 a night on drugs, but she spent HK$200. …

The drugs exposed girls to the risk of sexual assault, she said, resulting in her being molested.

“Once I was touched by many boys. I knew that, but I didn’t know how to resist. I had no strength. I couldn’t even move my legs. Once I got up, I fell down immediately.”

She said that discos were also a place for brawls, each night seeing one or two fights.

Don’t be fooled into thinking is always lovely with club drugs.

Two More Club Drug Comas

I don’t know when this occurred; it’s from the New England Medical Journal, quoted in the Toledo Blade:

The girl found her boyfriend and his pal unconscious during a college party with plenty of alcohol. Instead of letting them sleep it off, she called 911.

“Drunk,” was the EMTs first thought. En route to the hospital, however, the boys slipped into a coma, and by arrival they didn’t even respond to pain.

The boys looked healthy. Blood and urine tests showed no common drugs or large amounts of alcohol. Then they stopped breathing, and were put on respirators. If the girlfriend had left them to “sleep,” they would have been brain dead in about 6 minutes.

Next day they regained consciousness and walked out of the hospital – unable to remember anything from the night before.

This is why spend time on this blog instead of with my family — in the hope that someone will read a story like this and think to call 911 because they understand the risk, and save the life of someone they love.

Club Drug Coma In Maryland

Here’s a story out of Maryland that’s a bit unusual:

A little over a week ago, 18-year-old Kimberly Davis was working two jobs and had aspirations of becoming a cosmetologist, but those dreams may never come true.

One night of drug use left her clinically dead for 10 minutes and unconscious for three days, according to her family.

“She could have brain damage for the rest of her life” Malorie Davis said of her sister who awoke from a coma earlier this week. “We don’t know what’s going to be wrong with her but we know she’s going to be alive and that’s all that matters.”

What happened to Kimberly is not unusual, unfortunately.  As any emergency room worker can tell you, 18 to 25 year olds with drug overdoses show up with depressing regularity.

What’s unusual is that Kimberly’s story was told in a newspaper.  If every coma and near-death experience suffered by a young person from drugs were told, there would be greater understanding of the risk, and fewer would show up in the emergency room.

Tejano Star’s Drug Rape Trial Starts

Joe Lopez is a superstar, one of the most popular stars of the Tejano music that’s so popular along the Texas/Mexico border.

He’s also an alleged child rapist.

Lopez is charged with three counts of aggrevated sexual assault, one count of indency with a minor, and one count of providing GHB, Ketamine or rohypnal to her.

On the first day of his trial, Lopoez fired his attorneys — a classic delay tactic — and the trial was suspended until new attorneys can be found.  He’s in jail for now, but with jail set at a low $25,000, this is one singer who may be somewhere over the rainbow soon.

Ecstasy, Ketamine Kill 13-year-old in China

Police in the Chinese city of Mongkok, a part of Kowloon, Hong Kong, have raided discos, made arrests and siezed drugs following the death of 13-year-old Chek Wai-yin.  The girl allegedly took a mixture of Ecstasy and ketamine before she collapsed and died on Wednesday.

The South China Morning Post reports:

Wai-yin went to a disco in Mongkok Road with a 20-year-old female friend shortly before 1am, said police.

Before dawn, she complained of dizziness and left the disco with her friend, taking a rest outside a public toilet in Mongkok Road.

“The pair then walked to Canton Road, Mongkok, where they took a rest again. The girl subsequently collapsed there and her friend called police at 6.15am,” a police spokesman said.

The girl was declared dead before arrival at Kwong Wah Hospital.

“Initial investigations showed that she did indeed take some recreational drug at the disco,” a police source said. The source added it appeared to be a mixture of ketamine and Ecstasy but it was not known how much of the drugs the girl had taken. …

“I hope this tragic incident can send a strong message to young people that drugs not only harm their health but can kill them,” said the head of the Customs Drug Investigation Bureau, Ben Leung Lun-cheung.

One hopes ….

A Drug-Assisted Rape in China

This is quite a story out of China.  As you read it, consider this:  When someone is unconscious, it means they need IMMEDIATE medical care, not rape.  This guy came very close to killing his victim, and should have been charged with that too.

NOTE:  The language from the report, from the South China News, is pretty graphic.

A man who raped a woman after taking drugs with her at a popular Kowloon disco was jailed for five years yesterday.

Hoang Minh-tung, 37, had pleaded guilty in the Court of First Instance to rape and of buggery without consent of the 23-year-old woman in September last year.

Hoang pleaded not guilty to a third charge, of trafficking in a dangerous drug, which the prosecution agreed not to pursue in exchange for guilty pleas to the two more serious charges.

The court heard that at 4.40am on September 22, the woman and two friends went to the 348 disco on Nathan Road. They danced for a while before the woman bought two Ecstasy tablets. She took one and her friends shared the other.

Hoang appeared soon afterwards and danced with one of the friends before buying them a glass of a "beer-like drink". Hoang then took the woman and one of her friends to a table where another man handed them a bag of ketamine, which the two women snorted.

When one of the women became ill, Hoang took her to a Yau Ma Tei hotel. A desk clerk noted Hoang had to carry the woman, who appeared to be asleep. Some time later, the woman woke to find herself naked on a bed as Hoang performed a sex act on her. Unable to resist him, or stand the pain, she passed out again.

When she next awoke she was still naked and Hoang was standing naked by the bed. She was in pain when she gathered her clothes and returned to the nightclub with Hoang.

She reported the incident and Hoang was arrested that morning. He at first claimed she had offered to have sex with him for $500 but later changed his story.

In sentencing Vietnam-born Hoang, Deputy High Court Judge Peter Longley said the fact the woman knowingly consumed drugs did nothing to reduce the severity of the crimes.

Smart judge.  If anything, the fact that Hoang provided drugs known to facilitate rape made the crime more severe, not less.

A Good Guide to Rape Drugs

The blog Holly's Fight for Justice has a well-researched post on the dangerous drug-assisted rape drugs Rohypnol and GHB, including the effects and risks of the drugs, and steps one can take to be safe.

I particularly liked Holly's introduction, which is right-on:

Unfortunately the use of date rape drugs is on the rise, especially Rohypnol and GHB [I would add ketamine to the list]. However, keep in mind that the most common date rape drug out there is actually alcohol.

Yes, indeed.  Protect yourself from GHB, roofies and Ketamine — but always, watch out for alcohol, which not only can make you pass out into full vulnerability, but short of that, can strip you of the ability to make smart decisions.

Jessica’s GHB Story

I received this powerful comment today on an old post.  It justifies the purpose of this blog; the author says that as a recovering addict she now understands how wrong some of her opinions and informtion were, and that she is now a great believer in open information about drugs — definitely including the risk factors and down sides.

Hello

I came across your site through a technorati tag search for GHB. I am a recovering addict. I had been addicted to GHB for over two years. I’ve been clean for just over nine months

This post is all the more real to me than you may realize. Once you are in the culture – you are IN the culture. And evening out your brain with the use of various drugs to bring you up or down is all too real and way undereported in the mainstream media. It is all people know when they are using. To combat fatigue take an upper – if it’s too much supress it with a downer.

What many people fail to recognize is the fear that the user feels if their friend G-holes or blacks out etc… The urge to call the police or an ambulance always considered however because of the stigma attached to addiction and the possibility of getting caught and worse detoxing, causes many to not call 911. In the rave world “you take care of eachother”, “you do it on your own” and “deal with it”.

For many users, the rave scene and the use of E, G or K may have been the first time they could relax and actually feel something other than angst, depression, anxiety and maybe revisit a child hood that was cut short. I realized sadly, that all of a sudden I could focus and work. My attention span was heightened and many of my fears disapeared.

I’m sorry to hear that this person dyed. It very well could have been myself and I sometimes wonder how I managed to live, attend college full-time (21 classes for upgrading of my skills), and after graduating work 50 plus hours a week as an art director. I used drugs 24/7 to cope. I thought GHB was safe from all the research I did. I now know differently and am very blatant about it. I have posted on ProjectGHB.org’s forums during my recovery.

If life doesn’t slow down somewhat, sometime soon, many others unkowingly will succumb to addiction just to keep up with the Jones’. I would also like to say I’m not for or against the use of drugs. What I do beleive in, is education. If you do this… this could happen.

Saying “Don’t Trust Your Drug Dealer”… as someone who has used a lot of drugs, I must say that it has nothing to do with trust… it has to do with need to survive in this sped up world.

I am still coming to terms with what happened to me and have some residual anger towards many people, places and things. Most of all though it’s myself that I’m angry at. If you wouldn’t mind I will be creating a page on my website to refer people to sites with information on drug use and addiction. I would like to add your site if possible. I read your sidebar about the facts… that is all I’m trying to understand and I beleive in freedom of information. Feel free to read and browse my site – the notewaorthy, addiction and anxiety categories may be of interest to you and leave a comment behind if you like

Kind regards,
Jessica Doyle

Thank you, Jessica, and God bless you and strengthen you in your recovery!  Your Web site is quite beautiful and thought-provoking.

As a business owner, father, husband and all-around active person (board memberships, church, chores, etc.), I understand so well the pressures and the temptation to "manage" ups and downs.  I used to use alcohol for that purpose.

Now I use conversations with my family, exercise, reading the Bible, and time in prayer.  For non-Christians, I'd still recommend the latter two.  Maybe you need something other than a Bible, although it is a wonderful book, full of thousands of years of wisdom.  But the fact is, taking time to read a book of great wisdom, and to pray (meditate) on it, and to pray for others and yourself, gives you a great gift:  A time of peace and quiet, a time of larger perspective, and most of all, a time plugged in with the creator, the lifeforce of the universe.

Drug-Assisted Rape

"Date rape" is not the best word for the crime it describes, because the victim is more often a stranger, not a date.  "Drug-assisted rape" is the preferred name.

I found an excellent summary of the cautions those who frequent bars and parties should take to avoid this crime in the Daily Mustang, the student paper at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.  An excerpt:

Date-rape drugs cause victims to become physically helpless, unable to refuse sex or consent to it and unable to remember what happened. The drugs are hard to detect in drinks because they have no color, taste or smell and can easily be added without the victim’s knowledge.

Here's a link to the complete article.  It makes the mistake of classifying drug-assisted rape as only a crime against women.  Many men have also been victims of the crime.

Canada Studies Cost of Drug Use

$40 billion.  That's what drugs cost Canada annually — and it's about double what it was ten years ago, according to a comprehensive study just published by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse.

The study included tobacco and alcohol, which were found to be far more costly than illegal drugs:  tobacco was the most expensive, costing $17 billion for the year studied while alcohol cost $14.6 billion and illegal drugs $8.2 billion. This seems to be a pretty solid argument for keeping illegal drugs illegal, eh?

More on the report:

A report by a national addiction agency says the use of a variety of drugs, legal and illegal, batter [the Canadian] economy and the users of alcohol and tobacco incur the vast majority of total costs. The use of illegal drugs results in about 20 per cent of the total amount.Loss of productivity jumped out at the research team. In 2002, the last year a full study was done, it was estimated at $24.3 billion, followed by $8.8 billion in health care costs. Statistics show that alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs account for 20 per cent of all acute care hospital beds in Canada today. Law enforcement costs of legal and illegal drugs was set at $5.4 billion, which represents roughly half the cost of the entire criminal justice system.

The study, by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, takes into account any cost to society caused by drug use, so it includes a wide range of people, not just hard core addicts.

Jurgen Rhem, the study's principal investigator, said about 80 per cent of people who drink alcohol cause no social cost, but that leaves a large number of people causing huge costs. He said the cost of substance abuse in Canada is significant and is on the rise. A similar study a decade ago set the cost at about half what it is today.

"This is a wake-up call," Rhem said.

The largest component of the cost was linked to disability and premature death, which accounted for 61 per cent of the total. In terms of specific drug costs, tobacco was the most expensive, costing $17 billion for the year studied while alcohol cost us $14.6 billion and illegal drugs a further $8.2 billion. The study did not include the private costs incurred by users of drugs in purchasing them or revenue generated by the purchase of alcohol and tobacco which are heavily taxed by government.