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Mass Scopolamine Overdose in Perth

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https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/victoria-park-overdose-nine-snorted-date-rape-drug-hyoscine-found-in-delivered-parcel-ng-b88704302z

 

 

Victoria Park overdose: Nine snorted date rape drug hyoscine found in delivered parcel

Grant Taylor, Gabrielle Knowles and Rourke Walsh
Thursday, 4 January 2018 7:30AM
They say no one had ordered the dangerous substance to the house.

A drug that put nine young backpackers in hospital — including three who remained in intensive care last night—has been identified as a common prescription medication that is also known to be used illegally as a date rape drug.

The West Australian understands authorities were surprised by the test results which identified the drug as hyoscine, commonly used to treat motion sickness.

But the drug is also popular with criminals in countries such as Colombia because of its ability to put overdose victims into a “zombie”-like state, making them easier to rob or sexually abuse.

The seven men and two women who overdosed on Tuesday night were all aged between 21 and 25 and included five French nationals, two Germans, one Italian and a Moroccan.

There are fears more could be at risk as police try to work out what the drug was.

2:40 | 7-News-Perth

 
 
 
 
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There are fears more could be at risk as police try to work out what the drug was.

The group became violently ill about 9pm after taking the drug together at the home they shared on Colombo Street, Victoria Park.

Within minutes they suffered extreme symptoms, including seizures, paralysis, overheating and hallucinations.

Doctors say it was lucky no one died as a result of the overdose.

The Italian victim, who only wanted to be known by his first name, Simone, said the drug had arrived at their house through the mail in a package addressed to someone who did not live at the property.

The Victoria Park home where numerous people were found in an unconscious or semi-conscious state.The Victoria Park home where numerous people were found in an unconscious or semi-conscious state.Picture: Mogens Johansen/The West Australian

Despite not being the intended recipients, the man said they decided to open it anyway and found a white powder that was wrapped in a piece of paper with the word “scoop” written on the outside.

Another name for hyoscine is scopolamine, possibly explaining the presence of the word “scoop”. Believing the powder was cocaine, the group divided it into nine equal portions before snorting it up their noses.

Simone said he became paralysed and was unable to scream for help.

“We were powerless, we couldn’t do anything,” he said.

The alarm was eventually raised by another housemate who had been out for the evening and came home to find her friends in urgent need of medical care.

Backpackers arrive at the Victoria Park property after spending the night in hospital.Backpackers arrive at the Victoria Park property after spending the night in hospital.Picture: Mogens Johansen/The West Australian

Neighbour Mark Evans described confronting scenes as a string of ambulances arrived at the property and began ferrying the backpackers to hospital.

“It was carnage ... some of them were strapped to the stretchers and were totally unconscious. Two other guys were fitting and flailing around with their arms and legs and pulling strange faces.”

RPH emergency physician David McCutcheon said it was not yet known whether any of the patients would suffer lasting injuries, such as damage to their internal organs.

“They were brought to us in a state of agitated delirium,” Dr McCutcheon said. “They were hallucinating, their hearts were racing, several of them had to be put in a medically induced coma for their own protection and I really need to emphasise how seriously unwell they were.

A backpacker pays the taxi after returning from a night in hospital.A backpacker pays the taxi after returning from a night in hospital.Picture: Mogens Johansen/The West Australian

“Several of these people would have died I’m pretty sure without medical intervention and three of them are still in a critical condition.

“They are still requiring full life support in ICU.”

Acting Deputy Police Commissioner Gary Budge said the incident served as a timely warning to all drug users about the dangers of taking any illicit drug

“The message to anyone who is taking illicit drugs is that you could be the next one if you continue to take illicit drugs,” he said.

 

 

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A package of white powder is unexpected delivered to your house - it's not addressed to anyone who lives there, and its label is ambiguous at best. Call me old-fashioned and un-feasibly risk-averse, but does racking up lines of it really seem like an appropriate or sensible response? Depending on what it was it really could have killed the lot of them! 

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yeti you're just an old fuddy-duddy. YOLO

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Yup, taking 'illicit' drugs wasnt the hazard in this instance.

Being a complete freaking moron, thats the hazard.

41%2BWHRHxQuL._SX355_.jpg

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So stupid, Cocaine is the easiest drug to taste test, unless this stuff causes numbness as well.

What if it had of been an RC. They still would have dosed 500% too much, and anyone who has ever been foolish enough to snort an RC,

will think twice before snorting anything, thats for sure. 

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A special kind of stupid, and so concentrated in one place, the mind boggles.

Bit of a worry though, who was the "scoop" meant for and what was its intended use?

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It's a special sort of stupid.

 

I'm glad that they didn't die, it would be a tragedy for so many young lives to be cut so short. But the last thing we need is more media attention on the "war on drugs". Like the pigheaded "just say no" quote from the copper.

 

Quote

Acting Deputy Police Commissioner Gary Budge said the incident served as a timely warning to all drug users about the dangers of taking any illicit drug

“The message to anyone who is taking illicit drugs is that you could be the next one if you continue to take illicit drugs,” he said.

 

This is such a load of bullshit that's being fed the population. Scaremongering and lies.

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4 hours ago, Fenris said:

Bit of a worry though, who was the "scoop" meant for and what was its intended use?

One would hope, given the drug's usual illicit use, the police will try and track the intended recipient. Might help make the night life scene (or any scene for that matter)  a bit safer, especially for the young ladies...

 

3 hours ago, Northerner said:

It's a special sort of stupid.

And yeah, a special kind of stupid. But it does tell us a bit about their collective experience with drugs. There would be very few people who regularly take illicit drugs who would take something they couldn't identify. The story is a perfect example of why ending the war on drugs (users) and education offers our best chance of solving not only issues with substance use, but also mental health as well.

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Really really lucky group of people.  Never heard of scoop before so had to google it.  Seems it's a nickname for GHB. 

So yeah there are incredibly stupid for snorting it, assuming they didn't order it or whatever (if they were asked when they were recovered and not still off their chops I, wouldn't expect them to admit to ordering it online, just more problems if you did).

But even if they knew it was coming and assumed it was GHB not hyoscyamine they would've ended up in hospital anyway.

Very very stupid but even more lucky.

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1 hour ago, Cubism said:

But even if they knew it was coming and assumed it was GHB not hyoscyamine they would've ended up in hospital anyway.

Very very stupid but even more lucky.

 

This is not true, solid Na-GHB is a waxy hygroscopic powder needing to be kept vac sealed or in a bled and desiccated chamber.

It literally doubles its weight if left open air overnight, absorbing moisture rapidly from the atmosphere, one of the most hygroscopic recreational substances known, annoying to play with.

 

Dosage is 1.5grams (light) to 4 grams (heavy)....   Snorting powder GHB (Na-GHB) is not something that people do (sticking 4 grams of wax up your nose? lol). 

You mix your dose into water and drink...   Dump 50 doses into 100ml of water, then 2ml is your dose (fits inside a soysauce fish).

 

If they were all snorting a small bag of GHB, not a single one of them would of felt any effects at all.

 

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Hey skellum, 

I don't quite get what your getting at????  No one is claiming it was GHB of any form. 

 

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Sorry, I read it like;  "if they were snorting GHB they'd be in hospital anyway"
What did you actually mean,  if they thought it was GHB instead of coke,   doesn't change the fact that it was neither and they'd be in hospital regardless?

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If they knew it was coming and assumed it was GHB then they wouldn't of racked it up.  Let alone all 9 of them at once... lol

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Yeah, hospital either way.  Thought it was pretty obvious

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1 minute ago, Cubism said:

Yeah, hospital either way.  Thought it was pretty obvious

 

You're right, now I re-read it is obvious what you meant, I must just be a dumb cunt.

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2 hours ago, Skellum said:

 

You're right, now I re-read it is obvious what you meant, I must just be a dumb cunt.

 

I did too.

 

There are different possible scenarios. Maybe one of them ordered it for sinister purposes but didnt get to the package first.  Maybe somebody else was expecting coke in the mail.

 

The fact that there was any kind of label at all suggests it wasnt posted from the darknet.

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14 hours ago, Fenris said:

Bit of a worry though, who was the "scoop" meant for and what was its intended use?

 

Could've just been someone buying their travel-sickness meds in bulk. If you buy hyoscine over-the-counter at a chemist it works out at about $2 per milligram of active ingredient. A couple of grams would be a lifetime supply. Some folks also use it (or a plant containing it) as an adjunct to various psychoactives to reduce nausea, which might've been inspired by accounts of including nightshades in some yage brews, or how it used to be given routinely in hospitals with opioids as an anti-emetic. I've tried a bunch of anti-emetics for many different reasons, and this is still one of the more effective ones I've found.

 

On a tangent, there are indications that some battlefield surgeons (esp in WW2) tried to use the amnestic effects of high doses to therapeutic advantage, dosing recently-traumatised soldiers in an attempt to prevent PTSD, in the same way that benzoes are sometimes still used (in civilian medicine) for this purpose today.

 

So there are real medicinal uses for this stuff, it's not necessarily nefarious for someone to have ordered it. And the insistence on "illicit drugs" in that article is just funny, since you can buy this stuff without a prescription from any chemist - you don't even need to ask a pharmacist, it's right there on the shelf next to the mylanta.

Edited by Anodyne
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