Girl dies after Big Day Out overdose

[faustus]

the libertarians will argue that ironically, the use of sniffer dogs resulted in the girl's death.

the police will claim that her death is exactly why we need to clamp down on drugs at festivals, and use this as a justification for drug dogs.

then anna wood's dad will jizz his pants with glee, cos now he can start another tour circuit of high schools talking about the dangers of ecstasy.

************

EDIT: news article updated

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/girl-d...3423112027.html

A 17-year-old girl admitted to hospital after a suspected drug overdose at yesterday's Big Day Out concert in Perth has died overnight.

A friend of the family told 6PR Radio that the girl took three ecstasy tablets before entering the festival's gates after she spotted police searching people for drugs.

The witness said the girl then went on a ride with friends when she began to shake and her lips turned blue.

Within moments she collapsed and was taken to hospital, where she died early this morning.

Police confirmed the girl had taken a number of pills before entering the event, which was held in 36-degree heat and humidity.

It is understood she was treated for a suspected ecstasy overdose at a first-aid post before being taken to Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.

The Police Major Crime Squad and Organised Crime Squad are investigating the source of the drugs to see if charges should be laid.

The cause of girl's death is yet to be confirmed by a post-mortem examination.

Police with sniffer dogs laid about 60 charges for drug-related offences at the Showgrounds train station, targeting festivalgoers yesterday.

They charged 55 people with possession, three people with intent to sell or supply, and four with possessing smoking implements.

Drugs seized included ecstasy, methamphetamine, cannabis and dexamphetamine.

Another 32 people were charged with liquor infringements and six people were charged with disorderly conduct.

Steve Allsop, from the National Drug Research Institute, said taking any pill was a gamble.

"One of the risks is that people don't know what it is they're taking. What they were taking one week will vary the next week. The problem with a drug such as ecstasy is that people are lulled into a false sense of security about what they're taking," he said.

"Some people are also more vulnerable to the risks than others. Some people react with more adverse reactions than others and they don't find out until it's too late.

"It can cause cardiac problems, such as irregular heartbeats and increased blood pressure and can lead to a possible stroke for those who are already vulnerable.

"Ecstasy also interferes with the regulation of our body temperature. There is an increased vulnerability to dehydration and in 38- to 40-degree heat a person can go into a coma or in some cases people can die.

"Ecstasy related deaths are often in hot environments where the body can't cool down. So if a person's normal temperature is 38.5 degrees, a person who is unwell has a temperature of 40 degrees and in some of these cases their temperature is 43 to 44 degrees.

http://' target="_blank"> He recommended that friends not hesitate to call for help if a friend showed any signs of being adversely affected by drugs.

Edited February 2, 2009 by twix elbert

[Neoshaman]

Yay another death thanks to do-gooder fucking prohibitionist , dumb shit pigs and fucking gutless politicians. Hmmm based on causal relationships I can see a law suit coming on I hope the pigs get therte arses hauled over the coals they were warned at Sydney last year by BDO organisers that this shit would happen I hope all those gutless cunt cops loose a lot of fucking sleep over killing this young girl and I hope the politicians of western Australia do the same. Because of their actions a young innocent person has died GUTLESS FUCKING SWINE I HOPE THEY ROT IN HELLS DEEPEST AND MOST SADISTIC PIT

[MindExpansion]

then anna wood's dad will jizz his pants with glee, cos now he can start another tour circuit of high schools talking about the dangers of ecstasy.

HAH, yeh but maybe if his daughters friends trusted him they woulda told him rather than tucking her into bed and letting her die there overnight.

GUTLESS FUCKING SWINE I HOPE THEY ROT IN HELLS DEEPEST AND MOST SADISTIC PIT

Fuck yeh man I support you rant.

But how fucking retardedly completely brainlessly stupid do you have to fucking be to not realise that this is EXACTLY what will happen, how fucking dumb cunt stupid are you before you think that kids will not bring the drugs and run the chance anyway, then eat them when they are scared, what the fuck else are they guna do, toss the pills on the ground...hah may as well pull out a $50 note and smoke it. Or do they expect kids to see the dogs and walk up to the cops, pills in hand and puppy dog eyes 'sowwy mista, i dun wanna do bad tings...pwease don't get me in twubble'. Fucking morons. Hope they get the fuck sewed out of them.

Peace

[JDanger]

Some serious shit better get kicked around after this.

Sure, dunking 3 pills which probably didn't even contain pure MDMA was a bad move, and sure, the cops were just doing their job, but noone should ever have to take a massive dose of whatever-the-fuck to avoid an arrest for a personal amount of an (un)controlled substance, and noone should be doing a job that so obviously does more harm than good.

The girl's death is tragic, let's just hope it doesn't go to waste.

[JustAskSally]

when they are scared, what the fuck else are they guna do, toss the pills on the ground...hah may as well pull out a $50 note and smoke it.

Peace

well at least if she did decide to ditch em she would still be alive, im pretty sure that i could safely say that her life, as with any other has more that a monetary value.. Ive had friends in clubs that have done exactly that, thrown em on the ground and cut their losses, if they felt they had time, give them around to friends to eat instead of eating em all for yourself(share em) seems like (don't crucify me for this comment) it was more of a selfish act that anything

I mean its a horrible thing to have happened but honestly i dont see how the police can be blamed when she took em there knowing the risk and ate em....

If the police turned around next year and said."we fucked up!! there'll be no more sniffer dogs at BDO from now on" do u think that there will be less or more drugs at next years BDO and do you think that drug OD's will decrease or increase...?? I mean its like 35-45 degrees every year at BDO, thats one of the big reasons its such a problem, eating a pill thats going to de-regulate your internal temp on a day as hot as BDO is every year is very dumb indeed!

I can relate this to something that just happened in my area involving a police chase...

An unlicenced driver in my area crashed and killed a mother and young daughter during a police chase about two months ago.. The police knew the car, they knew who the driver was and where he lived because he was a repeat offender and they could see who he was through the window of the car..

The arguement is that if the police had of just drove to his home and waited for him there that the crash never would have happened.. but because it was the police that continued the high speed chase does that mean it was them that caused the crash??

So is it the polices fault that the driver crashed because they continued chasing him or is it the driver's fault for hopping behind the wheel in the first place???

Ive been to BDO about 5 times now and IMO you would have to be really dumb to catch public transport to the event with drugs on you.. I was searched because i smelt like weed smoke and a friend of mine was strip searched this year because the dogs alerted to drugs, but we both knew what a stupid idea it would be to try take drugs in because of the extremely strong police presence every year....

Like honestly, if you are going to be stupid enough to take drugs into an event like that you do the smart thing and at least put the saddy bag of pills into the bottom of your bottle of sunscreen and dont eat three at once because you dont wanna loose your money/drugs... OR just get a lift in with a friend and dont catch public transport!!!!!

she coulda ate one and threw the rest, given her friends a pill each or could have chose to leave them at home like most other ppl did that day..

Im not saying that the police should be there with their dogs, or that i enjoy their presence, i honestly really wish they weren't, but how can you blame police when it was the girl that chose to take drugs to the event where sniffer dogs and police will be present and in the end it was the girls decision to eat all three instead of ditching em or sharing them...

Just my thoughts...

Peace

[Chiral]

EDIT..I can't be bothered anymore..

ignorance is no excuse my friends..

H.

Edited February 2, 2009 by Hunab Ku

[MindExpansion]

like most other ppl did that day..

Are you serious man? BDO gold coast was a fucking munt fest and I doubt anywhere else was different.

The car chase is a different story, to my mind from what you say the cops should've gone and waited, but they probably wanted to drive their fast car nice and fast...like real men.

I'm not saying eating them was her only option, sure there are ways to sneak them in, most likely if she hadda just walked on through she wouldn't have been picked up anyway.

I personally don't really think having the dogs there makes that much difference, everyone I know was happy to chance it, if you get caught its a piddly fine, thats the gamble. Sure some might be put off, but to what avail. OD's are so uncommon anyway that those few people who decided not to take their drugs in for fear of being caught are far more likely than not to have been fine if they did. BUT because the cops wanted to instill some fear and 'save some lives' (Sorry, but how many OD's, particularly fatal OD's, have there ever been at big day outs...ever?) a girl died, not saying that her choice was the smartest one, but she is certainly not the only one who would react that way in that situation, you and your friends might not, but that doesn't mean everyone won't. What happened there is an avoidable tragedy, simply:

Girl decides to risk taking the drugs in along with 10's of thousands of others -> girl sees sniffer dogs and freaks -> girl decides to take all her drugs because that seems to her like the way to go to not get caught -> girl OD's and dies.

Now lets go through the likely situation if the dogs weren't there:

Girl decides to take drugs to bdo -> girl gets in and has a great day -> evening comes and the boiler room starts to get better -> girl starts to take her pills -> girl boogies the evening away, probably stopping intermittently to chew random peoples ears -> girl goes home and wakes up the next day feeling like shit but alive.

Sure by some chance she might have OD'd anyway...but to be taking 3 pills its probably not her first time effort so she's probably got some smarts with spacing them out, she obviously just underestimated how much it would take to tip over the edge in one go. The dogs there do not prevent OD's because OD's are so fucking rare anyway...why not have an awareness campaign out the front, a pill testing booth, some notices on where to get water filled up, notices on the stage saying that the bouncers at the front can fill bottles if your in the pit, some notices assuring people that if they report to a medical tent feeling a bit off after taking something they will not be in any trouble. Would that not help toward preventing OD's more than sniffer dogs which might stop some people getting there drugs in but let many more through?

Peace

[faustus]

asksally, you have a point. the police can't be blamed for the girl's decision to engage in a behaviour which resulted in her death.

but let's consider the reason why police use sniffer dogs: they claim it's to catch drug dealers. this girl was (as far as we know) a drug user, not a dealer. if you don't want people to endanger their lives because of the sniffer dogs, they have to not fear the consequences of getting caught with drugs i.e. you should not get a criminal for possession of a personal amount of drugs if you are caught by sniffer dogs. this would be consistent with the police's claim that it's the drug dealers that they're after.

so sweet, use sniffer dogs to catch drug dealers. but if you catch a recreational drug user, give them a small fine at most, and certainly don't give them a criminal record.

[Neoshaman]

well at least if she did decide to ditch em she would still be alive, im pretty sure that i could safely say that her life, as with any other has more that a monetary value.. Ive had friends in clubs that have done exactly that, thrown em on the ground and cut their losses, if they felt they had time, give them around to friends to eat instead of eating em all for yourself(share em) seems like (don't crucify me for this comment) it was more of a selfish act that anything

I mean its a horrible thing to have happened but honestly i dont see how the police can be blamed when she took em there knowing the risk and ate em....

If the police turned around next year and said."we fucked up!! there'll be no more sniffer dogs at BDO from now on" do u think that there will be less or more drugs at next years BDO and do you think that drug OD's will decrease or increase...?? I mean its like 35-45 degrees every year at BDO, thats one of the big reasons its such a problem, eating a pill thats going to de-regulate your internal temp on a day as hot as BDO is every year is very dumb indeed!

I can relate this to something that just happened in my area involving a police chase...

An unlicenced driver in my area crashed and killed a mother and young daughter during a police chase about two months ago.. The police knew the car, they knew who the driver was and where he lived because he was a repeat offender and they could see who he was through the window of the car..

The arguement is that if the police had of just drove to his home and waited for him there that the crash never would have happened.. but because it was the police that continued the high speed chase does that mean it was them that caused the crash??

So is it the polices fault that the driver crashed because they continued chasing him or is it the driver's fault for hopping behind the wheel in the first place???

Ive been to BDO about 5 times now and IMO you would have to be really dumb to catch public transport to the event with drugs on you.. I was searched because i smelt like weed smoke and a friend of mine was strip searched this year because the dogs alerted to drugs, but we both knew what a stupid idea it would be to try take drugs in because of the extremely strong police presence every year....

Like honestly, if you are going to be stupid enough to take drugs into an event like that you do the smart thing and at least put the saddy bag of pills into the bottom of your bottle of sunscreen and dont eat three at once because you dont wanna loose your money/drugs... OR just get a lift in with a friend and dont catch public transport!!!!!

she coulda ate one and threw the rest, given her friends a pill each or could have chose to leave them at home like most other ppl did that day..

Im not saying that the police should be there with their dogs, or that i enjoy their presence, i honestly really wish they weren't, but how can you blame police when it was the girl that chose to take drugs to the event where sniffer dogs and police will be present and in the end it was the girls decision to eat all three instead of ditching em or sharing them...

Just my thoughts...

Peace

I can see your point sal however II would point out the following as far as I'm aware although used at the last few BDO in Sydney I think you'll find this was first time its happened in other states ( maybe ?)

I also think how old was this girl 17 well i know at 17 I was dumping 3 or 4 in a sitting and still going fine and for an allday event I would have needed that many to keep me going too . further to this its stupid that the police think them being there is a deterrent experience festival goers know how to hide there stuff to avoid detection and its usually the young and inexperienced who end up with ridiculous drug charges which can screw up the rest of their lives or results in what happened here

The issue is also prohibition full stop: Lets just say this was legal and regulated::

she would have brought from Chemist it would have been mdma it would have had safety advice it would have listed the dosage , she wouldn't have needed to dump them due to filthy fucking pigs

governments and ridiculous laws are ultimately responsible for this girls death but the police had just as much of a roll by enforcing these stupid laws in such a thoughtless way

To say that she should have just thrown them away is all well and good what you haven't considere the way some people brain works in a panic reaction not to mention she may have only noticed the dog when it was too late to dipose of tthem on the ground from a legal perspective a lawyer would argue that the police dogs were a direct contributing factor in her death and to be honest most lawyers would have a field day with all the evidence out there that prove sniffer dogs result in more harm then good

[MindExpansion]

and hand out her spares to her friends

heheh and then get done for supply.

But yeh, what happened, regardless of why, is fucked up and tragic.

But examining the why is important to stop it happening again, so let us hope they examine the why.

Peace

[rahli]

We are in possession of a system where it is safer to have drugs in your system then in your possession.

Most of the time!

It is very sad that this situation resulted in the girls death. It is also sad that the authorities justify their policies as working to prevent this type of thing happening again.

[Garbage]

Irresponsibility is the key here.

[mac]

for a start she was only 17 so whoever sold the pills or got them for her is just as responsible as the police for scaring her into downing all 3

yes it is a tragedy & pointing the finger of blame is not going to bring her back

its lack of education about drugs & the easy availability of synthetic street drugs is the main problem here

[Undergrounder]

Ever since dogs have been at events people have been necking their entire stash all at once rather than take them slowly over time and risk getting busted on the way in.

This death is a direct result of police policy.

[C_T]

If it stops the dealers fine... But this is hurting simple users.

Which they claim they are not targetting

[oxydiser]

It was the cops fault, it was the sniffer dogs fault, it was the drug dealers fault, it was the rides fault...

I think unfortunately the majority of blame lies with the victim herself

She was was 17, probably weighed all of 50kgs

On a day like Sunday where it was stinkin hot anyone would have struggled in that situation with 3 pills in them.

I was there, and had a really good time. When I woke up to this news it really put a downer on the experience, knowing that this girl was dying from a silly mistake while we were celebrating.

RIP. A sad tragedy.

[Garbage]

Nope,she chose poorly.

[t st tantra]

imho........this could have been most of us at 17.......fate,whatever word you want to use......i could see myself being there and making the same instant bad decision.......reported on abc radio-police say bad batch of e.

t s t .

[J Smith]

Anna Woods' dad was just on Sunrise and all the usual stuff was said. MDMA is bad. Bouncers see this type of thing going on all the time and are helpless to do anything about it (!!!). Anna died from pure MDMA - if it was cut with something perhaps she would have survived. Gigs that have drugs at them should be banned. Gigs can function without drugs and alcohol, just look at the Christian music festivals (yes he really said that).

It's always terrible when a poor girl loses her life.

[Legba]

They seized 129 tablets of MDMA or ecstasy, two grams of methylamphetamine, six grams of cannabis, 75 joints and 21 tablets of dexamphetamine.

If it was Anna Woods who died i cant see her dad being consoled by the success of the dog squad.

[Neoshaman]

its lack of education about drugs & the easy availability of synthetic street drugs is the main problem here

thats very true Mac , I truelly suspect very few ppl even our age would be aware of things like common adultrates or the effects and dosage level variation between the numerous mda analouges and homolouges that are are commonly passed off as Xtc, in saying that 3 pills of anything can't be to safe I think whats sad is because this scene is run by criminals they couldn't give two fucks who the stuff gets sold to, its a massive argument for legaliastion and regulation of the substance

1.Would take the funds and power away from criminal gangs

2. Would allow regulated doses and controlled sale

3. Would allow tax benefits gained from the sale to be put back in research and health services

4. Would create an enviroment where education of the user could be advanced at POS

5.Would stop adultration of Substances and more dangerous related chems such as PMA being passed off

does anyone know yet if they identified thetype of pill she took and or its constitutes I wouldn't be surprised if it was PMA to have such a servere reaction i mean i've seen experienced users take two an hour or so apart and wound up extremely messy talking to trees and people who were not there unable to move etc etc.

"imho........this could have been most of us at 17.......fate,whatever word you want to use......i could see myself being there and making the same instant bad decision.......reported on abc radio-police say bad batch of e.

t s t ."

Yeah TST i know of someone who at 17 was serachhed when he had 5 tabs of LSx on him , panicked and dumped the whole 5 thankfully the guy had a good tolerance , the stuff was low dose and he was the kind of guy that could easily handle 2 or 3 in a night still took him nearly 4 days before he fully snapped out of it but yeah the situation could have ended quite nastily

[Mr Stay Puft]

I think anyone claiming that any pill was pure MDMA is talking shit... and claiming that if it was cut then maybe someone wouldn't have died is just as much a crock of shit.

I watched my best friend fall into a drug induced psychosis (within 15mins) from half a pill.... whatever was cut in it was the problem not the MDMA... I think people throw these terms pure and cut etc around yet noone is a chemist and has access to analytical insturments. Honestly who really thinks they have ever had a pill that was MDMA and MDMA only...

I think the real problem that is highlighted by this type of report, and this tragic death, is drug education. Its illegal so dont do it... that is the extent of our illicit drug education in Australia and it is the reason these types of things happen.

I hope her death is not in vain but im afraid that it wont change anything.... infact in a years time ive no doubt we'll read another report like this...

Edited February 2, 2009 by Mr Stay Puft

[MindExpansion]

And how many more after that before something changes?

Anna Woods' dad obviously suffers but he is no fucking expert, he's actually quite an ignorant fuck or so it would seem because his daughter didn't die of an overdose of MDMA at all but rather of an overdose of water (i.e doesnt matter at fucking all what else was or was not in the pill).

It shits me that he always preaches irrational unreasonable extreme solutions that have no practical place in our world but simply encourage further prohibition which is a losing battle as we here all know.

Sorry if that offends anyone but if he wants to preach on the subject he needs to know what he's preaching about i.e pick up a pharmacology text book and learn what hes spitting about, then pick up his daughter's autopsy report and read it through a little better, then go look at the stats before spitting the total shit that 'bouncers see this thing all the time'. At least he is against alcohol too.

Peace

Edit: So now the cops are definitely saying it was a bad batch of pills...anyone have ny info on why they think that or what was in the pills...

Edited February 3, 2009 by MindExpansion

[JDanger]

Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett says his thoughts are with the girl's family.

"I'd extend my sympathy to her family and friends; [it's] a tragedy, sadly another drug tragedy, and the issue is the use of drugs," he said.

"This Government will be bringing in legislation relating to drugs and we will take a tough line on drugs for the simple reason to try and stop tragedies like that happening."

Yeah, more sniffer dogs and mandatory cavity searches for all patrons will stop teens triple-dumping to avoid trouble.

Link

[MindExpansion]

God fucking dammit how fucking ignorany and fucking stupid can you fucking be and how do such idealistic unrealistic illogical douchebags end up in power? FUCK.

Oh and on the blaming of 'bad pills'...would anyone else assume (until more info is made available) that this is simply an attempt by the police to shift the focus of the 'why' this happened to the 'evil, dangerous drugs' and away from the possibility that this is a result of current policy and police actions?

FTW