[originally published in issue seven, january 1996 c.e.] SINCE THE EIGHTEENTH BIRTHDAY PARTY OF LEAH BETTS, a large number of responsible adults have been exhibiting the symptoms of acute drug induced hysteria. This serious affect has been blamed at various times on adulterated ecstasy, pure ecstasy and excess water consumption. Actually they hadnt taken anything illegal, they had merely overdosed on media coverage of the drug issue. It has, despite the acres of newsprint devoted to it, been impossible to find a consistent or clear piece of information. As far as the contamination of Ecstasy is concerned, this is a favoured topic of the tabloid press. In attempts to present dealers as heartless evil beasts, journalists tell of E cut with heroin, cut glass, rat poison and various other nasty chemicals. Those involved with the E/dance scene decry the decreasing quality of E available, compared to the heady days of 88. In fact we have been unable to find a report which exposes smack in E. It would not be in a dealer or manufacturer's interests to use such an expensive drug to dilute MDMA. Neither are they interested in reducing their market by poisoning their customers with ground glass or cyanide. Official reports present contradictory findings. A report conducted by the Scottish Office a couple of years ago found no smack or ketamine, and largely MDMA and inert filler in street E. More recent reports (e.g. The Guardian, Jan 96) found that the majority of tablets contained MDA or MDME, two with Ketamine and only two out of twelve with any amount of MDMA, and those did not contain a psychoactive dose. The government lab at Aldermaston, which tests all confiscated batches of E, reports a general increase in the MDMA content of street E in the last two years, with pockets of bad supply (Ecstasy and the dance culture: Nicholas Saunders). We have never come across either heroin or ketamine sold in Es. Alan Hauton of Manchester drug advisory group LIFELINE. A few days after Leah Betts fell into a coma, reporters began to blame pure MDMA, Super E, for her situation. It was widely claimed that she, like many others, was suffering from an Ecstasy overdose. However, she had not been dancing, had not been in an overheated club and did not appear to be suffering from dehydration. Despite the media bleating, there is a great deal of debate about the toxicity of MDMA. I am not aware of anyone who has died as a result of an acute allergic reaction to Ecstasy John Hendry : National Poisons Unit. It has become clear that even those involved in the study and treatment of drug users cannot reach agreement on the purity of street E. They cannot agree on the possible detrimental effects of the drugs and cannot agree what, if anything, is being added to E. What hope have poor misinformed journalists got? Actually it appears that the journalists are very certain of the answers to these questions, and are not as confused as those who are in full possession of the facts. Meanwhile, Leah Betts died. Her parents allowed the media unprecedented access, releasing photographs of her on a ventilator, and holding press conferences. There was a feeding frenzy in the tabloids and television. Leahs father is a retired policeman, her mother a nurse with responsibilities in drug education. Her death was the equivalent of announcing Middle England, we have stolen your children. If the teenage daughter of such educated and aware parents could be killed by drugs, even just involved with drugs, what hope had the rest of society? TV and print editors no doubt recognised this and projected these fears into the living rooms of the nation. We could however rest assured that unfortunate Leah had only used Ecstasy once. On Nov. 22nd last year, it was quietly revealed in a few papers that Leah Betts showed the symptoms of death through water poisoning - she had drunk too much water, diluting her blood and swelling her brain. This, reported The Guardian, would be confirmed or refuted at the inquest in January. The majority of the media did not give these claims as widespread coverage as previous unsubstantiated reports. Strange that! At the same time billboards across the country carried photographs of Leah Betts and the slogan SORTED. Just one Ecstasy took Leah Betts. There was no publisher or donator listed on the poster. Over the festive season the media furore continued. The Glasgow Evening Times launched a new anti drug campaign and printed warnings about new Super E. Questions were asked about the validity of dance culture, despite the fact that E use has obviously moved outside dance events (Leah died at home, isnt it obvious?). Then at New Year, Helen Cousins took one ecstasy and fell into a coma. The sharks circled. Thankfully, Helen did not die, but recovered from her coma to give a press conference warning teenagers against using drugs. Except she didnt actually say this, as she just had a throat operation and was unable to speak. Her statement was read by her mother. We dont know if it was written by her mother. It was later revealed that Helen had drunk seven litres of water, twice the safe maximum water intake. The press became confused. In one report, the Guardian explained that ecstasy users drink large amounts of water to quench the thirst which ecstasy induces - but the majority of deaths were caused by dehydration. Well, are they drinking the water or what? The subsequent deaths of 17 year old Daniel Ashton in Blackpool (killed by contaminated E, had taken Speed as well) and Andreas Bouzis 18 ( fatal heart condition, killed by E) shed new light on the medias motivation. These deaths warranted little attention, no angst ridden leaders in the tabloids, no pages of comment in the Sunday supplements. Was this perhaps because both were working class, Andreas was of Greek extraction and they didnt represent the middle class English victim as effectively as Leah and Helen? As with problems in society it only becomes a major threat when it reaches the home of journalists and the professional classes. Dont use Crack, its a ghetto drug Bob Roberts. The real dangers of using Ecstasy have not been properly presented, because they have not been fully investigated. Due to the drugs illegal status the number of clinical tests are minimal, certainly not enough to give a scientifically justifiable opinion of MDMAs danger. It is estimated that there are 1 to 1.5 million doses of Ecstasy used every week in the UK. The number of deaths involving Ecstasy is officially estimated at 50-60, perhaps a maximum of 100. Let us assume an average of 3/4 million doses every week since 1990. That makes about 195 million doses. The chance of a fatality is therefore approximately 19.5 million to one. If you drop an E this weekend you are more likely to win the lottery jackpot than you are to die. (You have to be in it to win it!) Hell, with those odds why arent we being encouraged to get loved up,in the same manner we are encouraged to partake in the National Lottery? Dr. Jannson estimates that amphetamines kill about 8 times as many people as E, in the USA 750 people die every year, from internal bleeding due to normal doses of aspirin. In the 14 to 24 age group the leading cause of death is automobile accidents involving alcohol. In overall drug related deaths, 70% involve tobacco, 25% involve alcohol, 3% involve heroin and 2% are due to everything else. In 1995, 101 people died due to the use of heroin and temazapam (its not of that much interest to the papers cause they were only 'schemie junkies'...). There were 144 alcohol related deaths this New Year's Eve in Britain. It all seems a little clearer now. Despite the relatively small risk of using E, it has to be said that even one fatality is too much. In this current climate it is unlikely that the government or the opposition will take any steps to reduce the risks involved in drug use. In comparison, the Safe House organisation in Amsterdam has established a drug testing facility in every club to allow clubbers to find out what is in their pills. Furthermore, Safe House check samples of all street drugs, supplied by the manufacturers. They estimate there are over 700 varieties of E available. In one case Safe House worker August de Loor discovered a batch of hamburgers with a higher than recommended level of MDMA. He, with the backing of the Dutch Government, encouraged newspapers to run adverts warning users about these Es. He was contacted by the dealers who revealed that 15,000 had been released already but the remaining 25,000 of the batch would not be passed onto the dealers. This Dutch policy ensures that people are aware of what they are taking, and the estimates of E fatalities Holland vary from two to six. The question has been asked if the drug producers cannot sell any impure E in Holland then what do they do with it. E is difficult and expensive to produce, it is likely that producers will frequently fuck up and end up with MDA or some other methamphetamine. They arent going to dump the batch, they are likely to release the batch on a less aware market. Like the UK. Which takes us back to the "is it pure?" or "is it shit?" discussion. On January the 31st this year, an inquest was held into Leah Betts death. It was revealed that she had died from an overdose of water which had caused "coning" of her brain, swelling, causing the brain to sqash downwards. Dr. John Hendry of the Naional Poisons Unit said that the ecstacy she had taken had hindered her kidneys' ability to process water. This occurs in a very small number of people. Leah had drunk over three litres of water, about the maximum safe amount. Hendry said "If Leah had taken the drug alone she might well have survived. If she had drunk the water alone she would have survived". It was also revealed that she had used E about four times before, had used speed, and had been smoking dope and drinking alcohol the night she went into the coma. Tragic though her death was, she was not "the innocent" the media had presented. In short, water killed Leah Betts. The media hysteria continues despite the fact that it is obvious that they are contributing nothing positive to the debate. The magazine The Herb Garden was withdrawn from many Leeds newsagents after a local paper exposed their supposed encouragement of drug use. Comedian Jack Dee had a joke cut from his Saturday night show as it made light of the drug problem", apparently. A letter in the Guardian did ask why it was acceptable for educated people to read the books of Burroughs, Welsh and Huxley, but not for the uneducated mass to read magazines or hear jokes about drugs. The shrapnel of the Claire Short/cannabis fracas shows how the majority of politicians are concerned only with their own careers, and the media perception of them. It is unfortunately unlikely that any positive step will be taken to prevent Ecstasy related deaths in the UK in the near future. The individuals who work in the media industry must bear a great deal of responsibility for shaping public and political perceptions of drug use, and of doing so without the required background facts. Would it be excessive to suggest that the media are as responsible for the damage caused by E as the producers and dealers they seek to condemn? [alan b]