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STUDENTS HAVE BEEN warned about a potentially dangerous batch of LSD and amphetamines.
Gardaí have made contact with students’ unions in Dublin after a number of students were hospitalised in the last few days.
Gardaí confirmed that an investigation was underway into drug dealing activity in the Pearse St area, but could not confirm if this was linked to colleges or students specifically.
A spokesperson for UCD Students Union told TheJournal.ie that they had been asked to spread the message by gardaí, but said that they were not told if the message was specifically aimed at their students.
The UCD spokesperson said that they had been asked to spread the message and had done so on Facebook and Twitter.
A Garda spokesperson confirmed that people had been hospitalised in recent days, but said that all non-prescribed drugs are dangerous.
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It’s always negative….I wished they’d tell me when there’s a great batch doing the rounds sigh…..
In Amsterdam I think they actually tell you if the pills are safe enough to take.
Yeah, there are labs you can send pills and powder to be tested for free and they’ll return the results to you, letting you know the ingredients and whether or not it’s ‘safe’.
in other news several men where hospitalized for being shot by guns. the police said a bad batch of guns were going around.
taken a “cocktail” of drugs and ending up in hospital dosent mean the drugs were bad , it means your an idiot . why not take some drugs or one drug but not a cocktail.its asking for trouble
Fair play to the guards for trying it out and warning the kids.
They essentially just said some drugs out there are bad.
People are going to risk it after a few pints, it’s stupid and illegal but it will happen. Being descriptive about exactly what the drugs look like isn’t endorsing other drugs, it’s being realistic.
Hopefully nobody ends up dead.
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-23069825
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/dec/01/drug-testing-warehouse-project-nightclub
http://thump.vice.com/en_uk/words/can-drug-testing-schemes-in-uk-clubs-work
Don’t take drugs, they are bad for you. This won’t end well.
people take mdma of all sorts that are made in back street lab and often times made with huge amounts of pmma and i’m pretty sure this is probably the case here. to much pmma and your a goner
This bad batch and recent ones in Nothern Ireland, Britain and mainland Europe recently, are a direct result of a massive drug bust In Belgium last August. €1.3bn of pure ecstasy and the ingredients to make it were seized. This opened up the market for every wannabe Walter White in Europe. These kitchen cabinet chemists could’nt care less what damages their concoctions cause, as long they get paid. The continent needs to have a good hard look at its outdated laws on drug prohibition. Now I’m not saying good guys sell good drugs, but E has been readily available in every nightclub, bar, and festival in Europe for 25 years. It’s time for the EU parliment to at least address and debate the issue. If the kids cant get good E, they’ll take alright anything. Believe me, I know.
Europe?
European countries have wildly different drugs policies. This isn’t a EU competency and it never should be. I love the EU but drugs are an emotive topic and having “Brussels” deciding national drugs policy is about the worst idea I have ever heard.
Can you imagine UKIP? Jaysus!
What percentage, do you think, of the drugs consumed in Ireland are manufactured in Ireland. Europen countries must work together on this issue. If not, then whats the point of the EU?
Free trade….
I dont think the eu was set up to solely tackle drug crime in fairness.
That is a relief, no need to warn qualified people.
They’re not making students like they used to any more.
Clearly it’s cocktail of drugs, & not a ‘drug’. & It’s unlikely that LSD is the issue. I’m willing to bet theres crushed up dodgy pills in there which are causing the problems. Most likely PMA. End of the day, this is caused by a lethal combination of prohibition and idiots.
Making it non-specific will mean people will just ignore it. Backwards Irish culture will leave people sick or dead. Drugs are bad but people take them. They need to be specific about the description of the drugs.
Some UK superclubs test drugs given up in amnesty boxes before security so they can warn specifically if there is a bad batch going around and clubbers can seek medical care.
Or how about people aren’t idiots and just don’t take them? There shouldn’t be a need for a warning that there’s bad drugs going around, all drugs are bad people should have a bit of cop on by now, you take drugs there’s a chance you’ll die, end of
Tell that to the family who have lost their son or daughter.
Ellen, people will always take drugs, including alcohol and tobacco (the former being a public health timebomb in this country). The war on drugs is completely unwinnable and has been a disaster on every level, which disproportionately affects and imprisons the poor and uneducated, arms criminal gangs, and keeps the population of affected communities in permanent danger.
Agreed, the lack of specificity is grotesquely irresponsible. But who wants to appear soft on drugs, eh?
Agree!
Brilliant Ellen, it’s attitudes like yours that keep drugs dangerous. A very pragmatic approach to the world you have.
You should have a bit of cop on, alcohol is a drug and it’s one of the worst drugs out there but yet everyone probably including you accept it.
How about people don’t raise their sons and daughters to be idiots
How is that Sarah? My attitude is what makes drugs dangerous? Makes no sense so if I accept drugs they won’t be dangerous? Bizarre
Grand, I’m a masters graduate from DCU. Should be fine. Going to have all the LSD
If manufactured under proper supervision then this wouldn’t happen. Too many vested interests for sane decision making policies.
This is the result of a lack of education about drugs in school because of our inability to talk openly and rationally about drugs. Noone in their right mind who has been educated about speed and LSD would want to consume them at the same time. Unfortunately this is unlikely to come from our wonderful loving and caring government so us students are trying to do it ourselves, and train a new generation of drug policy reformers ourselves. This hospital and garda time and drug use could have been avoided.
I beg to differ, plenty of highly educated people would happily mix speed and LSD along with many other substances. Drug education in general is not the problem for two reasons. 1) more intelligent people are far more likely to dabble with drug use (no on not saying every smack head is a genius) and 2) intelligent people tend to research what they do to themselves. Even the less intelligent people tend to check out what the drug is supposed to do/not do look/feel like etc. So education on the publics part is not the issue. The problem is strict prohibition mixed with completely lax enforcement. Either have strict rules and strict punishments or ease up on the rules a bit particularly with lower grades of drugs such as cannabis (which gets sprayed with extra chemicals to add to the high rather than producing plants with quality THC). And when putting out a warning do it properly, I read that warning and thought “drugs are bad m’kay” but if I was to read something like “blue ghost ecstasy pills cause hospitalization” I’d kinda think Jesus they’re bad. People will take drugs anyway but I can guarantee you if there was specifics about a bad batch released the sales of that batch would plummet word of bad batches spreads like wildfire and people steer clear
Maybe this is natural selection at work..
Not really, a dealer doesn’t usually offer a selection
That is a revolting thing to say – what if people were hospitalized from drinking counterfeit or black-market alcohol contaminated with methanol? This has happened to people on holiday, where it is difficult to tell whether the Smirnoff you are buying is actually Smirnoff – I believe there was a case of this last year that was widely reported in the media here. Would you jump to condemn them then? Of course you wouldn’t, because to people like you, drug users deserve to die. I’m disgusted by your comment, and I hope others are too.
Not like the good ole days when yolks were great jaws dangling all over the place hands in the air feet bouncing off the dance floor whack bang every weekend! !!
Still some really good ones around every now and again
While the sentiment is welcome the safety notice distributed is about as vague as saying “drugs are bad”….
Kids all drugs are bad mmmk
@Ellen Fagan if we cross the road we might be hit by a truck by your rational should we all stop crossing. Matter of fact statistics show being hit by a truck is more probable than dying from taking speed or L.S.D
STUDENTS—ARE WARNED I thought students were bright –NOT STUPID–basically no drug/s are –safe .the message that should go out is —ALL drugs are bad not just one batch STEER clear use your brain –and of course protect same.
Hope those who ended up in hospital get well soon ! The information released by the guards has me slightly baffled .. ‘may contain lsd and amphetamines’ ?! I can only assume that they don’t know what substance or what form of contamination caused this , so why name lsd and amphetamines ?
Whatever the cause may be , were recreational drugs legal , chances are that it would never have happened in the first place ! I’m not promoting drug use , but I think it preferable for those who use drugs to have access to pharmacy grade chemicals rather than .. well , in this case nobody seems to know !
Acid is grand. So is speed, but I’d say it was mixed with somethibg bad. All the more reason to regulate, it would eliminate bad batches of drugs and more education. If people took the emotional reaction away, and focused on the logical reaction when the word drugs came up, you’d see regulation is the safest route never mind the other benefits
How come when most people are young like we are now and talking about regulating drugs and more liberalisation and we all think it’s great, how come it never gets done? Do people suddenly get into government and stop thinking logically when it comes to safety? We all know too much of a good thing is bad but alcohol kills more people in Ireland in a week than most recreational drugs (not including heroin here guys) does in a year.. Regulation and decriminalisation needs to be seriously looked at.. Make drug use for those that want it safe!!
No, they don’t change their mind, but the ‘War On Drugs’ propaganda leads them to go with whatever the people that actually vote want to hear.
Glad I’m not a student then, or a drug user, don’t think students know that drugs are bad and not necessary to function
Go away
I’m a student in Galway, drugs are everywhere.
When I started in secondary school I saw good sound lads with a few personal problems start to use “soft” drugs, like drink, fags, weed, hash, salvia, and their lives all went to hell by second or third year. Physically you could see their jaundiced skin get sallower and their body language dodgier. Schizophrenia and bipolar were what two lads ended up with, depression is common to them all.
Now in Galway I see good lads slipping down the same slope. The jaundiced skin and personality changes are the exact same. It’s not a coincidence that these lads who’s own lives they’re fcuking up are falling into that “Irish young people live on drink and drugs” culture.
It’s a sick feeling that after you’ve seen your friend’s lives become hell and their personalities alienated from who they once were from recreational drug use, that there’s actually a “movement” that wants to legalise and normalise drug taking. Those people must have their heads up their arses if they can’t acknowlege the reality of whats happening to so many young Irish people. Clare Daly and Luke Flanagan can go to hell for all I care, if this is the society they support.
Teach kids the common sense to avoid all drugs in the first place, and don’t start to blur the lines by singling out one batch as especially harmful.
If it’s true that the drugs that end up being sold to the youth of Ireland are imported from abroad, we have absolutely no excuse. We’re an island.
Or heres an idea. . . How about just dont do drugs! avoid all the complications of maybe dying from them!
‘A Garda spokesperson confirmed that people had been hospitalised in recent days, but said that all non-prescribed drugs are dangerous.’
Are you f**king kidding me?! What about the prescribed drugs that kill people or the psychoactive medications that lead people to kill themselves?! What about the fact that addiction, and death from prescribed medications out strips the numbers of fatalities from illegal drugs. There are thousands of people in this country addicted to some drug their doctor gave them a script for when it was needed, but they keep filling it even though the person does not physically need it any more…they only psychologically need it.
Walking past a methadone clinic going to work, I’ve never once been offered illegal drugs…only ever legally precribed/purchased medications.
You shouldn’t have to warn any yound person about a specific “bad batch”. Everyone should be taught the commom sense and reason to avoid the poison from a young age.
Drugs are a scourge to this countryand if I ever saw or heard of anyone selling drugs to kids I’d have to fight the urge to cut his throat. Propegators of broken lives and mental disorders.
No one to blame but themselves. Maybe they’ll learn, or maybe they’ll keep drugging themselves so their lives continue to slowly warp into something resembling Gollum, or they’ll meet a sudden gruesome end with a particularly rotten dose of drugs.
Recreational drug use is a scourge. Those I know who favour it are mentally ill, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence.
The thought that some people want to normalise drug use to the level of drinking alcohol is horrifying. I hope no one dies or develops a mental disorder from this batch of drugs that’s doing the rounds.
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