Ove’ The Dope on Combining Drugs Apr 1 2002 Clubbers are taking several drugs a night to combat the crash of coming down. Often, they end up at the emergency room. By Rachelle Younlai, Ryersonian - When seven _ teenagers’ bodies were found splayed around the back alley, stairwell and entrance of a popular London, Ont., bar last December, it was yet another indication that the recreational use of club drugs was on the rise. Their evening had started harmlessly enough with a few drinks, and then progressed to taking unknown doses of GHB, (otherwise known as “liquid E”) and a depressant that creates a sense of eupho- ria. The bar was supposed to be the teens’ last destination in a long night of partying. Instead, their last stop was the emergency room. Although the teens were released from the hospital a few hours later, local police coined the incident as the most telling case of recreation- Put Your Degree To Work if you have a university degree in any field you may be able to obtain a BCIT diploma in just one year. 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In London, police shut down an ecstasy lab worth about $1 million in March 2000 and in Toronto, police have already seized six to seven times more ecstasy than last year. According to the Ontario Student Drug Survey, recre- ational drug use has increased dramatically. In 1991, one per cent of high school students reported using club drugs; by 1999, the number had increased to close to five per cent. The most recent case of club drug abuse left a 17-year- old girl dead in Toronto. Nicole Malik was found slumped in the corner of a cyber-cafe in what appeared to be an ecsta- sy overdose. Another incident happened in 1999, when a 20-year-old Ryerson student, Allan Ho, died of “ecstasy complica- tions,” after taking the drug at an underground rave in north- west ; Toronto. According to a recent study, about half of the people who come through Toronto emer- gency rooms report using a combination of drugs and alco- hol. “Polypharmacy gets people into physical trouble,” said. Dr. Steven Friedman, author of the study. Friedman is an associate medical professor at the University of Toronto and physician with a specialty in emergency medicine. It was Friedman’s observa- tions as an emergency doctor that led him to conduct research on club drugs. Two years ago, he collected data on 183 patients between the ages of 15 and 30 who came through the emergency departments at Toronto General and Toronto Western between 10 p.m. and 10 a.m. for two months. Friedman found that just over 10 per cent of these peo- ple reported using ecstasy, GHB or ketamine within a 24- hour period - sometimes com- bining the drugs. “What tips people to emer- gency is the use of one drug with another,’ said Friedman. “The effect is synergetic. It dramatically increases the chances of an adverse reac- tion.” Out of this population, he found that club drug users arrived more often by ambu- lance than non-users. But it’s not only the use of multiple drugs that concerns Friedman. It’s the lack of quali- ty control on the street. “You don't get the same quality or quantity per tablet, you could get 10 mg or 100 mg,” said Friedman. Although GHB and ecstasy are listed on Health Canada’s controlled substance list, keta- mine is not. Better known as special K, K or ket, ketamine is actually a cat and human anesthesia, widely used in veterinary clin- ics to treat animals. Veterinarians are surprised that people would use keta- mine as a recreational drug. “It needs to be used by a trained professional,” said vet- erinarian Jennifer McGowan. “If (animals) go too deep we need to resuscitate,” said McGowan. “We hate using it on animals by itself. It has funny reactions. When animals are coming out of it, their eyes are going from side to side and they look out of it.” But it’s these qualities that users crave. They want to enter what is known as the “k- hole,” a semi-coma state that numbs the senses. And users stand by K as it takes the edge away when they come down from harder drugs such as ecstasy. Experts classify ketamine as a dissociative drug that causes users to feel detached from themselves and _ their environment. Doctors, however, find this dangerous because it leaves users vulnerable to anything. “Someone in a k-hole can- not defend themselves,” said Dr. Bruce Ballon, a child psy- chologist who specializes in addictions. Ballon works closely with youth who are trying to over- come addictions. As the head of youth addic- tive services at the Centre of Addiction and Mental Health, he regularly sees the effects of ketamine on his clients. In fact, Ballon said it has been proven that prolonged use of ketamine often results in depression. But because of an increase in the number of young profes- sionals who use and mix drugs, the perception is that they are harmless and intellec- tual. “You can learn a lot about yourself and your environ- ment,” said a Toronto lawyer who frequents the city’s clubs at least once a week and trav- els to New York City every few months to check out the party scene. “| travelled the world with K and saw the pyramids on K,” said one user. It gives users out of body and near death experiences, similar to ecstasy. Users find all of these expe- riences attractive. Making these drugs is so mainstream that users can find recipes on the internet. “| wish they weren’t out there, it’s not unlike books that tell you how to make bombs,” said detective Court Booth with the Toronto police drug squad. . Clubbers say that these drugs give people the “ability to get into each others head and communicate without being able to see each other across a crammed dance floor,’ and this feeling of togetherness is what makes them attractive.