0:02 GEMA Tom's was not what you'd regard as
0:04 a drug addict she was quite the opposite
0:07 at 17 Gemma was energetic and
0:10 conscientious but her promising young
0:12 life was cut short after taking ecstasy
0:15 at a Perth Music Festival the added
0:17 tragedy is that Gemma story is not
0:19 unusual and it seems an all too regular
0:23 occurrence a teenager killed by ecstasy
0:25 or another of the so called party drugs
0:28 clearly Australia's drug strategy is not
0:30 working but there is another way
0:32 forget sniffer dogs and the threat of
0:35 jail in Europe a radical approach is
0:38 focused on one thing saving young lives
0:41 and that means helping partygoers find
0:43 out exactly what's in the drugs before
0:46 they take them pill testing might seem
0:52 confronting but it is working a dance
0:58 but it could be anywhere in the world
1:01 the reality is that for many here
1:03 ecstasy and other party drugs are part
1:04 of their night [Music]
1:13 [Music]
1:16 but the chances are high that no one
1:18 will die of this party because they can
1:21 have their drugs tested right next to
1:26 the dance floor all that is required for
1:29 the test is a tiny scraping the police
1:31 stay away to encourage the young
1:33 partygoers to have their drugs checked
1:37 which is done in a mobile lab outside
1:40 chemist Reina Schmidt and drugs
1:43 counselor Karl Koecher / run this
1:46 program in Vienna paid for by the city's
1:49 Health Department we see drug taking as
1:53 effect so we want to promote safer use
1:56 but it's the the decision is always on
1:59 their side the test takes about 30
2:01 minutes 30 minutes that could save a
2:05 life by informing the user exactly what
2:08 they're about to take so a program like
2:10 this helps people decide whether to take
2:13 them or not to take them yeah I think it
2:15 says a lot more because when somebody
2:17 had firm knowledge about stuff then it
2:20 can decide it for his own what to do the
2:21 results are posted on a notice board
2:24 white means your pill contains what you
2:26 thought it did yellow means there are
2:29 other drugs in it red means it's unknown
2:33 or highly dangerous do you believe
2:38 you're saving lives yes sir [Music]
2:46 I think the more information you can
2:50 give to people the more they are free to
2:51 to make their own decisions and I think
2:53 this is always a good thing
2:56 but should they be able to make free
2:58 decisions over something that has been
3:01 outlawed something that's illegal I
3:06 think yes because drug laws were
3:09 invented to prevent people from using
3:12 drugs did they do that
3:15 No there are these laws for years and
3:17 years and years and years and nothing
3:25 has changed do you think that she had
3:28 any intention of dying that day
3:34 absolutely not February 1st 2009 Perth
3:36 teenager Jimmy Tom's is on her way to
3:40 the Big Day Out dance festival did you
3:42 worry or did you think that she might
3:45 try drugs there that day it didn't cross
3:47 my mind that she was gonna actually go
3:50 and take ecstasy that's for sure hmm
3:53 but what Gemma's mum Peter Davies didn't
3:55 know was her daughter had already taken
3:59 one ecstasy pill at home and she had two
4:02 more in her pocket at the venue Gemma's
4:04 friends say she panicked when she heard
4:06 that police were patrolling with sniffer
4:08 dogs and swallowed the other two pills
4:13 at once I walked into the hospital and
4:15 my beautiful little girl was laid there
4:22 with tubes out of her mouth and I was in shock
4:23 shock
4:31 absolute complete shock Gemma step
4:34 sister Eden and stepdad Paul were with
4:37 Peter as Gemma died
4:39 the three ecstasy pills she taken were
4:42 always going to kill her because Gemma
4:46 had no idea how strong they were do you
4:49 think that she had any understanding of
4:52 the risk she was taking no there's no
4:55 way she thought she was going to die
4:55 from it
4:58 Gemma wasn't that kind of person she
5:00 loved life she had a great job she was
5:03 excited for the future
5:05 he's absolutely no way [Music]
5:10 [Music]
5:12 what is the message in Australia don't
5:13 do drugs
5:16 period is that message being heard not
5:20 at all dr. David cold Akash is an
5:23 Australian toxicologist and emergency
5:25 room physician who has witnessed the
5:28 worst of what ecstasy and other similar
5:32 drugs can do the deaths are terrible and
5:34 the deaths are what keep me awake at
5:37 night because the deaths involve
5:41 generally extraordinary young people and
5:43 it's all around us it's happening all
5:46 the time and if the Australian general
5:48 public think that it's a minority
5:51 they're deluding themselves David says
5:54 our current drugs policy ignores reality
5:57 because at lumps so-called recreational
5:59 drugs in with much more dangerous
6:03 substances like ice and heroin this is
6:06 the equivalent of priests telling young
6:11 people not to have sex it represents a
6:13 tannic stunning misunderstanding of
6:18 do you except for the very presence of
6:21 police at some of these parties will in
6:23 fact make the behavior of that drug
6:26 taking riskier in a kid's seize sniffer
6:28 dogs so they down their tablets multiple
6:31 tablets well I don't accept accept that
6:33 as a premise detective Superintendent
6:36 Tony cook of the New South Wales drug
6:38 squad rejects any notion that
6:40 Australia's current drug enforcement
6:43 policy targeting dance festivals with
6:44 sniffer dogs and the threat of
6:47 prosecution might be contributing to
6:52 deaths from ecstasy and the like we very
6:55 clearly tell people that these drugs are
6:56 illegal and they are a criminal offense
6:59 and we will continue to enforce the law
7:01 the authorities believe that it's
7:03 against the law to take these drugs that
7:04 there are police patrolling there are
7:06 sniffer dogs there that's what's there
7:08 to keep them safe but it hasn't hasn't
7:12 it's it hasn't stopped it it's not going
7:16 to stop it a mistake that's all it was
7:20 and today the consequences just in the
7:22 last 12 months there's been a spate of
7:24 high-profile deaths of young people
7:27 after taking ecstasy at dance parties
7:30 dozens more have been hospitalized Peter
7:32 Davies and a growing number of critics
7:35 believe Australia's drugs policy puts
7:39 police in an impossible position what
7:43 priority is saving lives
7:46 it's obviously a significant priority is
7:47 that the main priority
7:51 yeah yes it is so currently we're not
7:53 achieving the main priority aren't we
7:55 well unfortunately some people still
7:58 engage in the behavior of their own
8:00 volition which has the most terrible of
8:03 outcomes but to characterize that by
8:06 saying the police aren't concerned with
8:13 inyart van der Heide is the same age as
8:16 Gemma was when she died but she lives in
8:19 Holland where every major city here has
8:21 a state sanctioned pill testing center [Music]
8:25 [Music]
8:28 you bought of this ecstasy yeah I bought
8:31 some kickass ecstasy like about 70
8:33 percent of ecstasy users worldwide
8:35 inn-yard only takes the drug
8:38 occasionally and that's even more reason
8:41 for her to want to find out exactly what
8:47 she's taking you know how much I know
8:50 because I'm a woman I can get one to one
8:53 and a half minute grams of MDMA for each
8:57 kilogram I have the pill that you've
8:59 just tested tell me about it it's a very
9:03 high dose feel for a girl with her
9:06 weight and length it's it's too much so
9:09 you need to be aware of it how does that
9:11 change your behavior if at all I will
9:15 just take a quarter or half and then we
9:18 will see but no I will never take one
9:21 pill it's a one moment that's too much
9:25 it always is are they adapting the usage
9:27 because they're being warned yeah
9:30 definitely they know what the
9:34 consequences are of high high contents
9:37 of drugs we met van hassled is with
9:39 Holland's trim boss Institute which has
9:41 run the pill checking program for more
9:45 than 20 years how would you describe the
9:46 difference in drug takers here in the
9:49 Netherlands and those in Australia what
9:51 fascinates me is that if you look at the
9:53 way people are taking drugs in Australia
9:55 when they go out is that they're not
9:57 very much concerned on what they take
10:00 because they don't have an idea of the
10:02 real contents what they're taking and
10:04 they're less informed on the
10:08 consequences of the different drugs so
10:13 it's it's a wild night out one of the
10:14 greatest fears of the pill testing
10:16 program is that by its very existence
10:19 its sanctions drug taking and so
10:21 therefore more people will start using
10:23 illegal drugs well here in Austria where
10:24 the program has been
10:26 operating for nearly two decades the
10:28 opposite is true studies show that of
10:30 those who've had their drugs tested a
10:32 third say they will no longer take them
10:35 and if the results prove dodgy they'll
10:38 warn their friends off them too we know
10:40 for a fact that venues which offer pill
10:44 checking or drug checking it changes the
10:46 way young people take the pills with
10:49 Australia topping the world in the use
10:52 of ecstasy dr. David cold cot has been
10:54 lobbying for us to follow Europe's lead
10:56 to let young people have their pills
10:58 tested to know what they're taking
11:01 before it kills them the way we're
11:02 dealing with drugs at the moment doesn't
11:04 work for people who've already decided
11:06 to use drugs and what we have to try to
11:09 do is to engage in at a different level
11:11 but just because this group of people
11:13 ignores the law does that mean the law
11:16 should change well if a law doesn't work
11:20 it's not a very good law is it and the
11:22 message of just saying no that's
11:25 terrible and it's killing people and it
11:27 needs to stop and it needs to stop now
11:31 do you accept that for a group of people
11:35 the message of don't take drugs and your
11:37 other message that they're dangerous
11:39 is just not being heard that they don't
11:43 believe you unfortunately yes and that's disappointing
11:44 disappointing
11:46 so can you see a day when there might be
11:48 pill checking in Australia well no I
11:51 don't think so that to me would be tacit
11:53 support of drug use [Music]
11:56 [Music]
11:58 no young person deserves to be a
12:02 statistic but the truth is the
12:04 overwhelming majority of young people
12:07 who take ecstasy do so only for a few
12:11 years for them it is a phase a dangerous
12:18 phase but a phase nonetheless we know
12:20 for a fact that this particular group of
12:24 consumers are people who will probably
12:26 be functional users so they're not
12:30 impaired they are taxpayers many of them
12:32 will in the end become captains of
12:35 industry probably and our job is to try
12:37 to keep them alive you know while
12:38 shortening the space of time in which
12:44 they use drugs it doesn't mean we're
12:47 condoning drugs at all it's just another
12:51 way for our kids to be safe how would
12:53 pull checking of social life do you
12:56 think I can only imagine now I can only
13:00 imagine that if it was in place then
13:03 that I'd be able to have my beautiful
13:10 daughter back and you how can you not
13:13 want to do that how can they say it's
13:16 not a good thing it's not just my
13:18 daughter it's other people's daughters
13:24 and sons and in it's a life a life
13:34 hello I'm Tara Brown
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