UK: ECSTASY driver jailed after fatal crash – June 2001 Ecstasy driver jailed after fatal crash
BBC News - Friday, 15 June, 2001
Copyright: BBC News
A driver who fell asleep at the wheel and crashed, causing the deaths of four young people, has been sentenced to two-and-a-half years in a young offenders' institute. Charlotte Frankham, 20, had slept for only four hours of the previous 42 having taken ecstasy at an all-night rave. Returning home on 18 June last year, she lost control of her Ford KA, causing the fatal three-car pile-up, a court was told. Frankham, of Totton, Southampton, Hampshire, admitted four charges of causing death by dangerous driving.
Four other charges of careless driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, mainly ecstasy, were ordered to lie on file. Victoria Hart, 22, Alistair Knight, 26, Perry Cook, 25, and Paul Larcombe, 27, all from Swindon in Wiltshire, died when their VW Polo was hit by a Toyota Land Cruiser that had collided with Frankham's car. Frankham was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court on Friday to two-and-a-half years for causing the death of each person. The sentences were to run concurrently. She was also banned from driving for five years.
All-night rave
The crash happened at 0910BST on the A43 near Cottisford, Oxfordshire, as Frankham returned from the all-night Gatecrasher Festival at Turweston Park, Buckinghamshire. Peter Nightingale, prosecuting, said Frankham, who was 18 at the time of the accident, had spent the night dancing and drinking water. "She did admit in interviews taking one ecstasy tablet at about midnight, the affects of which may be expected to last two to three hours," he said.
The court was told that Frankham left the dance party at 0830BST with three friends to return to Southampton. In police interviews following the tragedy she admitted to having been tired and dozy. Eyewitnesses reported seeing her car veering across lanes on the A43 shortly before her car collided with the Toyota travelling in the opposite direction.
Remorse
Mr Nightingale told the court there was no cause for the accident "other than the defendant falling asleep at the wheel". Nigel Daly, defending, said Frankham knew she was responsible for the four deaths and for the suffering of their parents and friends. "She would like me to express to them how profoundly remorseful she is for causing them so much suffering," he said.
Sentencing Frankham, Mr Justice Leveson told her: "You had taken an ecstasy tablet and the prosecution has accepted that the affects had worn off but you later told police the effects would have worn you out - nevertheless you embarked on a long journey."
Warning to ravers
After the hearing, the parents of crash victim Victoria Hart said her family and friends had been devastated by the crash. "The only hope we now have is that this tragedy should be a warning to anyone going to Gatecrashers this weekend to stop and think before they drive, especially if they have had little or no sleep, been drinking or taken drugs."
"We would not want any other families to suffer like us."
Glenys Larcombe, whose son Paul died in the crash, said: "The sentence was far too light and although we don't feel any personal animosity to the defendant, the sentence should have sent a warning out about the dangers of driving after being up all night."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
UK: Drugs death sparks hunt for suspect ECSTASY – July 1998 Drugs death sparks hunt for suspect ecstasy
By thisislondon - 09 March 1998
Copyright: thisislondon
Police have launched a massive hunt for a batch of contaminated ecstasy pills after a teenager from south London died.
They are trying to trace around 15 white pills bearing the letter M, which they believe may have claimed the life of a 19-year-old man from Welling, who died at Queen Mary's Hospital, Roehampton yesterday morning.
Friends told police he was carrying the suspect pills while he was out with them on Saturday night in Bexleyheath, Welling and Greenwich. By the time he was admitted to hospital they were missing, sparking fears they had already been sold on or are still in the hands of an unsuspecting dealer.
The results of a post-mortem due today will show whether the man, who will be named once all relatives have been informed, was killed by an overdose or by swallowing a contaminated pill. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: "We are anxious to trace anyone who is offered what is believed to be white ecstasy tablets with the letter M on them. It is not known if these tablets had any part in the victim's death and inquiries are still continuing into the circumstances of this death.
"However, police are concerned to find the whereabouts of 10-15 tablets known to have been in the victim's possession. We are appealing to anyone who was offered the drugs on Saturday night.
"Anyone in the Bexleyheath, Greenwich or Welling areas who may have been offered tablets fitting this description or anyone who has information should contact police as soon as possible."
The suspected drugs death follows a spate of ecstasy-related deaths at the beginning of the year when the drug claimed the lives of three teenagers in separate incidents at New Year's parties. The number of deaths blamed on the drug in Britain is about 70.
Public concern about the potentially fatal effects of the rave drug was triggered by the death in 1995 of Leah Betts, from Basildon, Essex, and the subsequent campaign against the drug launched by her parents, Paul and Janet.
Today Paul Betts, father of Leah, said: "My heart goes out to his parents. If we could be any comfort to them at all, we would be only too happy to help."
Mr Betts, 51, of Maldon, Essex, now runs a drugs awareness helpline with wife Janet, 51. He said it was a myth that it was just bad pills that killed, and insisted it was the ecstasy itself that was potentially lethal.
Mr Betts said: "We have got to make people realise is it is the pure drug that can kill. It doesn't necessarily have to be a contaminated pill.
"There is this notion that if people die there is something wrong with the pill. But very often it is the MDMA, the ecstasy, that kills."
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/
UK: Airwaves rave on ECSTASY shocker – January 1997 Airwaves rave on Ecstasy shocker
By thisislancashire - Friday 17 January 1997
Copyright: thisislancashire
AN outraged radio DJ smashed up East 17 records and swore on air in protest at singer Brian Harvey's controversial comments about Ecstasy.
Red Rose Rock FM morning presenter Kev Seed launched a 30-minute tirade against the band before announcing a ban on their records.
His actions, later backed by station bosses, came after he heard Harvey claim Ecstasy was a safe drug, that he had taken up to 12 Ecstasy tablets in one night and that he had driven home after taking a pill.
Seed responded by grabbing all the band's records which were stored in the studio and smashing them up.
The outburst yesterday prompted 200 phone calls from listeners supporting the 28-year-old DJ's actions.
Seed said: "It's outrageous. It is the tablet that killed Leah Betts and it is a tablet which is quite likely to kill me or any of my listeners if we decided to try it."
And programme director Paul Jordan said the station would not play the band's new single Hey Child, even if it went to Number One. Harvey later apologised for his statement and urged youngsters not to take the drug.
But Mr Jordan said: "The ban on East 17 records will last for the foreseeable future. The management has endorsed the decision.
"We feel that we cannot have high profile people saying such things and hopefully our decision, as market leader in the North West, will seriously affect the band's fan base in this area.
"Kev's language came out in the heat of the moment. He was incensed but his feelings were supported by every call we received.
"We obviously wouldn't want him to repeat the language he used but we will not be taking any action against him."
The ban was mirrored by radio and TV stations around the country yesterday.
http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/
Israelis at center of ecstasy drug trade Israel is at the center of international trade in the drug ecstasy, according to a document published last week by the U.S. State Department.
In recent years, organized crime in Israel, some with links to criminal organizations in Russia, have come to control the distribution of the drug in Europe, according to a Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs document.
The same document also points out that Israeli criminal groups have a hand in the distribution of ecstasy in North America.
During 2000, 80 percent of the ecstasy seized in North America originated in the Netherlands, which is the largest production center, along with Belgium and Poland. The State Department is certain that Israeli organizations are linked to the laboratories in the Netherlands and are responsible for the worldwide distribution.
"Israeli drug distribution organizations are currently the main source for distribution of the drug to groups inside the U.S., to smuggling through express mail services, through couriers on commercial flights and, recently, through air cargo," states the report. In the past two years, the U.S. has dealt more severely with ecstasy. Federal judges deal with smugglers in the ecstasy trade with the same severity as heroin and cocaine dealers.
- Haaretz Daily
Ecstasy Could Aid Parkinson’s Disease Patients
Ecstasy 'could aid Parkinson's patients'
Ecstasy could help people with Parkinson's disease, a study suggests.
Researchers in the UK have found the drug can help to reduce the uncontrollable arm and leg movements associated with the condition.
They said tests on monkeys had shown the drug is effective.
But they said fears over the safety of ecstasy meant they had no plans to carry out further studies on humans.
They also warned patients against taking the drug themselves.
Instead, they suggested their findings could help scientists to develop new treatments for Parkinson's based on MDMA, the chemical name for ecstasy.
Animal tests
Dr Jonathan Brotchie and colleagues at the University of Manchester gave MDMA to monkeys with Parkinson's disease.
The monkeys had each received daily doses of L-dopa, which has been used to treat patients with the disease for decades.
However, one of the side effects of the drug is uncontrollable movement.
Prior to receiving the drug, the monkeys moved their arms and legs around in a repetitive and uncontrolled way virtually all the time.
However, within six hours of receiving MDMA those movements stopped or were drastically reduced.
"The magnitude and quality of the effect took us by surprise," Dr Brotchie told New Scientist magazine.
Dr Brotchie, who now heads biotechnology company Motac, said he believed the effects were linked to the fact that ecstasy boosts levels of the brain chemical serotonin.
Warning
The UK charity DrugScope warned patients with the disease from taking ecstasy.
A spokesman said: "Ecstasy can be a dangerous drug. There needs to be much more research into the short and long term effects of the drug."
A study published in September suggested that the drug could trigger Parkinson's disease.
Scientists in the United States found the drug could cause long-lasting damage to key areas of the brain associated with movement.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2409755
MDMA For Medicine? MDMA For Medicine?
10 November 2001
For the first time since the criminalization of MDMA in 1985, the FDA have given their permission to allow research into the potential benefits of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, to go ahead... Last week, Rick Doblin, director of MAPS (Multi-disciplinary Association For Psychedelic Studies) announced that the FDA had approved MAPS' 'MDMA/PTSD Protocol', a study into the use of MDMA in the treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. 'This approval marks the culmination of 16 years of efforts to obtain permission from FDA for MDMA assisted pyschotherapy research ...' he said, '... this approval also marks the beginning of what I hope will be a $5 million, 5-year project to develop MDMA into a prescription medicine.'
In Spain, MDMA/PTSD studies are already underway, involving the testing of treatment on female victims of sexual assualt suffering from chronic PTSD. The FDA approval will make way for both the testing of MDMA/PTSD studies on victims of criminal assualt in the USA and an equivalent study in Israel, which aims to test subjects whose PTSD resulted from war and terrorism.
MAPS still need to obtain a Instituational Review Board approval from the Medical University of South Carolina, which is expected to take several further months, but it is now embarking on a $250,000 fund-raising campaign to mark the beginning of the '$5 million 5 year project'. The aim of this $250,000 campaign is to fully fund the US MDMA/PTSD study and the Israeli MDMA/PTSD study as well as cover the remaining cost of the current study in Spain. For the full story, go to http://maps.org/research/mdma
Soften ecstasy law, say police chiefs Nick Paton Walsh
Sunday October 28, 2001
The Observer
Senior police officers have called for ecstasy to be treated as less dangerous than heroin or cocaine, just days after the Government ordered a relaxation of the cannabis laws.
In a move certain to trigger a heated debate, the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) wants the clubgoers' favourite drug downgraded from class A to class B.
In the association's first public comments on ecstasy, Andy Hayman, chairman of its drugs committee, said the drug was not as dangerous as heroin or cocaine. 'We need to achieve a balance of police resources focusing a greater priority on class A drugs,' said Hayman, who is Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.
'Acpo's submission to the Independent Inquiry into Drugs, based on the most up -to-date medical and scientific research, was that some drugs seem to be in too high a class, including ecstasy.'
Details of the Acpo submission to the inquiry - which led to the Runciman Report recommending the easing of drug laws - have remained confidential until now. Acpo's view could force Home Secretary David Blunkett to review the drug's status.
Ecstasy has claimed dozens of lives since it arrived in Britain in the late Eighties. Despite the deaths, experts accept it is not as dangerous as heroin which kills hundreds of people every year. Blunkett told the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee last week that a firm decision on the reclassification of drugs - including cannabis, LSD and ecstasy - would be reached within 'three months', once government scientists had reported back to him. He said his 'thoughts' were not to change the laws on ecstasy.
Hayman will give evidence to the select committee's inquiry into drugs next month. 'If I am asked about ecstasy [by the MPs] this is the line I will take,' he said. Acpo would insist on a further review of all the medical evidence as a safeguard before any change in the law. 'The reclassification of ecstasy may give the impression that it causes less harm, and its policing has a lower priority,' said Hayman. 'There are indications that this is not the case and Acpo remains committed to ensuring the fullest research and consultation is conducted.'
The new classification would cut the maximum jail sentence for possessing the drug from seven years to five. Supplying it would no longer merit a life sentence.
But Dr John Ramsey, a toxicologist at St George's Hospital Medical School in London warned that ecstasy had 'been linked to serious depression and birth defects. Changing its class would send a very unwise signal.'
Woman in hospital after taking E pill Woman in hospital after taking E pill
October 29, 2001 07:26
by JONATHAN BARNES and SHARON ASPLIN
DETECTIVES launched a hunt last night to find the supplier of an Ecstasy tablet that left a woman in hospital after an illegal rave.
The female reveller, who has not been named, was being treated in Ipswich Hospital last night after taking a pill at Saturday night's event, which attracted 1,500 to a disused warehouse in the town.
The hunt came as an East Anglian MP pledged to look into whether the law could be changed to stop rave groups being able to set up events in private property without risk of prosecution.
Suffolk police said the event's organisers had broken into the building - formerly the Wallace Kings Home City premises at Orwell Retail Park in Ranelagh Road - and set up the rave at about 11pm.
They added the event continued past dawn the following day and a woman had to be taken to hospital after taking the Ecstasy tablet, but her condition was described last night as not life-threatening.
A 21-year-old man was also taken to hospital with suspected alcohol poisoning, while a 25-year-old man had his face slashed, but refused medical treatment.
Ivan Henderson, the Labour MP for Harwich and a private secretary to Home Office ministers Keith Bradley and Beverley Hughes, said he would be pushing for legislation to stop illegal raves.
"If someone owns land and they have not got the means to keep people off it, then something needs to be done," he added.
"The Government should look at the changing the legislation to protect them and stop these things going on. It is not good enough that they don't cause any damage – they should ask permission from the landowner first. This is something I will be taking up."
The rave was staged by Colchester-based Pulse8 and one of the organisers, who would only give his name as Matt, said MPs should be trying to persuade local authorities to show raves more support.
"They should be trying to persuade councillors to look to providing us with venues so we can stage events like this," he added.
"At the moment we are just being pushed into expensive clubs. It's not bad to have fun. People don't want to go home at 2am – what's wrong with partying until 6am?"
Matt said by providing a permanent venue, Pulse8 would be able to work with the emergency services, local authorities and other rave groups to ensure premises were safe and events were run with less disruption to residents or businesses.
He added every venue picked for a rave was inspected and people with fire and medical experience were on hand throughout the event.
"Every venue we use is left open – we do not break in – so if property is left open, it's a potential target as we do not have legitimate premises. There will be some noise, but for about seven hours for one night, I don't think that's really much hardship.
"We cannot obviously pre-warn the emergency services, so we do the best we can, we will call an ambulance if we cannot deal with it," said Matt.
But he admitted ravers were not searched for drugs as that was considered a "blatant invasion of privacy".
Matt added: "A lot of people in the world take drugs and a lot of these people may or may not come to a party. You may go out to a pub and enjoy a beer, but you don't know if the person you are with has a habit or addiction."
In July, 300 people held a rave on land belonging to Stebbing farmer Tony Lanyon, but Essex Police said they were powerless to act as the revellers had not committed a criminal offence, only the civil offence of trespass.
Mr Lanyon, who called the situation "ridiculous" and a "total invasion of privacy", has written to the Home Office to try to get legislation changed.
A spokeswoman for Essex Police said there was probably about one big rave a month in the county, often sited in the Braintree area.
"Our hands are tied because trespass is a civil not a criminal issue. What we try to do is beat them to the location or ring round owners in a certain location and warn them to protect their property. But even if we can turn them away, they will just go on somewhere else," she added.
Bad Ecstasy Warning BBC News - Tuesday, 26 June, 2001, 21:51 GMT 22:51 UK
Second raver dies from rogue 'ecstasy'...
The tablets were circulating at an all-night rave. A second man has died after taking tablets from a "bad batch" of drugs suspected to be ecstasy at an all-night rave, Scotland Yard said.Steven Brett, 19, from Surrey, was pronounced dead at 1640BST on Tuesday. He had been taken to King's College Hospital for treatment on Sunday morning after being found collapsed and convulsing near the SE1 nightclub under London Bridge railway station.
Clubbers have been warned to avoid these tablets. A Scotland Yard spokesman said a postmortem into Mr Brett's death would be held shortly and an inquest would open soon. Detectives on Monday issued a picture of an ecstasy tablet similar to those found in a "bad" batch which it is feared caused the deaths of the two men. Bret Karl Gilkes, 20, from Birmingham, died on Sunday morning after being taken to St Thomas's Hospital in London. Police launched a nationwide amnesty for anyone who had bought the tablets and not taken them yet.
Third victim
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "Anyone who has bought such a tablet anywhere in the country is asked to hand it in to police." The tablets were circulated among clubgoers at the all-night "Raindance" festival at the SE1 nightclub on Saturday. A number fell ill. Superintendent Wayne Smith said clubbers should hand the tablets to police. Another man, 19, from west London, remains in a critical condition at St Thomas's Hospital after going there himself when he started to fall ill.
Up to six other clubgoers have so far presented themselves at St Thomas's Hospital with symptoms of drug overdoses and have been discharged. Police warned that more people could still be affected by the drugs and urged anyone who still had them not to take them. Anyone who thinks they bought some of the contaminated tablets is asked to call the police incident room on 0208 247 8275.
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