I was too scared to move : Alarming reports of drug reactions at New Year festivals
8 Jan, 2021 04:00 PM
12 minutes to read
By: Russell Brown
Hundreds of New Year festival-goers have reported alarming symptoms – including paranoia, seizures, severe nausea and inability to sleep for days – after taking chemicals sold to them as MDMA, or ecstasy.
The wave of bad reactions may be yet another consequence of the disruption caused by the Covid pandemic.
The reports, nearly 1000 so far, have come in messages to the harm reduction service Know Your Stuff. I was lying in bed thinking I might die in my sleep but I was too scared to move and get help, reads one message viewed by the Herald.
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One of the bags picked up by cocaine money launderer Thi Lieu Le had so much cash in it the undercover Customs officer who observed the handover recorded that she struggled to carry it .
When a student named in court documents simply as ‘Ms Do’ walked into the ASB branch on Auckland’s Queen St and paid $100,000 cash into her account, it was “nothing more than an informal transfer system”. At least that was how she saw it. For Detective Sergeant Andrew Dunhill however, whose undercover Police and Customs team witnessed the transaction on August 15, 2017, it was another name to add to the list.