Page 6 - Know Your Stuff News Today

Rosa Woods/Stuff Drug testing agency Know Your Stuff NZ found an “alarming” amount the synthetic cathinone eutylone during testing last summer. The stimulant takes longer to kick in, meaning a user can take more before they’re aware of the effects, and end up overdosing. It has contributed to a number of hospitalisations around the country, with users reporting a range of symptoms including shaking, vomiting, paranoia, panic attacks, hallucinations, seizures and anxiety. With little i...

Harm minimisation experts in New Zealand have criticised Australias response to drug deaths at music festivals. The comments come after the NZ health minister last week confirmed the government would permanently legalise pill-testing, a harm reduction strategy thats seen little government support in Australia. Pill-testing organisation Know Your Stuff NZ (KYSNZ) managing director Wendy Allison said they looked across the ditch to see how authorities here were trying to keep young people safe ...

Know Your Stuff is a community group trying to reduce drug harm. Photo: Supplied MPs rushed through interim legislation under urgency late last year to ensure volunteer checkers at summer festivals would not be prosecuted. The bill is due to expire in December, but Health Minister Andrew Little said fresh legislation would be passed this year, permanently allowing tests on illegal drugs at festivals. But Wendy Allison, managing director of Know Your Stuff - a community group trying to reduce ...

Before the new law it existed in a legal gray area, with festival hosts technically liable for prosecution if they knowingly provide a venue for illicit drug use. No one had ever been prosecuted for this, but it has kept pill testing from becoming widespread because of the legal risk. Test results over the summer found a large amount of cathinones (or “bath salts”) that had been sold as MDMA. Know Your Stuff A supplied photo of cathinone eutylone found by drug testing service Know Your St...

Electric Avenue is Christchurch’s biggest outdoor music festival and this year’s event drew record crowds of 25,000. The St John spokeswoman said she could not say whether the injuries were drug related or how they happened as that would breach the organisation’s privacy policy. JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/Stuff Drugs taken from attendees at this year’s Electric Avenue festival included bath salts, synthetic cannabis, meth, MDMA and LSD. Drug testing agency Know Your Stuff found 40 per cent o...

Drug testing at Otago O-week in the open for first time 25 Feb, 2021 06:28 PM 3 minutes to read Know Your Stuff NZ Dunedin team leader Ashley Heydon legally tests a drug sample at the University of Otago Clubs and Societies building yesterday. Photo / Linda Robertson Otago Daily Times For the first time at the University of Otagos O Week, drug checking is out of a legal grey area and out in the open. Know Your Stuff NZ volunteers began three days of testing samples of illegal recreational drugs...

The Southern police district had 571mg, while Wellington had 529mg. The three districts are the only ones to have a greater number than the national average. In February 2020 MDMA use was up by 296 per cent in Canterbury from the month prior, which police attribute to the Electric Avenue music festival, alongside university orientation events. Canterbury district organised crime manager Detective Senior Sergeant Joel Syme said police were concerned about the region’s high usage rate. Stuff...

Splore 2021: John Minty on Covid nightmares, keeping the festival quirky and Treaty relationships 13 Feb, 2021 04:00 PM 10 minutes to read Saturday nights dress-up party is one of the most popular features of Splore. Photo / File Saturday nights dress-up party is one of the most popular features of Splore. Photo / File Social issues reporter, NZ Heraldmichael.neilson@nzherald.co.nz Fifteen years ago Splore was on the edge of collapse. Now, the festival has sold out three years in a row and, in ...

Wellington police warn of risk after two incidents with suspected fake MDMA 12 Feb, 2021 01:15 AM 3 minutes to read People might be taking what they think is ecstasy, but is actually something else entirely. Photo / File People might be taking what they think is ecstasy, but is actually something else entirely. Photo / File Wellington police are warning partiers to be "vigilant" after two recent incidents where people passed out in local bars after taking what they thought was ecstasy. Area pre...

From 2000 to 2007, the party drug BZP was legal to buy and available from your local dairy. What happened? ‘This is what movies say drugs are like,” says Jim*, remembering how he felt when he took six party pills in one night. He was a musician, student, and regular drug taker – he’d munted his body and mind plenty of times. This was different, and he hated it. His body split into one very hot half and one very cold half, and he hallucinated a crow in his living room. It was 2007 and st...