News (Media Awareness Project) - CN AB: 'It'll Only Get Worse' |
| Title: | CN AB: 'It'll Only Get Worse' |
| Published On: | 2000-04-07 |
| Source: | Edmonton Sun (CN AB) |
| Fetched On: | 2008-09-04 22:31:32 |
'IT'LL ONLY GET WORSE'
Former raver has warnings
Julian Madigan isn't surprised eight teens whacked on ecstasy
collapsed at an Edmonton rave Sunday morning - the 24-year-old man
from Ireland has collapsed himself.
"You haven't seen the tip of the iceberg yet," Madigan warned of a
rise in the drug's popularity among teens and young adults at
all-night dance parties. "Only in the last year have you started to
get your raves."
Canada's rave scene is about five or six years behind Ireland and the
United Kingdom, Madigan said. "It's going to get worse before it gets
better."
The former raver and drug dealer has spoken at seminars and published
a book in Ireland and the U.K. in 1996 called The Agony of Ecstasy.
He has conducted another five seminars in Saskatchewan since he
arrived in Canada in December. He and his father, Gerry, mailed
letters Monday to schools in Edmonton offering to come up from their
Calgary home to speak to students and parents.
Madigan began educating people about the dangers of ecstasy after he
tore himself away from the drug scene that enveloped him at age 14.
"I used to go to raves every single weekend - I lived for it," he
said. Madigan's ecstasy use escalated until he was taking three or
four tabs a night.
The weekend binges usually began on a Thursday - with no rest until
Sunday when he would relax "with a bottle of Jack Daniels (whisky) and
a load of grass."
In the end, Madigan was trafficking drugs to support his $900-a-week
drug habit.
He finally asked his father for help when a dealer trying to collect
about $2,000 beat him up and threatened to kill him, Madigan said.
His last high on the designer drug was almost six years ago, when he
took cocaine and swallowed eight ecstasy pills.
Now he is dedicated to educating students with honest information.
Ecstasy offers an incredible high - but for a terrible price, he tells
them.
Anyone who argues otherwise is simply wrong, he said. "They haven't
seen their friends die.
"They haven't had their lives turned upside down. I know exactly what
it's all about."
Former raver has warnings
Julian Madigan isn't surprised eight teens whacked on ecstasy
collapsed at an Edmonton rave Sunday morning - the 24-year-old man
from Ireland has collapsed himself.
"You haven't seen the tip of the iceberg yet," Madigan warned of a
rise in the drug's popularity among teens and young adults at
all-night dance parties. "Only in the last year have you started to
get your raves."
Canada's rave scene is about five or six years behind Ireland and the
United Kingdom, Madigan said. "It's going to get worse before it gets
better."
The former raver and drug dealer has spoken at seminars and published
a book in Ireland and the U.K. in 1996 called The Agony of Ecstasy.
He has conducted another five seminars in Saskatchewan since he
arrived in Canada in December. He and his father, Gerry, mailed
letters Monday to schools in Edmonton offering to come up from their
Calgary home to speak to students and parents.
Madigan began educating people about the dangers of ecstasy after he
tore himself away from the drug scene that enveloped him at age 14.
"I used to go to raves every single weekend - I lived for it," he
said. Madigan's ecstasy use escalated until he was taking three or
four tabs a night.
The weekend binges usually began on a Thursday - with no rest until
Sunday when he would relax "with a bottle of Jack Daniels (whisky) and
a load of grass."
In the end, Madigan was trafficking drugs to support his $900-a-week
drug habit.
He finally asked his father for help when a dealer trying to collect
about $2,000 beat him up and threatened to kill him, Madigan said.
His last high on the designer drug was almost six years ago, when he
took cocaine and swallowed eight ecstasy pills.
Now he is dedicated to educating students with honest information.
Ecstasy offers an incredible high - but for a terrible price, he tells
them.
Anyone who argues otherwise is simply wrong, he said. "They haven't
seen their friends die.
"They haven't had their lives turned upside down. I know exactly what
it's all about."
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