LAST RITES AFTER HERB INJECTION

Drug misuse backfires on 3

THREE teenagers almost died after overdosing on a herbal product sold to
them at Newcastle's King St Fair on Sunday.

Tha girl and two male friends bought a $13 jar of the popular herbal powder
guarana from a stall holder, whom they asserted told them the product was a
'herbal and legal speed'.

Speed, or amphetamine, in an illegal widely injected in the Hunter.

Despite directions on the container stating that the herbal preparation was
designed to be taken orally, the three chose instead to inject it.

Within 30 minutes they were suffering severe headaches, fever, rapid pulse
rate and high blood pressure. Vomiting and diarrhoea followed.

A fourth teenager, who chose not to experiment with the drung because she
was pregnant, telephoned for an ambulance.

The three were admitted to the Mater Hospital, with the girl placed in
intensive care in a critical condition.

Speaking from their hospital beds yesterday, they warned others that if
herbal products were not taken as directed on the label they could kill.

'It's very dangerous. We're lucky to be alive,' said the girl, who gave her
name as 'Michelle'.

'The doctors thought I was going to die and they gave me the last rites.'

Doctors estimate the three took up to 10 times the recommended dosage on
the label.

The product, called Herbal Extreme, was a brown powder and contained
guarana, ginseng and cola nut, none of which was prohibited. It contains
between 3% and 5% caffeine.

It is distributed by a Murwillumbah-based firm, Legal Highs, whose owner,
Mr Ray Thorpe, described it as 'a herbal drink'.

'We are anti-injection and anti-chemicals ... ,' he said.

'It's not a drug, it's a health tonic, an energy boost. I've been selling
it for five years and never heard of it used this way.'

Michelle said she and her friends dissolved the powder in water and then
injected it.

She said the pvoduct had been described to them as 'legal, cheap speed'.

'We were just experimenting. We didn't think it would almost kill us,' she said.

Senior staff specialist in toxicology at the Mater Hospital, Dr Ian Whyte
said the three could have died if they had not been treated at hospital.

'Taken intravenously in big doses like that it can be lethal and can bring
on heart attacks and strokes,' Dr Whyte said.

Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson