DANGEROUS NEW DRUG

A SHOCKINGLY dangerous new drug cocktail has hit Perth streets in the
disguise of Ecstasy.

The designer drugs contain a combination of amphetamine, cocaine, heroin
and even steroids - and users are unaware they are taking a lethal mixture.

They belive they are buying ecstasy but in some of the drugs there is very
little or no MDMA, the main ingredient of ecstasy.

Police say the drugs started appearing on the streets about two months ago.

A drug squad spokesman described the drug as "a very very dangerous
hotchpotch".

The drug was being shipped and smuggled through Indonesia but its origins
were unknown.

"A big concern is that while the user is expecting a particular response
from the drug they will get another," a drug squad officer said.

"They will be taking drugs that have a different effect to the one they are
expecting.

"To put a crude analogy on it, they are expecting a drug to turn them into
lovers and get one that turns them into fighters.

"There has been a distinct change in the past couple of months."

Shooting up on a mixture of heroin and cocaine - known as speedballs - is
one of the riskiest practices.

It is not known what the true combination of some of these false ecstasy
tablets may contain.

"There may be a combination that produces a similar effect to ecstasy but
it could be very very dangerous," the officer said.

"In many of the drugs there is no ecstasy at all.

There have been no deaths from it but it is very very dangerous."

Police are also on alert for a new wave of lethal designer drugs that have
killed several people in Europe.

Fantasy - known as the date-rape drug - has already been discovered in
Perth and Fremantle.

It is particularly dangerous when mixed with alcohol.

Some new synthetic drugs with street names like Flatliner, Golden Eagle and
DOB, derivates of ecstasy and 30 times stronger, have been discovered in
the eastern States.