'BISCUIT' DRUG LANDS CLUBBERS IN HOSPITAL

The drug cocktail that eight young people overdosed on in two Cape
Town nightclubs just over a week ago is called a "biscuit" by clubbers.

The eight - including a 13-year-old - were taken to Groote Schuur
Hospital during the early hours of Sunday last weekend as the potent
mix of the designer drug Ecstasy and the date rape drug, Rohypnol,
gave them hallucinations and made them wild and aggressive.

Hospital staff had to restrain the young people, who arrived in two
groups at more or less the same time, and were forced to keep a
watchful eye over them.

They were only released the following day.

Six teenagers, and two young people aged 20 and 27 from Woodstock and
Lansdowne were at the Galaxy Disco Restaurant in Rylands, Athlone, and
the Dockside Nightclub next to Canal Walk when things went wrong.

Manuel de Andrade, one of the Dockside Nightclub's owners, said they
knew nothing about the incident

He said they had not been contacted by any parents or
hospitals.

"I'm not saying the incident did not happen but I'm saying that the
first I have heard about the incident was this week, a week after it
happened."

De Andrade said his club had strict security measures in place to
prevent this type of occurrence.

He had not come across this new drug cocktail, he added.

Adrian Lazarus, chairman of the Club and Bar Association (Caba), said
nightclubs that were members of Caba had, to the best of his
knowledge, not experienced this type of problem.

At their last meeting there had also been no mention of such a drug
cocktail.

He said neither Dockside nor Galaxy had chosen to become members of
the association.