TESTER KIT FOR DEADLY RAVE DRUG WITHDRAWN

AN ecstasy tester kit that identifies deadly batches of the party drug has
been banned from use.

E-Z Test kits, which cost $55 at several Brisbane stores are regularly used
at rave parties to test the quality of ecstasy tablets.

A drug-user support group wants the State Government to allow the use of
E-Z Tests to stop the flow of dangerous drug batches.

But Queensland Health has rejected the proposal, saying the kits give a
false impression of safety.

To use the kit, a small portion of the tablet is broken off and placed in a
chemical liquid that changes colour, showing which ingredients have been
mixed in the manufacture of the pill.

Each kit can test up to 150 tablets and can identify ecstasy's base drug
MDMA from dangerous cocktails of strychnine, speed, heroin, amphetamines,
cocaine and other killer ingredients.

Although the kits are legal to buy, they are illegal to use with a banned
substance.

Brisbane ecstasy users said the kits were the only method of protection
besides abstinence.

"It's the only way we have to test whether they're dangerous, other than
testing it on ourselves," an anonymous user said.

The Queensland Intravenous Aids Association, or QuIVAA, said the State
Government should legalise the use of tester kits in the interest of saving
lives.

"They shouldn't be taking the drug, but if they choose to do it they need
information about it," QuIVAA manager Bob Heaton said.

"With ecstasy, you don't know what you're taking. Sometimes there's nothing
in it, sometimes there's wicked stuff in it."

But Queensland Health has knocked the idea, saying the tester kits do not
provide a full chemical breakdown of each pill.

"We would be concerned about the use of these testing kits because they
cannot give you a full composition about the tablet you are going to
consume," Queensland Health spokesman Kevin Lambkin said.

"They give the belief that it is a safe tablet."