All of those costs are in the budget in the document linked earlier.
Why is pill testing even a debate?
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Binaural
Eats Squid
Take a closer look - those costs are nonsense. Most of the services are costed as pro-bono, the actual test equipment and calibration is not included, and they think insuring a high-speed drug testing lab will cost 2500 a year. This is the sort of analysis you should expect from a thinly funded advocacy organisation, but not something you should expect people to take seriously.
Binaural
Eats Squid
That's just the point I was making. The nearest example I could think of would be operating a mobile drug testing lab for NSW police. These cost at least half a million dollars, each, and further costs take them to over a million per year, from a bit of googling. These vans only have to identify a few specific illegal drugs and don't require public liability insurance, whereas these mobile drug labs would need to be calibrated to detect adulterants that can be literally anything, test 10 or 100 times faster, and probably would be required to operate diversion programs in order to avoid the perception of encouraging drug use. If I were planning that program, you bet I am putting a shitload of fat into the costings.
This is why I think we are seeing a lot of appeals to the government to step in. If event organisers were wholly or partly responsible, the costs of drug testing to the organiser would drive them out of business.
This is why I think we are seeing a lot of appeals to the government to step in. If event organisers were wholly or partly responsible, the costs of drug testing to the organiser would drive them out of business.
Binaural
Eats Squid
I'm not trying to pile on here, but I think my favourite part of that costing was the note that they'd need a substantial scientific field research program to stay on top of new adulterants and synthetic drug chemistries, but none of that was costed. At least we can be confident they know how many couches are required, though.
Pile on all you like, I have no personal interest in this.
Not sure if RBT vans are a great comparison, as they precipitate a whole chain of legal consequences and need to be accurate in theory. Having said that, I don't think they can test for concentrations, only if a substance is present or not.
Is it easier to test the physical pill for concentrations? I don't know, perhaps the equipment they propose to use is not overly sensitive and just gives a big picture analysis. I'm assuming that the pill testing at a festival would be more of a St John's ambulance tent staffed by volunteers type of affair, and the results will be "to the best of our knowledge". They couldn't ever claim to guarantee the pill is definitely safe.
But let's say that running it costs $1m a year, and it's mandatory for any event with more than x number of patrons legally have to have it present. Say 100 big events a year qualify and have to add $10k to their costs.
Is that going to put them out of business? Dunno. Is that like building a wall and making the Mexicans pay for it?
Not sure if RBT vans are a great comparison, as they precipitate a whole chain of legal consequences and need to be accurate in theory. Having said that, I don't think they can test for concentrations, only if a substance is present or not.
Is it easier to test the physical pill for concentrations? I don't know, perhaps the equipment they propose to use is not overly sensitive and just gives a big picture analysis. I'm assuming that the pill testing at a festival would be more of a St John's ambulance tent staffed by volunteers type of affair, and the results will be "to the best of our knowledge". They couldn't ever claim to guarantee the pill is definitely safe.
But let's say that running it costs $1m a year, and it's mandatory for any event with more than x number of patrons legally have to have it present. Say 100 big events a year qualify and have to add $10k to their costs.
Is that going to put them out of business? Dunno. Is that like building a wall and making the Mexicans pay for it?
rowdyflat
chez le médecin
Mostly we are talking about ectasy MDMA here.
Testing a small amount wont tell you the total pill dose.
I dont think the manufacturers of street pills are concerned with quality or deceiving pill testing techniques .
Usually in business it makes no sense to harm your customer since they wont come back.
I would think they would use some sort of commercial mixer to blend ingredients hopefully thoroughly to get a uniform blend and then a pill press.
Remember though each tablet is tiny compared with the size of the batch, so the strength of active ingredients could vary incredibly and also people are all different sizes and have genetically varying rates of liver activity which is required to deal w MDMA.
Depending on what the perceived strength of the ingredients really are ,they would add fillers to dilute it and increase profit.
Fillers could be anything including other more harmful drugs eg PMA or methylone which have ectasy like effects , diverted prescription drugs eg opiods , toxic drugs that cause allergic reactions, rubbish like sawdust, corn flour.
I dont know whether people dying recently died from overdoses and or toxic substitutes.
There is a report of a man taking up to a dozen pills so they can be 12 x happier .
This is a deliberate overdose and you die of hyperthermia which happens when you are dancing/ exercising in a crowd and not drinking enough fluids{ thanks to the cost of bought drinks.}
Testing a small amount wont tell you the total pill dose.
I dont think the manufacturers of street pills are concerned with quality or deceiving pill testing techniques .
Usually in business it makes no sense to harm your customer since they wont come back.
I would think they would use some sort of commercial mixer to blend ingredients hopefully thoroughly to get a uniform blend and then a pill press.
Remember though each tablet is tiny compared with the size of the batch, so the strength of active ingredients could vary incredibly and also people are all different sizes and have genetically varying rates of liver activity which is required to deal w MDMA.
Depending on what the perceived strength of the ingredients really are ,they would add fillers to dilute it and increase profit.
Fillers could be anything including other more harmful drugs eg PMA or methylone which have ectasy like effects , diverted prescription drugs eg opiods , toxic drugs that cause allergic reactions, rubbish like sawdust, corn flour.
I dont know whether people dying recently died from overdoses and or toxic substitutes.
There is a report of a man taking up to a dozen pills so they can be 12 x happier .
This is a deliberate overdose and you die of hyperthermia which happens when you are dancing/ exercising in a crowd and not drinking enough fluids{ thanks to the cost of bought drinks.}
Flow-Rider
Burner
Going back in time when I was a youngish lad, a mate gave a GF a pinger and it had high levels codeine in it. She had a very bad reaction to it and her body started to shut down.
pink poodle
気が狂っている男
How’d they get a photo of my kids’ bathroom ?
Freediver
I can go full Karen
Those costs are mostly much greater than would be expected in the real world, chemists and counselors won't cost a grand a night each. Security and paramedics are there anyway and paid for by the promoter. I'm sure the 6 grand on interstate travel could be done away with by using locals as could the 3 grand for accommodation and travel. $500 for stationary and for furniture, get real.
Hire of the spectrometre and other scientific equipment wouldn''t be that huge as these machines aren't that expensive to buy they are low tens of thousands not hundreds of thousands, you could pick up all the gear you need of ebay with change from 20K if you wanted to be a tightarse about it.
Who cares what it costs anyway if the promoter is the one paying for it which of course means it's the punters themselves when it's added to ticket prices.
fatboyonabike
Captain oblivious
I love this old ad campaign, looks to me like the law enforcement types trying to scare you off by using a photo of a dirty bikie setup used for cooking meth, and MDA/MDMA manufacturing....I aint no expert, but that looks like a setup to me
LPG
likes thicc birds
It's stupid scare tactics like that ad and others that try to scare people by overstatibg the dangers that do more harm than good. People see that and then when they try drugs and find it is a better and safer than they've been told and let theor guard down. Balanced facts by peoplw who actually know what they are talking about are best for overall safety.
Flow-Rider
Burner
Dude, that's how maccas percolates their coffee.
I thought it looked more like the Japanese canned coffee manufacturing line.
pink poodle
気が狂っている男
I've seen the way staff here clean toilets at a truck stop...you could bet both nuts that factory is damn clean.
I know of two labs that were busted near me. I managed to get away in time. Some time later I was talking to a policeman involved in one of the raids and he commented that the set up was like a high end chemistry lab and most high output labs are similar, well laid out and clean. Scare tactcs wouldnt work if they showed a clinical workplace!
teK--
Eats Squid
It is definitely a lot harder to make MDMA than trailer park meth. The precursors also can't just be bought off the shelf like meth and so it lends to more organised groups to manufacture. They care about yield/profit and so there is no time for backyarders.
Flow-Rider
Burner
There's lots of photo's online with MDMA clandestine labs that look like the one that poodle put up after police interception.
hifiandmtb
Sphincter beanie
Can't you just watch Breaking Bad & work it out?