DIY, D01, D09 rumoured lethal

This link (http://www.hijackbristol.co.uk/board/index.php/topic,31037.0.html) goes to a Bristol music forum describing a recent situation involving a drug that recently came on to the illegal substances list. It's the testimony of a friend of a guy who took the drug and ended up in hospital, with several more people being far worse off.

[i]"My friends son is currently in hospital after taking this drug at a free party, he is okay but one person has been pronunced brain dead and another has serious brain damage and many others were rushed to hospital. Apparently the drug is being described as really strong acid, my friend went into convulsions for hours and is just been able to speak now a couple of days later after being in intensive care."[/i]

I know we're on a Theremin forum here and I'm not really a drugs kind of guy, but I appreciate the likelihood that someone reading this is and I reckon it's worth people knowing if this kind of thing is going on.

I hate to say it, but this sort of thing has been going on for 30 years or more. As long as recreational drugs are illegal, you can never know what you're getting when you accept one, and frequently dealers will substitute something other than what they claimed to be selling (in whole or in part) because they want a quick payoff and plan to vanish, or because they're cutting the real drug with something that they don't realize (or don't care) is toxic.

Anti-congestants made me feel dreadful enough last weekend (and did little to alter my symptoms), but I have a strange feeling that unless I'd experienced such pronounced side-effects, I'd never have had the energy to do the gig. But no - it hasn't given me any ideas. I'm pretty priggish and boring when it comes to drugs and alcohol. I don't really like the feeling of being out of control.

I want to introduce you to Cider, though. Heh heh heh. Proper Cider. You're a Bristol boy, it's not like you have a say in the matter. It'll put hairs on your hair.

The main thing is knowing what stuff will do to you, which is why when new drugs come on the market, experimenting with them is ridiculously risky. Who knows if this is a standard effect of the drug, or whether it was just a bad batch? In a few years we'll know, but now, there's no way of knowing what you're putting into yourself unless you're responsible for the thing existing, and even then I doubt it.