No mate. Folk have been dying from taking drugs round here as far back as I can remember. Ayrshire (where I live) along with Glasgow has a pretty bad record for folk dying in drugs related incidents.

It could be related to the high unemployment, and general low ebb felt in society round here, or there could be a particular brand of stupidity related to the people in the region.

But not a day passes without some junkie dying, or someone slipping into a coma from too many downers and alcohol, and we hear very little of it, but the minute ecstasy can be related to it in any fashion the press will dive on it and make a massive story.

Undoubtedly the person who dies is a "young clubber", who "enjoyed life", "fell in with the wrong crowd", and would "never normally touch drugs". I can tell you from personal experience that this is utter bollocks.

Of some of the bigger stories, although not local to me, I can tell you that after all the furory about Leah Betts death had died down, and the post mortem had been carried out they found the actual cause of death was an overdose of water!! She drank so much in the false belief that it was OK. Her brain swelled with all the water and crushed itself on the inside of her skull. There's absolutley no doubt the ecstasy she had taken contributed to her death but it was not the root cause. In addition she had drank over a bottle of vodka herself. This was covered very little in the press.

My point I'm trying to make here is that I am fully aware of the dangers of taking drugs, but if people can contribute cause of death to ecstasy in so many cases, then I can point the finger, and lay part of the blame at ridiculous dramatization of stories in the press. Lack of available and "proper" information for people.

"Drugs are bad. They'll kill you", just does not work in this part of the world because everyone knows someone who takes something and doesn't die.

If you want an example of a certain attitude towards this sort of incident in our part of the world here is a quote from a clubbing board in Scotland in reply to a post warning of these pills doing the rounds in Ayrshire :

Baz : "I'll certainly be looking out for ducks"
LEE : "Me too, me and my mate Denis are desperate to try them"

:roll:

Unfortunatley this is all too common. Folk think they are invincible. "It won't happen to me."

Many more will die in Ayrshire this year (I know there's only a few hours left but it's true) and again next year hundreds more will die.

"I just learnt it can make me die" is dangers just aren't enough to put them off because for them there is little else.

They just go too far, and the game they're playing has an awful price to pay when you lose.

Scott McSephney 1983 - 2003 R.I.P.