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Robbie and his older brother Jed have just watched a TV documentary about drugs in the Netherlands. In the Netherlands,trained staff operate quality control in clubs.They look at ecstasy tablets for imprints or scoring, measure and weigh it and refer to a national database of drugs that have been tested in a laboratory. A tiny amount of a tablet may be tested to find out what type of drug it contains e.g. a stimulant such as speed or a psycho-stimulant such as ecstasy. The test is very quick, but also very basic. It does not show how much of a drug is in a tablet, or whether it contains other potentially dangerous substances. |
| Robbie is VERY impressed by the system the Dutch use to TEST the IDENTITY of drugs. | Jed is LESS impressed. |
| Robbie “I think that’s BRILLIANT! Quality control like that would make drugs LESS DANGEROUS. People would know what they were taking, and dealers selling RUBBISH would be put out of BUSINESS.” |
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| Jed “It wouldn’t change a THING. First of all, knowing what the drug IS doesn’t make it safe to use. The system would be TOO DIFFICULT to set up anyway, and dealers would find a way to get around it. It ’d be a waste of TIME and MONEY.” |
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| Robbie “BUT dealers care about the quality of the drugs they sell. THAT'S how they attract customers and make MONEY. Customer satisfaction COUNTS in the black market. Think about it.” |
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| Jed “Yeh, but if the dealer down the road is selling it CHEAPER, then people would go to him, even if his deals ARE worse. If users can buy MORE for LESS money that’s what they’ll DO.” |
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| Robbie “Look, users need to know WHAT they’re buying. It’s the danger they DON’T know about that’s the BIGGEST problem. Tablets can contain drugs apart from MDMA, you know.” |
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| Jed “True, but I DON’T think that’s the real problem. Take ecstasy - it’s NOT the rubbish in ecstasy that’s killed people, it’s the REAL THING.” |
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| Robbie “Mmm. But, say someone thinks they’re taking an ECSTASY pill, and when the EFFECTS start kicking they realise the pill must have been something like KETAMINE. That can be VERY frightening and really DANGEROUS. I just think users need to be sure about EXACTLY what they re taking. At the moment there’s no WAY they can know for sure.” |
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| Jed “You’re right about that. But, you’re FORGETTING something. Drugs are ILLEGAL. HOW can you have quality control on something that you’re not allowed to possess in the FIRST place?” |
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What do you think?
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