Party pills fuel Emergency Department surge in Townsville

MDMA-related presentations to Townsville Hospital have surged this year with three wired drug users taken to the emergency department each week, alarming figures show.

MDMA-related presentations to Townsville Hospital have surged this year with three wired drug users taken to the emergency department each week, alarming figures show.

The Townsville Bulletin can reveal 126 patients have presented to hospital with MDMA being the primary diagnosis, the highest number in at least three years.

It comes at a time of great debate around the party drug in the wake of six overdose deaths last summer. Scores of revellers who attend the Groovin the Moo festival are taken to hospital each year with suspected drug overdoses, while pills are being consumed each weekend on Townsville’s party strip.

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Townsville hospital figures show in the first 10 months of this year there has already been a 43 per cent rise in presentations compared to the whole of 2018.

Of the 126 patients who were taken to hospital this year for effects of MDMA, four were classified as in a “life-threatening” condition, the highest number since 2016.

Townsville Hospital emergency department director Dr Luke Lawton conceded the figure could be higher as the effects of MDMA could go undiagnosed when someone presented with more obvious injuries.

“Over the years we have seen an increase in the number of patients presenting to the ED affected by MDMA,” he said.

“To me, that suggests that it’s becoming more prevalent in the community, because what we see reflects what’s going on outside.

“So I suspect that more people coming in with MDMA-related illnesses means that there’s more out there, and therefore consequently more people are affected.”

Dr Lawton said it was a concerning number as it had the potential to cause a lot of short-term and long-term problems for users.

He said the long-term result of MDMA use was drug addiction, social isolation, association with psychosis and even death.

While the figures were not broken down by age bracket, Dr Lawton said it was generally young people who consumed the drug – whether it be teenagers, students, people who held down jobs or even parents.

Townsville Street Chaplains volunteers provide assistance to revellers at Townsville’s party precinct on weekends.

Deputy chairman Bruce Cornish said there was nothing to suggest there had been an increase in the party drug.

“By far the most prevalent drug of use down there is alcohol but there are certainly drugs that are being consumed,” he said.