Sydney girl Georgina Bartter’s overdose raises questions over what’s really in ecstasy pills

AN ‘apparent ecstasy overdose’ cut Georgina Bartter’s life tragically short. We know that. But what we don’t know about the teen’s death is even more alarming.

What really killed Georgina Bartter?

THE dark side of recreational drug use was brought into sharp relief this weekend with the tragic death of a Sydney teenager.

Georgina Bartter had been dancing at Sydney’s Harbourlife festival with friends after taking one and a half pills of what she thought was ecstasy.

Friends described the 19-year-old’s state, saying she began to grow weary and was shivering.

An observer said he saw her doubled over and foaming at the mouth.

Paramedics and doctors couldn’t save her.

When she arrived at St Vincent’s hospital, the emergency workers were expecting a case like hers.

Before her formal.

But Georgina’s parents had never expected to become two of the 3000 Australian parents who experience the death of a child from drug overdose each year.

What’s worse is they don’t even know why.

Georgina died from an apparent ecstasy overdose, but with what can be sold as ecstasy in the unregulated underground drug trade, it’s even hard to know what that really means.

Police said they didn’t know of a “bad batch” of ecstasy that had been circulating in Sydney, but according to drug experts you never really know what’s in any pill being sold as ecstasy or MDMA.

Ecstasy is the second most used recreational drug in Australia, and Australians are the biggest users of it per capita in the world — one in 10 people over the age of 14 have tried it, according to this year’s UN World Drug Report.

But very few of those would know exactly what they’re consuming.

Georgina competing at Lane Cove’s swimming carnival.

Professor Steve Allsop from Curtin University has studied drug use among Australians, particularly ecstasy, and says there are no rules when it comes to what’s in ecstasy, making it even more dangerous than the potent drug itself.

“Often you find when you start seeing serious adverse outcomes or deaths it’s not just ecstasy or it’s not even ecstasy — it’s got another product in it,” he told news.com.au.

“It’s usually cut with all sorts of things — some of those things. It depends what people might choose to put in it, you can have chalk, paracetamol, and other drugs.”

We’ve heard the horror stories — rat poison, washing powders, soaps and other toxic cleaning agents getting mixed up in drugs, but Dr Allsop says that it’s a similar drug to MDMA, Paramethoxyamphetamine (PMA), that is perhaps the greatest cause of concern.

According to the Australian Drug Foundation, PMA has similar effects to MDMA, and has more toxic effects.

Georgina Bartter

It also takes longer to kick in, making it more likely for users to overdose, and it’s being found in ecstasy pills, masquerading as the drug users think they have paid for.

“Somebody may have taken a particular form of ecstasy last week and felt its effects within 45 minutes, then they take a different formulation, that could have more PMA, that could take longer to take effect,” Professor Allsop says.

“An hour later they’ll take another, which is where we risk overdose.”

Ms Bartter’s death has prompted police to warn people about the issues of knowing what you’re getting when it comes to illicit drugs.

“There’s little to no quality control in the production of illicit drugs,” Inspector Stewart Leggat of City Central Local Area Command said.

“Quite simply, you don't know what you are getting — seeking a synthetic high, could result in a serious injury or death.”

A post-mortem will be carried out on Ms Bartter to find her exact cause of death.

It is believed she suffered cardiac arrest before staff at St Vincent’s Hospital put her on a heart lung machine, but couldn’t save her.

Angela and Tony Wood.

The father of Anna Wood, a 15-year-old who became the accidental face of tragic drug death in an event very similar to Ms Bartter’s tragic passing, is distraught at the tragedy.

“It was like Angela and I were having déjà vu all over again,” he told news.com.au.

“She’s a beautiful young woman, just 19. I’m just blown away by the whole thing. I can’t believe it. I thought all this was over with, but it still happens. It brings back all the grief in our lives. “

Mr Wood said the more he learned about the drug situation in Australia following Anna’s death, the angrier he got.

“You’ve only got to look at what’s happened to young Georgina. We don’t know which [pill] is going to harm you,” he said.

“Even with synthetic drugs, we don’t know who they are going to harm. Thousands of kids take drugs every weekend but every once in a while they’ll have a terrible reaction within one person and they die.”

Anna’s mother, Angela Wood, said a shift in thinking about drugs could perhaps detract from their appeal to young people.

“It’s poison,” she said.

“We’re talking about poison, no matter what. She took two pills and they killed her.”