The Ripple Effect: A series no parent or teen should miss

The Ripple Effect is a confronting, challenging, raw and emotional special multimedia series looking at how illicit drugs are devastating Australian families.

The Ripple Effect is a confronting, challenging, raw and emotional special multimedia series looking at how illicit drugs are devastating Australian families. In Townsville, the average party pill pusher isn’t a stereotypical drug dealer, but rather young adults with no criminal histories that allow them to fly under the police radar.

Townsville’s top drug investigator Major and Organised Crime Squad officer-in-charge detective Senior Sergeant Brad Phelps has exposed the city’s MDMA scene as part of The Ripple Effect, an unprecedented special investigation into the world of illicit drugs in Australia.

Major and Organised Crime Squad officer-in-charge detective Senior Sergeant Brad Phelps said it was believed most of the MDMA that flowed into Townsville’s streets came from overseas. Picture: Wesley Monts

Sen-Sgt Phelps said it was believed most of the MDMA that flowed into Townsville’s streets came from overseas, through the dark web or shipments from major traffickers, before it was broken down and distributed throughout regional Queensland.

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The ripple effect: One drug. Four mums. Four dead children

Four courageous mothers, all bound by the grief of losing a child to an overdose, share their personal stories.

Jennie Ross-King, mum of Alexandra Ross-King walking with her partner outside Lidcombe Coroners Court for an inquest into the suspected drug overdoses of young people at NSW music festivals continues. Picture: Monique Harmer

Jennie Ross-King is grappling with the beast that is grief.

It’s been more than 10 months since she buried her only daughter, 19-year-old Alexandra, but grief cruelly tricks and teases her with games of hope on some days, then threatens to drown her with cruel reality on others.

Alex Ross-King, died of a suspected drug overdose at the FOMO music festival in Parramatta on Saturday, January 12, 2018.

“You convince yourself they are coming home,” Ms Ross-King tells The Ripple Effect.

“It is all very surreal still. I can’t explain it but I still don’t believe that it has happened.

“So many people say it gets better with time but it gets worse, it gets harder to wake up and convince yourself that it didn’t happen and harder to trick yourself that they are just away or they are going to come home soon.

“As time passes, you realise they are not coming home.”

MORE ON THEIR INCREDIBLE STORY HERE

MDMA Nation: Our hunger for party drugs fuelling drug economy

Deadly party pills killing young Australians cost international drug traffickers just 32c each to make and are then sold in their thousands for as much as $30 a pop, a special investigation by The Ripple Effect has revealed.

A supplied image obtained Friday, November 22, 2019 shows bags of crystalline MDMA that were part of a 700KG drug seizure in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Australia is a worldwide leader in MDMA consumption, pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the pockets of international drug lords, who have turned The Netherlands into the global capital of party drug manufacturing and smuggling.

On Friday Australian Federal Police announced they had seized a staggering 700kg of MDMA in the Dutch city of Rotterdam which was bound for our streets.

It comes as the 2019 Global Drug Survey, which polled more than 123,000 drug users in 35 countries, found Australian users admitted taking MDMA almost once a month — the highest globally along with four other countries Portugal, Argentina, Turkey and Romania.

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What MDMA really does to your body

It’s the colourful, candy-like drug seducing festivalgoers with its promise of a euphoric high that users say makes them feel at one with the universe and dance for hours.

There is very little offence in its appearance but it is a coin flip to whether it will lead to the best or worst night of the taker’s life.

Chemicals found in MDMA can interfere with the body’s ability to regulate its temperature, University of Sydney clinical professor Andrew Dawson said.

University of Sydney clinical professor Andrew Dawson said MDMA — colloquially known as ecstasy or “Molly” — is a type of amphetamine that increases the release of certain brain chemicals, which make people feel happy.

“But those chemicals also interfere with the thermostat of the brain which regulates body temperature as well as causing body cells to generate more heat,” Professor Dawson said.

CONTINUE READING HOW MDMA CAN BE DEADLY HERE

Originally published as The Ripple Effect: A series no parent or teen should miss