Young people shouldn’t get heart attacks, but dodgy imitation drugs shouldn’t be flooding the market, and sadly, the latter can cause the former.
Ana Hick, an 18-year-old from Dublin, Ireland, died after taking pills believed to contain PMMA, a cheaper alternative to ecstasy.
Having recently graduated from Loreto College, she was out with mate at the Twisted Pepper nighclub when she began to feel ill. She collapsed and had a heart attack after taking the pills. Medics were called and they tried to resuscitate her on the way to the hospital, but after being put on a life support machine, she died at 5.30pm on Sunday 17th May.
One friend told The Irish Mirror: ‘Ana is just so nice. The kindest, funniest person you could meet. She’s the friendliest, chattiest girl going. She is so good to people and so talented and beautiful. Everyone loved her.’
‘I can’t believe this has happened. My heart goes out to her parents and her family. They must be going through absolute hell.’
The Twisted Pepper also released a statement:
Everyone at the Twisted Pepper is deeply saddened and devastated at the news of the sad passing of Ana Hick. Our...
Posted by
http://thedebriefcms.bmuk/wp-admin/post.php?post=1&action=edit&page_type=article&post_type=article
Ana was two days off of her 19th birthday.
We need to know a hell of a lot more about PMMA (short for para-Methoxy-N-methylamphetamine) which has been involved in the deaths of at least four people. What seems to happen is that, because it takes so long for people to 'come up' on it, they think they've taken a dud so do more pills to compensate.
A writer at DrugPolicy.org argues that: ‘While MDMA (and its precursor chemicals) remain illegal and hard to access, imitator drugs – even dangerous ones – will keep coming along to satisfy the market demand.’
And just as people taking these newer drugs have less idea what they’re getting themselves in for, they make it harder for health professionals to treat. Dr Chris Luke, a consultant in emergency medicine at Cork University Hospital has warned: ‘The frontline services, paramedics for instance, won’t know what has been taken and might never know, because the chemicals are so new and the laboratories simply don’t have the technology to identify them.’
You might also be interested in:
This Drug Documentary Will Change The Way You Think About Legal And Illegal Highs
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.