Hobart: We Tested Your MDMA

_This article is part of the VICE MDMA Census. See the results for cities all around Australia here.  _For a glossary of the different chemicals we identified, read this.

Due to "logistical challenges" (i.e. the Bass Strait), it can be hard to find a consistent and reliable source of recreational drugs in Hobart, particularly when it comes to things like pills and MDMA. People wanting to enjoy a high will literally take whatever they can get—even if they don't know where it came from or exactly what it is, and can't find any reviews on Pill Report.

The danger here isn't just that people don't know what they're taking or how strong it is. I found many irregular users aren't educated about what their drugs should look like, or even what kind of high to expect from different substances. Despite this, Tasmania's police minister Rene Hidding favours an "abstinence over harm minimisation" approach. Back in 2016, when both the Tasmanian Police Association and the Greens pushed to trial pill testing at music festival, Hidding responded by saying the government will not provide "quality assurance for drug pushers."

With the festival season lingering, there are still plenty of pills and caps circulating around Hobart. On a balmy Saturday night, I visited people around Hobart to test their samples and see what's filtering down to the users at the bottom of Australia's island state. First up were Pat and Alice. We started with their Falls Festival leftovers—some rectangular white pills called "Rolls Royces," some round, grainy brown ones called "MasterChefs," and some chunky MDMA crystals.

VICE: Do you trust the person you get your drugs from?
Pat: They came down a long chain of people. We weren't expecting those crystals, we were expecting MDMA tabs, but apparently beggars can't be choosers.

What was the high like?
Alice: The crystals? Look, it wasn't great.
Pat: It was a very short high and all of us vomited, actually.

You all vomited?
Pat: Yeah, for various reasons. We're not sure why. But throughout the day, we all vomited at different intervals. But the actual Masterchef pills were better. If we had the option of something else, we'd take something else. But if we were out of options, we'd take them again. We were actually going to buy some pill testing kits…
Alice: …because we weren't sure where they were coming from…
Pat: …and I was paranoid about NBOMe, 'cos I heard something on Hack. I've actually been to Coachella before and they were giving out free kits and we used them, it was a good service.

If you tested something and it appeared to be dangerous would you still take it?
Pat: Probably not. No. I don't think the kits can test for NBOMe though.

NBOMe is the psychedelic drug which was blamed for the death of Tasmanian backpacker Rye Hunt in Brazil last year. Rye's sister reportedly told Hack that he took the drug believing it was MDMA. Rye separated from his travel buddy after experiencing paranoia and drug-induced psychosis. Police believe he drowned after swimming to Cotunduba Island, 800 metres off the shore of Copacabana, motivated by the belief he was in danger. He was then too dehydrated to make it back to the Brazilian mainland alive.

We tested the Rolls Royce first, which came out a dark purple. It was the most noticeably purple-tinged sample I got all weekend. Pat and Alice didn't have strong feelings about this one either way.

The favourites, the MasterChefs, came back dark and with a purple tinge. You could even call it black, which would indicate DXM. DXM is the chemical in cough syrup which causes a high. In large doses it has a dissociative effect similar to ketamine, and in very high doses can shut down the respiratory system.

The MDMA crystals came back a very muddy colour, and it was hard to tell if the tinge was more purple or red. It probably would have been a good idea to run those through the MDMA kit, but I didn't realise I had one until after I left. Pat and Alice had one more sample from a different source—a guy we know who gets them from "who would know?" This variety is stamped with UPS, prompting Alice to nickname it the "United Postal Service."

"It was really good. I was just completely fucked and had great time. Very intense high," she said. "She danced all day," Paul agreed. The UPS came back a very dark purple, signalling strong traces of ecstasy. No surprises there. Despite the varied reviews, the results were all fairly similar, with the crystals looking the dirtiest.

Next, I headed to see Greg, Stavros, and their friend Maddie. Greg and Stavros like bush doofs and raves and tend to be pretty well-informed about what they're buying, what it should look like, and what the drugs should do to them. I spoke to them about the girls' experiences after taking the MDMA crystals: "Yeah, that sounds like MDMA," they laughed. All three are avid supporters of pill testing.

VICE: If pill testing labs were available and legal, would you guys use it?
Stavros: Definitely.
Maddie: Yeah, I would. Despite the negative conversations about impacts, people are still taking drugs, and there's no risk management in that discussion, it's "just don't do it." But people are still going to do it, so it's just about managing the risk.

So it's about harm minimisation?
Maddie: Exactly.
Stavros: If you keep talking about it, it helps everyone. You find out what's good and what's bad without having to secretly try it. You might even feel suss ordering a pill testing kit online, that stigma in itself isn't nice.

If something has ever had a bad review, or you've looked it up on Pill Report and it's been bad, has that made you think twice about taking it?
Stavros: Straight up. If you take pills a bit, you should have an idea of, or find out what you're taking. But I guess for other people, it's not so much the case.

So if you're the sort of person who uses them once in a blue moon because you bought tickets to something, but you don't have much of an idea what things should look like or what they should do, the risk is higher?
Stavros: I think those are the majority of people who get in trouble because they get told one thing and it actually isn't that thing. They don't know what they should look like or what they should taste like. That's where a pill testing kit comes in handy. You're having to trust three sources. By the time it comes to you, that's three people minimum. I don't think many people even know about Pill Report. Half the time you'll just take it, if you've bought it—a person's not really going to say "Oh, I've got bad pills."

Greg's Superman

Stavros told me that it's getting increasingly hard to get anything consistent in Hobart, let alone any variety, but he too is a fan of the MasterChefs. His were a little lighter in colour than the girls'. He said they were "fresh." Stavros' MasterChef result was also very dark, perhaps a little more black than purple. He gets them from the same guy each time and reckons he's consistent.

Greg brought out a Superman. Stavros was sad to see the sample wasted, but Greg maintained, "I don't have anything shit." The Superman was better looking than the others. I thought the results were red-brown, but Greg implied I was colour blind and read them as a dark purple. "It's a good high." Greg showed me some "harm minimisation" water bottles he had left over from Rainbow Serpent.

Greg: Rainbow Serpent is like A-level at harm minimisation. The bottles have different fun tips for you depending on how you're feeling. With this one you can keep track of how much you've taken. I've thought about selling testing kits at Falls, but you'd have to be so clean—nothing on you, nothing back at your campsite, in your car, nothing. The ones the police have are so fast, so accurate. People don't want to go to their doctor—they want to know what's in the pill they're taking tonight right now. That's the problem. Those people in Melbourne, the MDMA was from Europe and was so much stronger than what you normally get here, but the culture in Australia is that you take two, three pills at a time. People need to know how strong it is. The police send out warnings but they don't tell you what to look out for.

Greg's harm minimisation water bottles from Rainbow Serpent

On Sunday, I got a call from Pat about a mutual friend. "You should talk to Ri. She took a pill last night and it ended up having acid in it, she had such a bad time. She took a whole one because pills are so shit these days, but then she had an acid trip." It wasn't the first I'd heard about pills laced with surprise acid—rumour had it that they'd been prevalent at Panama, a music festival in the north of the state, last weekend. Ri didn't have a sample for me, but remembers the pill was blue in colour and made her hallucinate. "I couldn't control anything. When I was holding my phone it would turn into a brick, it was so weird. I just lost it at the end, I was so mad and upset."

Ri's experience proves true everything Stavros said about buyers being lied to. If we can learn anything from recreational drug users in Hobart, it's that there ain't no river (or strait) wide enough to keep people from taking pills, and by the time drugs get here it's almost impossible to know what their original source is. Fast, legal, professional standard pill testing at events will protect people from overdoses, adulterated drugs and unwanted psychedelic experiences. Hidding and other state politicians need to realise that testing isn't just about quality assurance for dealers—it's about quality assurance for buyers, too.

Disclaimer: We aren't scientists. We ran a handful of tests, in a handful of cities, over the course of a few nights. These kits aren't going to identify the presence of some non-testable poison. Plus, there's no guarantee you have the same MD—drugs differ from place to place, night to night. But you already knew that.

Note: These articles were made possible by EZ Test who donated all testing kits free of charge.