Official advice on Ecstasy use

By NICK PERRY

The Ministry of Health says dance-partygoers taking Ecstasy should drink 600ml of water every hour - and bins should be provided by party organisers for the disposal of used syringes.

The ministry has laid down official safety guidelines for dance parties, which include advice about drugs, but the group that helped to devise the guidelines says they do not go far enough.

The recommendations urge party organisers to provide "chill-out" zones and plenty of free cold drinking water, to prevent overcrowding and to keep temperatures cool in smaller venues. They say Ecstasy users should drink a pint of water every hour, and warn that too much water can be as dangerous as too little.

Ministry senior analyst Matthew Allen said it did not condone illegal drug use, but accepted that some people would experiment with drugs at dance parties.

"The information in these guidelines is provided in an attempt to minimise the harm caused by that drug use."

Alison Green, co-organiser of The Gathering, the annual three-day 8000-person dance party held on Takaka Hill, near Nelson, welcomed the guidelines.

She said partygoers should "vote with their feet" by not attending parties where organisers charged a premium for water or did not look after guests in other ways.

She feared the increasing popularity of dance parties could see a rise in shonky operators after a quick dollar.

However, Health Action, which helped research the guidelines, said the advice to drug-users did not go far enough. It had produced a document for the Health Funding Authority encouraging safer use of 10 common dance-party drugs.

Health Action projects field worker Jose Cachemaille said she feared political sensitivities could be getting in the way of information vital to those who chose to use illegal drugs. The authority said it planned to put out a pamphlet for dance-goers by Christmas, but it would contain general "common-sense" information and would not give drug-by-drug advice.

Jose Cachemaille said that aside from marijuana and alcohol, the most common drugs taken at dance parties were LSD, Ecstasy and speed, while magic mushrooms were popular around Dunedin.

Intravenous drug use was rare at dance parties, although some people chose to shoot up Ecstasy or speed rather than the more common method of taking it orally.