10 Years Today since Leah Betts died

[Loz]

Just saw it on the local news.

It doesn't seem that long ago, does it?

The message kind of failed, though, didn't it? And the news just happily said that ecstasy isn't that harmful, statistics report that more people die a year from peanut allergies than from ecstasy related deaths.

[gunjack]

who?

[Loz]

info here: http://ecstasy.org/info/dangers.html

[grobelaar]

I guess she misread drink at least 8 glasses of water a day as 8 litres of water... Oh well...

[penciLneck]

I'll never forget that, another odd death like choking on bayleaves and getting bitten to death by a donkey. but dying from drinking too much water, thats just too strange.

[gunjack]

water poisoning on e aint that uncommon from what i remember from the bad ol dayz

[Loz]

basically, the water swells the brain, which then causes pressure inside the skull, resulting in coma and possibly brain damage or death

[JonnySpeed]

a young girl that drowned from drinking too much water after taking a pill. the uk media used it as a horror story to prove that drug are bad, mkay? One article even had a full advert for whisky on the opposite page. hmmm.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leah_Betts

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/66/Leahbetts.jpg

[gunjack]

Originally posted by JonnySpeed
One article even had a full advert for whisky on the opposite page. hmmm.


typical.

[notorious J.I.M]

http://www.stradanove.net/news/images/novita/d/drogay.jpg

[content]

why is it bad that the media is saying she died from taking e? she did. if she wouldnt have taken the pill she wouldnt have died right? i mean if someone dies in a drunk driving accident they dont say "well it wasnt the alcohol that killed them so alcohol is good."

[gunjack]

e is retarded anyway.

[JonnySpeed]

Originally posted by content
why is it bad that the media is saying she died from taking e? she did. if she wouldnt have taken the pill she wouldnt have died right? i mean if someone dies in a drunk driving accident they dont say "well it wasnt the alcohol that killed them so alcohol is good."

number of column inches vs. number of deaths from other things such as drink, traffic accident, choking on peanuts, tripping over rugs, stung by bees... was way out line.

[gunjack]

its also funny to me how here in the americas, weed is looked at as a terrible "drug" yet folks drink til they puke all the time.

if u drink too much, you can, a. die, b. hurt someone, or c. hurt yourself.

if u smoke too much weed in one sitting you will a. order a pizza. b play gta til 5am, or c. fall asleep........

[Lighter Thief]

Would she not, according to government and tabloid reasoning, have been habitually addicted to heroin and robbing her parents to get her fix by now, (assuming that taking drugs is a 'slippery slope')?

Her folks ought to be pleased, really. It was all downhill from there anyway.

/bad form. Sorry Leah. Sorry Mr and Mrs Betts. No post for weeks and then I go and say something horrible.

[JonnySpeed]

Originally posted by gunjack
its also funny to me how here in the americas, weed is looked at as a terrible "drug" yet folks drink til they puke all the time.

and in Europe its just what kids do and kinda a boring and mainsteam to most people. 25%* of the population does and nobody cares any more.

*27% of 16 to 24 year olds
14% of 25 to 34 year olds
4% of 35 to 59 year olds

[gunjack]

man i cant wait to get back to eu lol

[content]

Originally posted by gunjack
its also funny to me how here in the americas, weed is looked at as a terrible "drug" yet folks drink til they puke all the time.

if u drink too much, you can, a. die, b. hurt someone, or c. hurt yourself.

if u smoke too much weed in one sitting you will a. order a pizza. b play gta til 5am, or c. fall asleep........


tv tells me if i smoke weed i will run over little girls on bikes

[JonnySpeed]

a bloke well stunk out the bus today by smoking a doobie at the bus stop then getting on... fooking reeked of skunk. nobody even looked round.

[Loz]

JonnySpeed: they were scared that he might steal their purses to fund his smack habit

[dirtyho]

I was on a tv program about drugs with Leah Betts parents when I was younger, pretty tweaked out experience. Kind of empowering though, I smoked weed in the guests lounge afterwards with the guy from the legalise cannabis campaign in front of them, Nicky Cambell and a Tory MP from Luton. Ha - Fuck You!

[content]

that is a little uneccessarily cruel don't ya think? what did they do to you?

[dirtyho]

No I don't mean about their daughter, I had a chat with them about it and they were surprisingly reasonable in that context - not at all like their media personas. While the tone of the program was not at all what Nicky Cambell had promised before the show "we really want to debate this subject and show all the arguments" - it was actually a witch hunt. But afterwards everything went back to normal people having to get on with each other, and this guy smoking weed there showed just how things have changed. They just didn't have the will or desire to get involved in the hassle that having us arrested would have caused.

[Whuffle]

Saw something recently where the parents of a "famous victim" of some drug or other, had really LOOKED at the rave scene, and tried to understand and appreciate what is good about it. I wander if it was them?

Their logic was: we want to warn people about the dangers, and they won't listen if we are like all THEIR parents, like we used to be, which was from the angle that the whole thing is shit and these kids should be doing some homework instead.

From what I could tell, they really DID understand it too.. genuine effort, not just show, and not just anti drugs. More interested in promoting safe use of drugs in the interests of preventing ABuse of them. And not wanting to shut down the culture.

[gunjack]

Originally posted by content



tv tells me if i smoke weed i will run over little girls on bikes


hahah anybody ever see the american propaganda film from the 50's called "reefer madness"? i love that movie it's pure jokes!

[JonnySpeed]

twoz 1936... so pre-war prohibition era.

[gunjack]

wow! didnt know that!

[JonnySpeed]

Originally posted by Loz
JonnySpeed: they were scared that he might steal their purses to fund his smack habit

na just wanted to get home and couldn't be arsed or thought, might have a doobie when I get home.

I was walking up the tunnel at Leytonstone tube once with a bloke n front smoking weed and a little girl next me said "mummy what's that horrible smell" her mum "said I don't know it smells like hops you make beer out of". I thought: well, like that but not.

[Yer_Maw]

the reason i have a problem with it is because government advice was all about drinking plenty of water etc. That has been quietly dropped, and the idea that it was maybe the advice at the time that killed her, not the pills never gets a mention. Having had that message drummed into me, when i actually started taking pills it took me a while to realise it was pretty much absolute shite.

[kams]

Originally posted by dirtyho
No I don't mean about their daughter, I had a chat with them about it and they were surprisingly reasonable in that context - not at all like their media personas. While the tone of the program was not at all what Nicky Cambell had promised before the show "we really want to debate this subject and show all the arguments" - it was actually a witch hunt. But afterwards everything went back to normal people having to get on with each other, and this guy smoking weed there showed just how things have changed. They just didn't have the will or desire to get involved in the hassle that having us arrested would have caused.

It wasn't Central Weekend Live by any chance was it? That show was so shit... lets get loads of mouthy reactionary twats in and wind them up with the tabloid 'horror' story of the moment. Nicky Campell is a dirty jock strap.

[mdk]

central weekend live was classic...i still fondly remember the time they had 'gwar' on and were giving it the usual 'heavy metal is the devils music'

great stuff

[kams]

rose tinted glasses mdk... it was worse than the James Whale show...

Where I lived at that time (Peterborough) was on the borders of three ITV regions (Anglia, Central and Yorkshire - its nowhere near geographically - but we could get it...) around this time of the evening all three ITV's would vere off on there own track showing different programming - which was sometimes good. On friday's though they all showed the James Whale show at ten minute staggered intervals. Coming home from the pub was like being trapped in some horrific drunken windwarp loop of James Whales smug face skipping back and forth across time until i fell asleep from too much beer and woke up with the dreaded beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

[mdk]

no way, james whale was far worse..it had some slight comedy value for the people who tried to swear at him when they rang in...central weekend was pure comedy entertainment..completely unreasonable arguments guaranteed....

waking up to the beeeeep or jobfinder was better than when they started showing actual programs in the night...gods gift for example...nnggggggg....

[kams]

i bet you were waiting up for the red shoe diaries 2p wank at 3am...

[mdk]

the what?

im afraid thats your guilty pleasure..i dont even know what it is :)

[kams]

hahaha!!!

Red Shoe Diaries was a crappy US 'erotic' drama series - starring David 'Mulder' Duchovny often broadcast late during that period we were talking about.

'2p' as in cheap...

so yeah - you hit the nail on the head!

[dirtyho]

Funnily enough it was Central Weekend Live. I played the part of an E dealer, but luckily hidden behind a screen to "protect my identity". I would have shit it if I was on stage in front of the mob. A mate who was in TV got me on it because he thought I might have something intelligent to say, it was not made easy by the audience baying for blood, I might add. I did OK, the Tory MP's first comments were "I'm calling you scum" and I replied "Well it's your prerogative if you wan't to call me names, but I thought we were here to debate a serious subject". I'd actually done quite a bit of research and I messed most of them up because I admitted most of the risks and dangers and highlighted the ineffective and arbitrary nature of the measures against drugs at the time. I spoke well and didn't glamourise or justify it, just said it was what myself and a lot of people did, we took a big risk but we were grown ups and posed no threat to society except to ourselves. I even asked Leah Betts parents to put themselves in different shoes, if it had been Leah rather than a mate who'd picked up the drugs would they really want to see her banged up for years if she was caught with them on her, was she really a "dealer" if that happened?

[mdk]

It was you!

classic....

[dirtyho]

I never even got to see the show that went out, I'd like to have. It was quite exciting and empowering. It felt like society was in for some really big changes at the time. Lot's of protest against the CJB etc, lot's of squat culture, Schnews etc in Brighton at the time. It's funny that you saw that mdk!

[Loz]

Really? that is cool

I have asked on UKNova if anyone has a copy. If I find one, I shall of course let everyone know.

[Patrick]

Speaking of ten years, that's coincidentally how long her brother is going to be on the sex offenders register :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4306092.stm

[grobelaar]

Originally posted by dirtyho
Funnily enough it was Central Weekend Live. I played the part of an E dealer, but luckily hidden behind a screen to "protect my identity". I would have shit it if I was on stage in front of the mob. A mate who was in TV got me on it because he thought I might have something intelligent to say, it was not made easy by the audience baying for blood, I might add. I did OK, the Tory MP's first comments were "I'm calling you scum" and I replied "Well it's your prerogative if you wan't to call me names, but I thought we were here to debate a serious subject". I'd actually done quite a bit of research and I messed most of them up because I admitted most of the risks and dangers and highlighted the ineffective and arbitrary nature of the measures against drugs at the time. I spoke well and didn't glamourise or justify it, just said it was what myself and a lot of people did, we took a big risk but we were grown ups and posed no threat to society except to ourselves. I even asked Leah Betts parents to put themselves in different shoes, if it had been Leah rather than a mate who'd picked up the drugs would they really want to see her banged up for years if she was caught with them on her, was she really a "dealer" if that happened?

Some friends from Nottingham went on Central Weekend Live, to be in the audience. And i remmber during an interval one of them nipped off and had a nice big line of k... When they came back there was a great shot of him just totally zonked out in his seat...

[Orang Utan]

Leah Betts: lightweight

[thembuzz]

Originally posted by mdk
waking up to the beeeeep or jobfinder was better than when they started showing actual programs in the night...gods gift for example...nnggggggg....

stay up late enough and itv's got nightscreen, to satisfy all your soporific library music needs

[kams]

Originally posted by Orang Utan
Leah Betts: lightweight

lol cunt

[JonnySpeed]

dark

[Paddy]

7 litres of water in 90 minutes?

i love the fact that it emerged that it wasn't her first e.

R.I.P.

[notorious J.I.M]

Originally posted by dirtyho
Funnily enough it was Central Weekend Live. I played the part of an E dealer, but luckily hidden behind a screen to "protect my identity". I would have shit it if I was on stage in front of the mob. A mate who was in TV got me on it because he thought I might have something intelligent to say, it was not made easy by the audience baying for blood, I might add. I did OK, the Tory MP's first comments were "I'm calling you scum" and I replied "Well it's your prerogative if you wan't to call me names, but I thought we were here to debate a serious subject". I'd actually done quite a bit of research and I messed most of them up because I admitted most of the risks and dangers and highlighted the ineffective and arbitrary nature of the measures against drugs at the time. I spoke well and didn't glamourise or justify it, just said it was what myself and a lot of people did, we took a big risk but we were grown ups and posed no threat to society except to ourselves. I even asked Leah Betts parents to put themselves in different shoes, if it had been Leah rather than a mate who'd picked up the drugs would they really want to see her banged up for years if she was caught with them on her, was she really a "dealer" if that happened?

I'm sure I saw that show, I lived in the Central region till the end of 93 and I distinctly remember seeing Paul Betts on there once along with Keith Helliwell (remember him the first 'drugs tzar') or maybe I'm confusing different episodes in my drug addled brain! Anyway fair play for being the voice of reason on that apalling show.