We were offered Ecstasy

Drugs were freely available at the Future Music Festival Asia in Kuala Lumpur where six Malaysians died of an overdose and 15, including nine Singaporeans, were hospitalised.

Singaporean Farah Junita, 25, who works in the oil and gas industry, told The New Paper that she was offered Ecstasy by a man at the event.

She said: "My friend was lying down on the floor when the man came to us and asked us what we were on.

"I told him that we weren't taking anything and he told us that he had Ecstasy to offer us," she said.

She brushed him off but he said that if she changed her mind, she could look for him in one of the tents on the festival grounds at Bukit Jalil Stadium.

The three-day festival which started on Friday was cancelled by police on Saturday.

Cheras police chief Mohan Singh said on Monday that 29 people had been arrested for drug-related offences. Fifteen of them are foreigners. TNP understands that they include nine Singaporeans.

Miss Farah said: "There were so many people who were high. And it was not alcohol - I believe they were high on drugs like Ecstasy. "There were people grinding their teeth and sucking on lollipops," she said.

Miss Charlene Low, 24, another Singaporean who attended the festival, was approached by two people who offered her some pills. The public relations associate said: "At about midnight, two guys came to us and told us they were high on some pills.

"One of them then asked my friends and I if we wanted some," said Miss Low.

"I told them that they did not look high and one of them lifted his sunglasses. He looked like he was pretending to look high by widening his eyes and rolling them to the back of his head."

Miss Low rejected their offer, and the men, who were dressed in black T-shirts, walked away. She did not know what the pills were.

Another festival visitor, who wanted to be known as Sara, said that she also saw people who were clearly high on drugs.

Strict

She said: "I was talking to a Caucasian guy who could hardly hold himself up. His pupils were dilated and he kept asking me the same questions.

"His brother then told me he was high on Ecstasy."

She added that security checks before they entered the venue were strict.

"They did body checks and opened my pack of cigarettes."

Miss Low said that the security personnel even paused at her box of mints before they let her through.

At the University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) yesterday, the harmful effects of the drugs were apparent.

A 27-year-old Indonesian woman who lives in Singapore was sitting on her bed eating porridge with a tube sticking out of her nose. She had been released from the intensive care unit at about noon.

She was one of the 15 who had to be rushed to hospital.

Sitting diagonally in her bed from the Indonesian in the same ward was a 24-year-old Singaporean woman, one of at least four Singaporeans at UMMC.

Her eyes appeared glazed as she slowly tore off bite-sized chunks from a piece of pastry in her lap before raising the morsels to her lips.

The women's fathers, who stood beside their daughters' beds, declined to go into detail when approached by TNP. The Singaporean's father said that his daughter was still very drowsy.

The Indonesian's father, on the other hand, insisted that his daughter, like all the other concertgoers sent to UMMC, was doing fine. "Please don't disturb us. She is fine," he said.

At least three Singaporeans who had been hospitalised have been discharged.

TNP also visited the University Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre and was told by a hospital staff member that both of its Singaporean patients - a 25-year-old woman and a 27-year-old man - were discharged on Saturday.

Miss Farah said: "I have never seen drug use so brazen at an event like this before. ZoukOut was nothing like this."

[[nid:92950]]

Tests can detect drugs months after consumption

A hair analysis can detect drugs months after it has been consumed.

The test was introduced by the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) in November last year.

The urine test, which can detect drugs in a person's urine a week after consumption, is the default detection tool for drug abuse. But the hair retains traces of the drugs for as long as three months.

The CNB said that under the law, any Singapore citizen or permanent resident who has been found to have consumed a controlled drug outside of Singapore may be dealt with as if the offence had been committed within Singapore.

In 1999, a couple were jailed for a year after they tested positive for cannabis.

They were caught while on their way back from a trip to Malaysia. Their bloodshot eyes alerted an officer at the Tuas Checkpoint.

He put both through urine tests and they tested positive on the spot. In court, they said they took the cannabis at parties in Perth, Australia.

Get The New Paper for more stories.

[[nid:92950]]