The Vic Counselling Service last week hosted Dr. Paul Quigley, an Australian emergency medicines specialist, as part of a weekly lecture series on health and well-being.

Quigley’s lecture ‘Party Drugs: The good, the bad and the ugly – the truth is out there somewhere’, was well received by a crowd of 80 VUW students and staff. It was a frank discussion on recreational drugs, their effects and the misinformation surrounding their use. Of note were his comments regarding the social implications of drugs like GHB and Amyl Nitrate and the corresponding rise of syphilis (he called it ‘knob rot’), something that was thought to be eradicated, especially in the gay and bisexual male communities.

He also criticized the coverage of “bogus” research on the long term effects of ecstasy in the media but also emphasized that only one in eight pills sold as ecstasy in New Zealand have any MDMA at all and are likely to contain everything from caffeine and milk powder (it makes them look shiny) through to Ajax cleaner and nastier drugs such as methamphetamine (P), heroin and Ketamine, an animal tranquilizer. Other, more socially accepted, drugs did not escape his scrutiny.

Quigley opened by stating that alcohol is a larger problem to society than all illicit drugs combined. The ‘Lunch Time Lectures on Health and Wellbeing’ are being run by the VUW Counselling Serves and Student Health.