Phuket 'Meth Blue' Users At Risk

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Phuket 'Meth blue' users at risk

Phuket Gazette

"Ya ice" . Photo: Wikimedia

Methylene blue. Photo: Amanda Slater

PHUKET: -- Health officials in Phuket have issued a warning to students not to take the chemical "Methylene blue" in an attempt to hide methamphetamine use from authorities in drug testing.

Muang district chief Supachai Pochanakul recently described the trend of growing drug abuse by schoolchildren in Muang district as "very worrying".

The statement followed a recent round-up of 19 truant school children in secondary schools, 15 of whom tested positive for ya ba (methamphetamine pills).

Mr Supachai said the drug of choice among the children was ya ice (crystal methamphetamine), typically bought from suppliers in Patong. Some of the youths caught using the drug recently confessed to taking ‘a kidney cleaning’ pharmaceutical drug in order to test negative if forced to provide urine samples.

Phuket Provincial Health Office (PPHO) chief Sak Tanchaikul explained that students were taking the compound in pill form so that their urine would appear blue, rather than tell-tale purple that indicates a positive result for methamphetamines use in urine testing.

"This group of students take Methylene blue to induce vomiting and make it difficult to detect traces of ya ice in their urine. This is first time I have heard of anyone using Methylene blue for this purpose," said Dr Sak.

Although widely described as a "kidney dialysis" medication, the drug is actually administered only to patients who suffer dangerously low blood pressure as a result of dialysis.

Any blue urine samples that come back during drug testing will be sent to the Regional Medical Sciences Center Phuket for further examination, Dr Sak said.

"We are going to investigate this matter in light of the drug crackdown policy ordered by the Ministry of Interior. I will coordinate with drug stores to control the sale of Methylene blue since it can easily be bought," he said.

"I may also contact the Food and Drug Administration to enforce a special Methylene Blue control law in Phuket," he added.

Officials in Phuket use a "meth cassette" test kit in conducting urine tests. If the urine turns purple, the test is considered positive, although the results need to be verified by more accurate blood testing.

Dr Sak believes students might have been told about the effect of Methylene blue from someone with specialist knowledge.

In the future, any students found with blue urine will have to present documented proof that their use of Methylene blue is for legitimate medical purposes, he said.

"Generally, human urine is pale to dark yellow. So if any school has a student producing blue urine they need to ask that student to present a doctor’s certificate. That information should then be sent to PPHO so we can investigate and advise," said Dr Sak.

"Normally we use urine samples to test for the presence of drugs. Anyone with blue urine will immediately be suspected of trying to hide something and the sample will be sent to the Regional Medical Sciences Center Phuket for closer examination," he said.

Source: http://www.phuketgaz...ticle12282.html

-- Phuket Gazette 2012-02-13

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Phuket druggists to restrict sale of 'Meth Blue'

Phuket Gazette

Phuket Pharmacists Club Secretary Kiattisak Parnrungsri holds up two examples of medications that member pharmacies will stop selling to minors. Photo: Chutharat Plerin.

Phuket officials use "Meth Cassette" test kits like this one in their random testing in schools, nightclubs and some hotels.

PHUKET: Phuket pharmacists will restrict the sale of products containing 'methylene blue' to minors, following reports of youths taking the compound to avoid testing positive for methamphetamine use during drug tests.

The announcement came during a special meeting on Saturday led by Kiattisak Parnrungsri, secretary of the Phuket Pharmacists Club; Duangjai Pasarphan, pharmacist with the Phuket Provincial Public Health Office (PPHO); and Jindee Satikayavakul, president of the Phuket Drugstore Club.

The special meeting followed a report that some youths were taking the ubiquitous compound in pill form in order to turn their urine blue, rather than the tell-tale purple that indicates a positive result during testing with the Government Pharmaceutical Organization's "Meth Cassette" test kit.

“Teams were sent to do urine tests in several places, including schools, as part of the government’s recent crackdown on drugs. We found that methylene blue was being used to alter test results,” said Mr Kiattisak.

The Phuket pharmacists will now make it a priority not to sell any medication containing methylene blue to anyone under the age of 18, Mr Kiattisak said.

However it might be a difficult task keeping methylene blue out of kids' hands, given its widespread use in society.

“Meth blue is a chemical used in several industries. The textile industry uses it as a dye, the aquaculture industry to kill parasites, and the dairy industry to test the quality of milk," he explained.

In medicine, methylene blue is used as a diuretic and to relieve inflammation in the urinary tract, he said.

Last week, PPHO chief Dr Sak Tanchaikul said a group of students had taken methylene blue pills "to induce vomiting" and to make it more difficult to detect traces of ya ice (crystal meth) in their urine by turning it blue.

Isolated cases of blue urine coming up during drug testing had confused health officials in the past, but now that authorities know the cause – and how to deal with it.

“Teenagers who think taking 'meth blue' will prevent them from being caught are totally wrong,” said Mr Kiattisak.

Blue urine is a more damning result than purple, since the urine test is known to turn up occasional false positives, he said

“If you take the drug test and your urine is purple, it does not necessarily mean that you have been taking drugs. It is just a way for us to know which urine samples should be sent to the laboratory to get official confirmation [using a more accurate testing procedure].

"But if your urine is blue or green, as is the case after taking 'meth blue', there will be even greater suspicion. You will probably be detained until your results are cleared,” he explained.

Pharmacist Duangjai agreed with Mr Kiattisak.

“We are now using hi-tech chemical analyses in the laboratory. No traces of drugs can be hidden from us,” Mr Duangjai said.

Source: http://www.phuketgaz...ticle12290.html

-- Phuket Gazette 2012-02-13

[alstaxi]

Clear as mud.

[Jayman]

Seems like there is no need to waste a test kid on these students with blue urine. If they have blue urine then just assume they are trying to cover up drug use (unless they have kidney issues). Only in Thailand do drug users think they can cover up their drug use by making their urine a color unlike any normal urine. No one thought that this would make them stand out rather than fit in?