Tuesday 14 June 2011

Well, Thanks For The Tip, Cleveland Police...

Three people who were found lying unconscious in a street in Middlesbrough are believed to have ingested a dangerous chemical, police have said.
Oh, come on! I'm mean, yes, you're in Middlesborough, but the trains and buses do run out of the place, after all. There's no need to go to those lengths...
Police in Cleveland told Yahoo! News that the two women and a man found on Friday morning had ingested a chemical, possibly gamma-butyrolactone.

Gamma-butyrolactone (sometimes known as GBL) is a colourless solvent said to be found in substances such as cleaning products, nail polish, and superglue removers.
Ah. Clearly, another triumph for that ban on 'legal highs', then?
A spokeswoman from Cleveland Police said: “Officers have now issued a warning to people not to take dangerous chemicals as their effects can be extremely harmful or even fatal.”
Yeah, cheers. I always thought that was implicit in the name 'dangerous chemicals', personally...

H/T: PT via email

14 comments:

blindcyclists said...

"Oh, come on! I'm mean, yes, you're in Middlesborough, but the trains and buses do run out of the place, after all"

Only up until about 9pm on some routes, and if you miss the last one, well frankly poisoning is better than nearly all the alternatives!

patently said...

I always thought that was implicit in the name 'dangerous chemicals', personally...

Microsoft used to print on its installation CDs the text "Do not make illegal copies of this software", which seemed to be a similarly redundant statement.

Anonymous said...

Seems easy to save money or improve productivity in the Cleveland Police, then dunnit?

Curmudgeon said...

I thought for a minute they'd been eating a chicken parmo, the local "delicacy".

WV = diarremo ;-)

Mrs Erdleigh said...

Dear Lord, chicken parmo looks like the vilest thing ever, reason number 1 not to go to Middlesborough.

Captain Haddock said...

Mrs Erdleigh said ...

"Dear Lord, chicken parmo looks like the vilest thing ever, reason number 1 not to go to Middlesborough" ...

I have vague recollections of depositing something remarkably similar looking in Portsmouth Dockyard, one night, many years ago, after an over-indulgence of Brickwood's Bitter .. ;)

AJ said...

GBL is a very nasty chemical although people take it as it metabolises in the stomach as GHB, the problem with GBL is you have to take a tiny amount literally a few drops out of a dropper in a very large strong soft drink otherwise you will get very ill.

The problem with the ban on all these legal/illegal highs is that people do not then know how to take things safely and end up taking dangerous things. Much better to legalise and educate.

Captain Haddock said...

@ AJ ...

"Much better to legalise and educate" ...

Nah .. much more fun to watch the silly bastards die, by their own hands ..

James Higham said...

Dangerous chemical - hell, I forgot to have my whisky before dinner. Damn.

MTG said...

A spokeswoman from Cleveland Police said: “Officers have now issued a warning to people not to drink Middlesborough tap water as the effect can be extremely harmful or even fatal."

A spokesperson for Hartlepool reactor immediately accused Police of scaremongering. "It is foolhardy to make such toxicological predictions on our tough stock. Without prejudice, Geordie drinking water may or may not cool our reactor for a couple of laps before entering Middlesborough taps but it never did Raoul any harm and just look at Cheryl Coaal's glow."

Anonymous said...

"A Parmo is often accompanied by chips with a salad..."

What's the point in a fucking salad with it?

Curmudgeon said...

I imagine the salad usually gets dumped in the bin, but at least it gives the impression of a nod to healthy eating when you buy the thing.

WV=averbin

JuliaM said...

"...and if you miss the last one, well frankly poisoning is better than nearly all the alternatives!"

:D

"I thought for a minute they'd been eating a chicken parmo, the local "delicacy"."

In that pic, it looks like it's already been eaten. Then regurgitated.

"The problem with the ban on all these legal/illegal highs is that people do not then know how to take things safely and end up taking dangerous things. "

People are going to get high no matter what. And we've enough problems with existing illegal drugs, without driving them to take more outré substances...

"What's the point in a fucking salad with it?"

As Curmudgeon points out, clearly it's camouflage for the real substance you're pushing down your throat...

David Gillies said...

Shows how long I've been out of the UK: when I read the headline I thought, "why is Julia blogging a story about a city in Ohio?"