China drug offer a shock to dad
It was an image that chilled Rod Bridge and reinforced the importance of his campaign against synthetic drugs.
On his computer screen was a photograph of a small bag supposedly containing the same synthetic LSD that killed his teenage son Preston 18 months ago.
Accompanying the photo was an email with an offer that the sample could be sent to him from China in just four days as soon as he paid the fee.
Mr Bridge was sent the email after contacting one manufacturer and posing as a potential buyer during a recent trip to China.
He was gravely concerned by the company's claims that it had several clients in WA and Australia was one of its main markets for the synthetic hallucinogenic known as 25inBome.
The sales contact also boasted that they could mask the drugs to avoid detection by authorities.
"If somehow it did get seized or confiscated, they were more than happy to send it to me again for free to a different address and a different name," Mr Bridge said.
"It was scary. You have someone in a country supplying a drug that's illegal in Australia and the person I was speaking to had no idea who I was but was happy to give me information.
"They were fully aware over there that supplying a synthetic drug to Australia was quite illegal . . . but they assured me that it was fine."
Mr Bridge was shocked an internet search had turned up dozens of medical research companies selling synthetic drugs, which were apparently legal to manufacture in China.
If the email correspondence was what it seemed, the company could supply 88 different synthetic substances - which mimic the effects of illicit drugs such as cocaine, ecstasy, acid and amphetamines - to buyers around the world.
Mr Bridge has passed all the information to Federal police.
Preston Bridge suffered catastrophic injuries when he fell while jumping from a balcony to a fence at a Scarborough hotel in February last year.
He and his friends took synthetic LSD at a school ball afterparty after a classmate bought it for $2 a "tab" from the black market website Silk Road. Mr Bridge said it did not get any easier to cope with his son's death but believed he might help save other lives by being open about what happened.
He is enlisting the support of the community to set up the Sideffect Foundation to educate teenagers about the deadly risk of experimenting with synthetic drugs and how they can destroy lives and families.
He is hoping for crowdfunding to set up the foundation.
To contribute, visit ozCrowd.com/ sideffect
