Sideffect: A Light Shines Through the Darkness

By Rodney Bridge

February 2013. Perth, Western Australia.

Following his Year 12 school ball, Preston Bridge and his friends consumed synthetic LSD ordered online by a third party through the darknet website Silk Road. Suffering drug-induced psychosis, Preston jumped from a 2nd storey hotel room balcony. Preston lay in hospital in an induced coma and remained on life support for three days before his father Rod and Preston’s mother Vicky made that hard decision to turn off his life support system. What followed was a father’s mission to uncover how his son got his hands on the dangerous research chemical drug. Travelling to China he finds himself at the centre of a dangerous undercover sting operation to expose China’s deadly illegal drug manufacturing and distribution network.

On returning to Australia, Rod continued his mission which resulted in the arrest of 21,000 people in China and the closing down of factories, websites and over 5 million social media outlets throughout the country.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Mar 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669887355

Rodney Bridge

Rodney has been a spokesperson against the supply and manufacturing of the research chemical drug trade and continues to educate the youth of today about the dangers of research chemical and synthetic drugs. Though life went on for Rodney, he could never fully move on from the pain and darkness of losing his son. Today, he takes refuge in the non-profit organization ‘Sideffect Australia’ that he has built in memory of Preston. Rod continues to shine the light on the dangers of research chemicals and illegal drugs with the mission of opening the lines of communication between parents and their children about substance awareness. His latest initiative has been the planning and development of the (Sideffect Gameplan) an online serious game that focuses on better decision making.

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Copyright © 2022 by Rodney Bridge.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Rev. date: 03/11/2022

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FOREWORD

My first contact with Rodney was when he appeared on SafeWork Laboratories’ doorstep over seven years ago and was keen to discuss the make-up and effects of research chemicals and synthetic drugs. At this point, I realized and remembered this person from the news who is the father of a 16-year-old boy who recently lost his life due to synthetic substances. I was quite surprised and impressed with the insight and knowledge that Rod displayed in relation to research chemical drugs. His obvious passion and attention to detail was something which I very much admired. After our many discussions, I wasn’t as much surprised but in awe that Rod had gone undercover to China on a one-man mission to infiltrate the dangerous world of the research chemical drug trade.

On his return from China, I was excited to catch up and continue our discussions on synthetic drugs and the havoc that they play on so many people’s lives. I was amazed at how easy it was for him to get these ‘people’ to potentially sell him large quantities of these types of killer synthetic substances and even more astounded at how young these ‘drug’ dealers actually were; most were in their early twenties. I actually thought that this is a momentous achievement by one man and how someone could not get hurt or killed whist in the dregs of China, gathering all this information, potentially purchasing and having them delivered direct to a postbox, and then travelling and arriving safely back in Australia. The dealers even guaranteed delivery as these types of drugs are pretty much undetectable because they are synthetic; sniffer dogs cannot even pick these substances up. What was even better was that this trip eventually led to the arrests of over 21,000 people, the closing down of websites and factories, the blockage of social media sites, and most importantly the banning of 116 research chemicals from manufacturing and distribution.

As a scientist specializing in the testing of all forms of drugs and synthetic substances, I was more than keen to help Rod enhance his newly formed non-profit organization, Sideffect Australia. He set this organization up to educate the wider community about the dangers of synthetic drugs. I have two teenage children, so these ‘death’ drugs really did spark my interest, and I was very keen to help Rod out wherever I could. And the fact that we had become great mates made it even easier to do so. I was also invited by Rod to go on the TV show 60 Minutes to give my view on the dangers of synthetic substances.

Since Rodney’s return from overseas, he has been vocal about drug education to our youth and has presented to over 155,000 students and parents. This book tells the true story of a young man’s mistake that affected an entire family forever. New drugs are being developed overseas every day and are killing not only our youth but also our culture.

I urge every parent/carer and their children to read this emotional, heartbreaking story, a real ‘David versus Goliath’ moment. It shows what one man can achieve to honour his family and to potentially stop others from going through this sort of heartache.

Tyren Edwards

National Chief Scientist

SafeWork Laboratories – Perth, Western Australia

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The silence of the night was punctured by the continuous typing on the keyboard. Mitchell sneaked a look at the clock and got back to typing on his laptop. He had an ingenuous smirk hanging by the corner of his mouth that gave away his confidence in himself as well as his ability to hit whatever deadline that he had set for himself.

He reached out to the bottle to his left while keeping his eyes glued to the screen. The URL read ‘Silk Road’, and the page was loading. He was gulping down the water like he had been thirsty for weeks and tasted the wetness in his mouth after hours. Well, that happens when you are in this business.

His computer made a ding sound which demanded his attention towards itself. He smiled as he got out of his chair and put his school bag on the bed. After rummaging through it patiently, he finally got his hands on a credit card. He carefully typed all the numbers etched on top of the card including the year and the CVV. The computer prompted another notification. ‘Make payment?’ He clicked on ‘yes’ with a grin and waited for his request to be approved with yearning eyes. The moment the page redirected to another one reading, ‘Payment successful’, he hit his fist in the air as a victorious scream left his mouth. ‘Yes!’

He sat down on his chair and pulled his hoodie up. For the first time in hours, he found himself distracted by a faint sound outside. He went up to his window and heard some music coming from downstairs. No sooner did he open his windows than the music attacked him as a cold breeze. He immediately shut the windows and went for the door.

He slowly made his way over to the ground floor, where he was met with numerous girls and boys, everybody near his age. Some of them were hanging out as a group, some making out on the couch, and a few in their secluded spots. The last section interested Mitchell. With a grin at the corner of his lips, he started approaching them.

Before he could get to the corner of the house, he was met with Benjamin and Marcus. Marcus patted him on the back and said, ‘We were waiting for you to turn up, my man. A party in this town can’t possibly start without you being here.’

Benjamin interrupted and said in a hushed voice, ‘Cut the small talk, Marcus.’

Then Benjamin turned to Mitchell and said in an even lower voice, ‘Tell me, did you get us what we asked for?’

Mitchell laughed and said, ‘Wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t, man. I got something special instead of our usual deal, some fresh Chinese blot. I’m sure it wouldn’t disappoint you, guys. I just got them from the mailbox.’

Marcus pointed at him as he said in an amusing tone, ‘That’s the stuff, bro. That’s the stuff.’

Benjamin joined in and added, ‘Good job, man.’

While the three of the boys kept talking amongst one another, they heard a huge splash in the pool. They turned their heads towards it in an attempt to recognize the person who unapologetically jumped. ‘Could be Preston,’ Mitchell said, squinting his eyebrows.

‘Nope, I’m here,’ a voice said. They turned to the other side to see a six-foot male with moppy brown hair standing in front of them.

He added, ‘Don’t try to figure it out now. You will know which one it is when they come inside as wet as a dog in the rain.’

Marcus jumped at him and said, ‘Ah, my man, Preston, where have you been all this time?’

‘Just standing in the corner, chugging some beer, judging you all silently.’

All of them laughed when Marcus remembered, ‘Bro, you know Bianca? She was saying she has a hotel room booked for all of us after the after party.’

Benjamin quickly prompted, ‘Yeah, you should come with us, Preston.’

Preston pretended to give it a long thought before he said, ‘Yeah, if you insist.’

‘Always pulling something or the other’, Marcus said, shaking his head, before they broke into a fit of laughter.

After a while, they all made their way to the Sun and Moon Resort, where Bianca had a room booked. When the door opened, they saw that the party had already started. Some of them had a bottle of beer in their hands. A couple of people were lying on the ground, and one of them was definitely passed out. As soon as Preston realized that, he went forwards to help them, but he was stopped by Mitchell. ‘Don’t’, he said.

Preston remarked with an offended tone, ‘What do you mean don’t? He is passed out, so I have to help him.’

Mitchell let out a chuckle and said, ‘No, hero, you don’t. He may have passed out, but he will regain his consciousness sometime. As of now, he is in an entirely different world. Let him enjoy. It’ll be okay.’

Unconvinced, Preston said, ‘How do you know that?’

Mitchell pulled out a packet of the Chinese blot and mouthed, I know. He then laid out his stash in the middle of the room, and everybody jumped on it like a bunch of hungry dogs. Preston crossed his arms and rolled his eyes.

Marcus picked up a red blot and stood in front of Preston. ‘Won’t you try, champ?’ he said.

‘Nah, man, I don’t wanna,’ Preston said without looking at him.

Benjamin came forwards and said, ‘Have you ever tried anything like this before?’

Preston shook his head.

Marcus and Benjamin looked at each other and shouted together, ‘Bro, you gotta try this!’

Surprised by their enthusiasm, he was forced to look at them. He paused for a minute and then said, ‘But as I told you before, I don’t want to.’

‘Okay, okay, that’s fine,’ Benjamin blurted out. ‘We won’t force you, but I would still say that you could try it out once since you never have before. Trust me when I tell you it makes you feel a lot of things, and I would really like to emphasize on L-O-T-S O-F T-H-I-N-G-S.’

Preston looked amused as he said, ‘Good job at trying to convince me, but the jury is still out.’

Marcus looked at him with a straight face and raised his eyebrow.

‘Okay, okay, boss,’ Preston said, pretending to be intimidated. ‘I’ll try it out once.’ He went to the stash and hesitantly picked up a packet. He kept staring at it in his hands. He had never tried a drug before, but he did hear about the heavenly feeling that overcame people once they took it. He was tempted to try it, but he was also aware of its addictive nature. A part of him knew that it wouldn’t be the right thing to do, but he would also be lying if he didn’t admit that he was dying to try out what people were so hyped up about.

Lost in his dilemma, he kept staring at the packet in his hands. Marcus broke his trance. ‘What are you so damn lost about, Preston? It’s just a packet of Chinese blots,’ he said as all of them started laughing.

Mitchell came forwards in an attempt to take the packet away from him as he said, ‘If you don’t want it, just give it back to me. I am not left with many, and there are a lot of people who are asking for more.’

Preston moved his hand away. Mitchell raised his eyebrows as he said, impressed, ‘So you do want them.’

Perplexed, Preston said, ‘Yeah, maybe, I don’t know.’

He paused before he said again, ‘All I know is that I am not giving it back to you.’

He stomped off to the balcony. He sat in a corner as he just wanted some silence to himself. There was too much chaos inside. He sat there with his back against the parapet as he made his mind to open the packet. He knew that he was supposed to take it.

Preston wasn’t sure how to take it and wasn’t wanting any attention, so he watched one of the other partygoers consume the drug. From his observation, it looked like you put the blotter under your tongue and wait a few moments. He watched the partygoer with intense anticipation for a few minutes. Preston mimicked the partygoer, placing the blotter under his tongue with extreme anxiety; it was obvious from the expression on his face. He opened his eyes as he blurted, ‘This is it? I don’t feel anything. All this for nothing? Those pretentious pricks.’ He scoffed.

Preston tried standing up, and his head took a gentle spin. He fell on his back where he was sitting a second ago. It hurt, but it didn’t hurt anymore. He felt something cold on his face. Was it the breeze? It could be the breeze. Everything seemed to be confusing noise, and he felt like he was floating. It was so peaceful. He didn’t open his eyes after he fell. He didn’t want to. It was better that way. Suddenly, it hit him. He was in a world that he had never experienced before.

He somehow opened his eyes and started looking around; he was confused. He looked down at the open packet and sighted another blotter; he didn’t care much for it. He was thinking, Why did I do this? What made me surrender so quickly?

He opened his eyes as broad as possible as he said to himself, ‘What would my sister think of me now? I need her by my side.’

He stood up with the help of the parapet and started walking inside. The noise was too much after what felt like heavenly silence. He covered his ears as tightly as possible, but he could still hear muffled voices.

On his way over to Mitchell, Preston felt he hit something against his feet. It was Marcus. He was lying on the ground. Was he passed out? He probably was.

As he was about to help Marcus, Preston heard the sound of somebody vomiting. He looked straight to find the door to the bathroom open. He walked to the doorway to find a girl sitting on the ground, gripping the sides of the toilet as she puked into it. There was vomit in her hair as there was nobody else to help her with it.

When he turned around, he saw that the room wasn’t embodying the energy it had when he had walked in. Most of the people were lying on the ground or sitting on the bed, and half of them weren’t even in their senses. He had forgotten about Mitchell by then. He didn’t want to be here anymore. He wanted to go home.

He started muttering the word ‘home’ as it slowly turned into a sob. He started walking towards the balcony. He looked down. The ground was so far from here. ‘I want to go home,’ he said for the final time as he climbed on the parapet and jumped from there.

Preston woke up, perspiring. He touched his face, pinched his arm, and looked around. ‘It was a dream. It was a dream,’ he assured himself, gasping for breath. He walked up to the mirror and looked at himself. His T-shirt was wet from all the sweat.

He took the T-shirt off and looked at himself. He smirked and whispered, ‘Not bad.’ He reached for a towel and dried himself. He went downstairs and jumped in the pool.

Swimming was something that anchored him to the ground. When he was underwater, holding on to his breath, he felt in control – of his thoughts, his actions, and his life. He needed it today. Jumping into the pool, he didn’t come up. He stayed under for as long as he could. He thought about what he had to do today. After he reached the end of the day, he got up. He removed the water from his face with his hands. He swam from one end to the other, racing against the water while the thoughts were parallelly racing in his mind. He got out of the pool and got himself into dry clothes.

Another thing that helped him collect his thoughts was running. While he ran, he would also have a blank mind. Whenever he needed to get away from the chaos and just let himself be, he would sometimes get in his joggers and go out for a run. In the mornings, he would usually stick to the regular route. Therefore, everybody on that route knew him. As he would pass by, people would wave at him and smile. He would nod. Along with the run, this had also been a part of his regular routine.

He slowed his pace and sneaked a glance at his watch. The entire time, his feet kept running in one place. He smiled as he set to increase his pace again.

He was on the isolated road for a long time before he saw a person standing by a huge pile of garbage. He slowed down again and started running towards him. As he stopped, he gently asked, ‘Hey, do you need any help?’

It was a council worker. Every day when Preston passed by this neighbourhood, the man would already have finished piling all the garbage in his truck, but today not only was he inside the truck but the garbage also lay scattered. He was struggling, and Preston could see it. The man looked up, confused. ‘Huh?’ he said.

Preston came a little closer, and he said, ‘Hi, I was just running by this neighbourhood and—’

‘I know who you are,’ the worker interrupted. ‘I see you run by this neighbourhood every day. What I don’t understand is—’

‘It seemed like you could use some help.’

The man smiled. ‘That’s nice of you to offer, son.’ He paused a little before he added, ‘I happened to have hurt my hand yesterday chopping some wood, and now I can’t pick this damn bag up.’

‘Don’t worry, sir. I will help you with it,’ Preston readily answered. He took a pair of gloves, collected all the garbage bags, and threw them inside the truck.

Then he helped the man get up and told him, ‘It’s all done. Now before I go, I wanted to tell you something else. I wanted to ask you to take a few days off and give your hand some rest, but you know it as well as I do that that’s never going to happen. So I will ask you to wrap a tight bandage around your wrist before you go to work every day. Okay?’

The man laughed. ‘I will keep that in mind, son.’ He kept his eyes fixated on Preston before he added, ‘You are a good kid.’

Preston nodded as he bid him goodbye and set off to complete his run for the day. He entered his house through the back door, where his sister, Aimee, was making breakfast. ‘Did you run an extra mile today or what?’ Aimee jeered at him.

He opened his mouth to explain what happened today, but he stopped and said, ‘Nah, just trying to avoid you as long as possible.’

Aimee rolled her eyes. ‘Ha, ha, very funny, Preston,’ she said with a straight face.

‘Cool, let me help you now,’ he said.

‘Really? All you do is just misplace things and make it harder for me to focus,’ she said, annoyed.

‘C’mon, I have only ever tried to help,’ he said, taking the orange juice out of the refrigerator.

She glared at him. He raised his brows, pointing the glass at her. ‘You can’t deny that,’ he said.

‘Yeah, whatever.’ She diverted her attention to the pancakes in front of her.

Preston jumped on the counter, sipping loudly from his glass of orange juice to annoy Aimee. She gripped the handle of the spatula hard in an attempt to weaponize it. She calmed herself down and then turned to Preston and said with a feigned smile, ‘Why don’t you look at your watch and get a handle of how little time you have left before we leave?’ She dropped her smile and turned towards the gas stove.

He got down from the counter, placed the glass in the sink, and whispered into her ears, ‘Later, loser.’

‘You will wash your own glass after you come back!’ she shouted at him.

He slowly walked into his room and stood in front of the calendar. Today’s date had ‘semi-finals’ written on it. He smiled and moved his fingers through the word before he finally started getting ready for the day. He packed his bags and got dressed in his team colours. He got out of his house and saw Aimee inside the car on the driveway. ‘How are you so damn fast, girl?’ he said, wondering.

‘Probably why I am the older one, and you are the slower one,’ she said without looking at him.

Preston hopped into the front seat and said, ‘That’s cool. Now drive me to my destination, chauffeur.’

Aimee shook her head in disbelief. She turned the engine on, and they left for the field. ‘Preston!’ she called.

On getting his attention, she looked in the rear-view mirror and said, ‘I have brought some pancakes for you. It is in the container on the back seat. Eat it before we reach the field.’

Preston looked at her and smiled. ‘Sometimes you are not as douchey as you pretend to be, you know.’

She smiled and nodded, looking at the mirror.

Preston took the container in his hands and stuffed an entire pancake inside his mouth. ‘I didn’t even know I was so hungry,’ he said with a mouthful of food. He turned to his sister. ‘These are amazing, Aimee.’

‘Thanks. Now eat all of them,’ she said.

Preston stayed silent for some time before he said, ‘You know what happened today?’

‘No, but I will know when you tell me after you have finished eating your breakfast.’

He quickly finished everything that there was in the container and drank half the water from the bottle. ‘Now will you listen to me?’

She laughed and said, ‘Yeah, tell me.’

‘So I was running by this neighbourhood, and there was this old council worker who couldn’t lift the garbage because he had somehow hurt his hand. So I went forwards and helped him compile all the bags and threw them in the truck.’ After pausing for some time, he said, ‘It felt good, you know.’ As he turned to look at Aimee, he saw that she was already looking at him with proud eyes.

‘That’s why you were late this morning?’ Aimee enquired.

‘Mm-hmm’, he said, looking out the window.

She put her hand on top of his, which made him turn from the window and look at the hand first and then at her. She said, ‘You are a good kid, Preston, and I am really proud of you.’

He nodded as he gave a half-smile.

They looked at the front to realize that they were stuck in