PARTY-PILL DEMAND SLUMPS

Demand for legal party pills is drying up as users get sick of the
side effects, retailers say.

The popularity of the pills was declining dramatically, Queenstown
and Wanaka bar and off-licence owner Al Spary said at a public
meeting this week.

"Sales of them are heading south at a very steep rate. Regardless of
what Government does, the demand has dried up for it by the public. I
wouldn't have thought they will even be an issue in the next year or two."

The Government is considering banning the sale of products containing
benzylpiperazine (BZP), the stimulant found in most legal party pills
which is also used as a cattle drench.

Play It Again music store manager Kenny Frisby said he was
experiencing the same trend at the Queenstown and Invercargill stores
he managed.

Most people were over taking the pills and the hangover-like
headaches they caused, he said.

"It was all very cool at the time to have something reasonably cheap
and legal that you could get a bit of a high from but it costs the
next day," Frisby said.

The shop had been selling party pills since 2001. They peaked in
popularity in 2004, but sales dropped by 20 per cent in 2005 and by
another 50% last year.

"Dropping at that rate, none of us care if they do get banned.
There's definitely no money in them," he said.

But while interest from New Zealanders had waned, international
visitors were intrigued by the products and continued to buy them, Frisby said.

Social Tonics Association of New Zealand (Stanz) chairman Matt Bowden
said nationwide sales of party pills appeared to have peaked in the past year.

"Whenever there's something new in society a lot of people want to
try it out. After that happens it settles down into normal usage."

There had also been a decrease in party pill users going to hospital
emergency departments. Bowden attributed that to people becoming
better educated and understanding the limits of what they should take.

The owner of Queenstown's only specialist party pill retailer, Brent
Adamson, said his sales were similar to last year.

His shop had retained sales because specialist staff were able to
offer appropriate products after talking to customers and it
manufactured its own products, he said.