PARTY PILL OVERDOSES JUMP, BUT STILL 'RARE'

Party pill overdoses have increased sharply, but are rare compared
with other drug overdoses and tend to happen when mixed with alcohol
or other narcotics, new research suggests.

A study in today's New Zealand Medical Journal analysing three years
of overdose data from Auckland City Hospital comes as the anxious
parents of a Greymouth DJ who collapsed after taking party pills at a
dance party wait to see if he will be left with permanent damage.

Ben Rodden, 23, is in an induced coma in Christchurch Hospital.

Tests show he had consumed benzylpiperazine (BZP), the main
ingredient in party pills, and caffeine. He had also been drinking
beer before he collapsed, shaking uncontrollably, early Sunday morning.

His mother, Wendy Rodden, said yesterday he could also have taken a
party pill containing traces of the class A drug ecstasy.

The new survey, by researchers Lynn Theron, Karl Jansen and Jennifer
Miles, found that in 2004, 21 people arrived at Auckland City
Hospital having overdosed on party pills such as Frenzy, Rapture, or Charge.

That was up from four overdoses the previous year and just one in 2002.

But despite that "significant increase", 21 overdoses in a year was
small when compared with the estimated 200,000 tablets consumed each
month, they said.

Overall, party pills ranked as the fourth most common identified
cause of overdoses in 2004, behind alcohol (60.9 per cent),
fantasy/GHB (6.4 per cent) and amphetamines (3.7 per cent).

"These results lead towards a conclusion that the impact on the
emergency department over these years was relatively small," the
researchers concluded.

In 81 per cent of cases, alcohol or another drug - including ecstasy,
P, nitrous oxide, and cannabis - had also been taken.

The most common complaints were anxiety, palpitations, nausea and
vomiting. The most common treatment was simply reassuring the patient.

Others were treated with intravenous fluids or given Diazepam for anxiety.

Only one patient - who took three pills and nine drinks of alcohol
and had reflux gastritis - was admitted.

The research contrasts with a similar study from Christchurch in 2005
that showed a 50 per cent admission rate and a 15 per cent seizure
rate for party pill overdoses.

Matt Bowden, of the Social Tonic Association, said the pills
available in Christchurch at that time were more potent than in
Auckland, where the industry was self-regulating more effectively.

Mr Bowden said the survey was evidence that adverse effects from
party pills could be minimised if the industry was regulated rather
than shut down.