ONE4B A DANGER

One4b can induce euphoria, help users lose weight without exercising,
reduce wrinkles, heighten orgasm, reduce hair growth and eliminate
cellulite. It can also cause dangerously low respiratory rates,
unconsciousness, vomiting, seizures and death. It depends on who you listen
to. The first from an Auckland-based company distributing the product, the
second from the United States Federal Drug Administration, which has banned it.

It is in the news here because four young men were admitted to hospital
over one weekend, three of them in comas. The danger they were in depends,
again, on who you talk to. The St John Ambulance spokeswoman, on the first
two victims: "They were status one which is critical - the next step after
that is death". Or distributor Mark Barlow: "The comatose state in which
the men were taken to hospital was a natural effect of the drug. It could
produce a three-to-five-hour deep sleep from which users were unwakeable".

Which side to place more faith in is obvious, and it is pleasing that the
Ministry of Health has acted so quickly in calling in all supplies while it
investigates.

The distributors of the substance have some explaining to do. While 1,4
butanediol is legal and used in industrial solvents, the way it has been
marketed highlights its euphoric properties as a drug. The Auckland
company, Outerspace, was selling One4b as a dietary supplement, but three
of the four comatose men were at nightclubs when they overdosed, and their
aim was not to lose a lot of weight in a hurry.

In Timaru a company advertising itself as suppliers of legal highs has been
selling a record, CD and head cleaning solution called Puritech which
contains 1,4 butanediol. When reformulated it is sold in sachets as One4b,
but because it is being used to get high, because of the ease of overdosing
and because of the possibility it could kill, it was proper for the
authorities to step in.

Outerspace may argue the dangers of One4b are no different to those of
aspirin or even glue if someone is of a mind to ignore warnings, but those
products have a proven worth and are on the whole properly used.

That is not the case with One4b. People should not end up in hospital
because they have supposedly gone on a diet.