FATAL PARTY DRUG IN NZ

Christchurch: A potentially fatal variant of the drug ecstasy has hit the
New Zealand drug scene.

The drug contains PMA (paramethoxyamphetamine), which has been linked to a
number of deaths overseas.

PMA, a stimulant, is said to be 20 times more powerful than amphetamines
and causes hallucinations.

The National Drug Intelligence Bureau confirmed the drug appeared to have
reached New Zealand streets in small quantities.

Police in Dunedin said, when contacted, they were not aware of the drug
having yet reached the city.

Detective Sergeant Tony Quayle said the drug, known on the street as Double
Stacked, was difficult to distinguish from ecstasy and was probably being
sold as the same drug.

"People may have had experience with ecstasy in the past and think this is
the same but each time they take an ecstasy tablet . . . they are taking an
unknown drug," he said.

It was often sold as a thick white tablet and was also known as Chicken
Yellow or Chicken Fever.

The United States Drug Enforcement Agency said while "ecstasy is bad, PMA
is death".

It had killed at least six people in Florida since July.

Police there said the drug raised victims' temperatures so high the central
nervous system burnt out.

A 19-year-old American woman, who died in August after taking the drug,
reportedly had a temperature of 40degC five hours after she died.

New Zealand has had two ecstasy-related deaths since 1998.