NEW PILLS DEVELOPED TO SKIRT BAN

A new "generation" of party pills much stronger than those soon to be
banned is already being developed to get around the new laws.

And the Government's looming party-pill ban has sparked a frenzy of
sales, with users stockpiling their stashes and stores selling out
within minutes of the law change being passed in Parliament.

The law classified the active ingredients in party pills, which
includes benzylpiperazine (BZP), 3-Trifluoromethyl phenylpiperazine
(TFMPP) and four similar substances, as Class C drugs -- the same as
cannabis.

While retailers can no longer sell pills from April 1, an amnesty on
personal consumption gives users until September 1.

Christchurch-based supplier Wize Marketing is already advertising "new
and exciting" non-BZP based pills, which it says have a 100 per cent
"satisfaction guarantee".

The company's website says some of its new products are "much stronger
formula than BZP-based products".

Wize Marketing head Geoff Percy said the company planned to release 22
new varieties, which it had imported from overseas on April 1.

"I can see there's money to be made. I'm not going to hide that."

He believed the pills, which contained caffeine, guarana and "other
different chemical ingredients", were safe, and welcomed testing of
the new tablets.

In Christchurch, party-pill users are also stocking up on the
synthetic highs before they are made illegal.

However, at least one city shop is closing and turning to fish and
chips.

The Lab party pill shop manager Adam Tuatara said the store in
Manchester Street would close and reopen as a fish and chip shop after
the Government move to ban pills containing BZP.

Tuatara said he had trialled non-BZP party pills and found they did
not have the same effect, so decided to get out of the business.

"People who do herbals, they want something to hit them fast, that's
the buzz.

"They won't find it in those ones," he said.

The closing down sale had attracted a week's worth of customers in one
day yesterday, he said.

"People are stocking up. Sales have gone through the roof."

He was unsure what to do with leftover stock after April 1.

"We could throw it away or, if they ask us to surrender it, maybe
they'll reimburse us," he said.

Christchurch party-pills user Trish said she would start stockpiling
pills while they were cheap and still legal.

She said the law change would probably not stop her using BZP.

"BZP is affordable so just the cost of it becoming illegal will make
it undoable." Trish said she had never experienced bad effects from
the pills and felt if used responsibly they were not harmful.

Her friend, who asked not to be named, said she had never tried party
pills before.

She had decided to buy BZP powder when she heard they were becoming
illegal.