AFTER CLUB-GOER'S DEATH, HEALTH CANADA LOOKS AT BZP

Beneath glass counters in stores throughout Toronto and online,
"natural" drugs promising legal ecstasy-simulating highs like the one
that killed a 55-year-old man last week are openly sold.

Their packaging is colourful and welcoming, depicting green
butterflies, smiling dancers and bright neon letters promising a
safer, legal "strong euphoric effect."

But some contain benzylpiperazine, or BZP, a stimulant linked to
several fatal drug interactions in Europe that has crossed the
Atlantic and landed in Canadian stores.

The man who collapsed at the Guvernment, a downtown club, and later
died, had ingested a product advertised as natural ecstasy called
Pure Rush. Police did not release his name.

Two capsules of Pure Rush can be purchased online for $20 at
PurePillz.ca. The site also sells three other types of pills that
contain BZP and lists dozens of locations across the country where
the pills are sold. The listed ingredients for Pure Rush include an
amino acid blend, B vitamins and 105 milligrams of BZP.

Although BZP has been banned in the United States and was declared a
controlled substance by the European Union in March, it can be sold
legally in Canada. According to a spokesperson for Health Canada,
however, no companies are authorized to sell BZP in Canada, and the
agency made a request to PurePillz on July 2, shortly after the man's
death, to stop distribution of BZP-laced products. "The matter
remains under review," the spokesperson said.

The Toronto Raver Info Project, a harm-reduction and drug-education
program, received a report several months ago of BZP sold in a shop
in North York as "herbal ecstasy" that induced an "uncomfortable"
physical reaction.

According to Rob Connell, TRIP's project co-ordinator, herbal ecstasy
became popular in the 1990s as part of the "smart drug" fad that
embraced legal herbal alternatives to popular illicit substances.
Herbal ecstasy contained ephedrine until the latter - a derivative of
a Chinese herb - was found to cause cardiac damage and was banned for
use as a diet drug or stimulant.

The label "herbal" or "natural" may give consumers a misplaced sense
of security, according to Joe Schwarcz, director of McGill
University's Office for Science and Society in Montreal. "Just
because it's natural doesn't mean it's safe, but that's what people
think," he said.

Some products sold as herbal ecstasy contain only caffeine, black
pepper extract and B vitamins that would only be harmful in the case
of a severe allergic reaction to pepper, he said.

Others contain a psychoactive herb called Salvia divinorum, which was
also found for sale in stores in Toronto. Erowid, an extensive online
database for recreational drug users, calls the herb a potent
"divinatory psychedelic" whose "effects are considered unpleasant by
many people."

All these substances can be sold legally in Canada.