DON'T CHARGE BY HINDSIGHT

Until a couple of weeks ago, the stimulant benzylpiperazine (BZP)
seems to have scarcely been on the radar of Canadian authorities.
After the death earlier this month of a 55-year-old Toronto man who
may have ingested the substance in a product called Pure Rush,
government and police are now paying attention. But rather than
simply looking forward to prevent any future misuse, they appear
overzealous to make up for lost time.

The dangers of BZP are open to dispute. Although less risky than
party drugs such as ecstasy, for which it is marketed as a "natural"
alternative, it can cause an array of side effects - among them
nausea, changes in body temperature and insomnia. It has been linked
to at least two fatalities, neither of them in this country, but in
those instances it was mixed with illegal narcotics; there was no
evidence of its being the sole cause of death.

Several other countries, including the United States and Australia,
have seen fit to ban BZP outright. While that may prove further than
Canada needs to go, it is reasonable and appropriate that Health
Canada is now considering its options. If it does not place BZP on
the list of controlled substances, as it is reportedly considering,
it should provide regulation that is now lacking - at the very least
ensuring that products containing it are affixed with warning labels
and placing conditions on its sale.

Much less reasonable are attempts to retroactively apply a standard
that does not yet exist. On Monday, Toronto police suggested that
distributors of BZP-laced pills may face criminal charges. "We are in
consultation with the federal Department of Justice and Health
Canada, and we believe there is an offence under the Food and Drug
Act," Detective John Margetson said, referring to a ban on the sale
of substances that are purportedly safe and natural but are in fact harmful.

If so, that would be a dubious manner of imposing justice. It is not
yet known if BZP played a role in the man's death, and the extent to
which it did may not be clear even after toxicology reports have been
completed. Regardless, BZP was a legal substance at the time he
obtained it. And although Health Canada has now requested that the
distributor Purepillz cease selling products containing it, no such
edict seems to have gone out before the death occurred.

Since BZP has been used recreationally for more than a decade, it
should perhaps have come under scrutiny sooner. But that was not the
mistake of its distributors, and they should not be punished for it.