POLICE WARN PARENTS ABOUT PARTY DRUGS

Police investigating designer drug Fantasy have extended their warning over its use to partygoers' parents.

Three partygoers took the drug in the toilets at the Power Station nightclub in Auckland at the weekend and were found critically ill in comas. All three recovered in hospital, but police said the powerful drug combined with alcohol could easily have killed them.

Detective Sergeant Mark Kaveney warned parents to be wary of children who said they were going to no-alcohol parties because often designer drugs were substituted with far greater risk.

Taking drugs supplied by someone in the atmosphere of a nightclub was incredibly foolish, he said.

Fantasy is an aphrodisiac that can induce a coma. Its scientific name is gamma hydroxybutyric acid and it is also known as GBH, GHB, or liquid Ecstasy. It can inhibit breathing and trigger seizures and vomiting. The number of deaths it has caused overseas is worrying American authorities.

Mr Kaveney said most people would give the drug a wide berth if they knew what it contained.

"Basically it is degreasing solvent or floor stripper mixed with drain cleaner.

"It is incredible. It is a very dangerous drug and people just don't know."

In a nightclub atmosphere the drug-peddlers could be selling anything, he said.

"You would have to be mad to take anything from anyone when you don't know what it is. They [buyers] may be already drunk from alcohol or drugged from other things. Their inhibitions go and they take almost anything."

He said possessing Fantasy without a prescription was an offence under the Medicines Act. Police had yet to decide if the three partygoers would be charged.