HARD TO SWALLOW

New party drug may be coming to P.G. Just because it's legal doesn't
make it safe. New party pills are showing up on the Canadian
late-night scene, and authorities have no laws to stop them - yet.
There are attempts underway to make them illegal but the company
behind the pills - Purepillz - is arguing that they are not
addictive and they could act as a safer alternative to black market
drugs.

They are most common in Toronto, but this week Purepillz was in
Vancouver at the Taboo Sex Show marketing their wares. They were
trying to attract B.C. retail stores to sell their "social tonic"
pills, which go by names like Freq, Peaq, Rush and Flow.

"It is an uphill battle in the east but in the west there seems to be
more open-mindedness that hey, things aren't working here, addiction
is running wild, so lets do something to help stop that," said Adam
Wookey, spokesman for Purepillz told The Citizen. "The Controlled
Drugs and Substances people at Health Canada seem very open minded
but the main body of Health Canada seems to have a political agenda,
so it may not be a Health Canada thing at all, it might be an agenda
from the politicians over the scientists and drug experts. They want
to put a stigma on this, they aren't interested in seeing harm
reduction. You've got to wonder why BZP is being targeted."

BZP is short for benzylpiperazine, one of the active ingredients in
the so-far legal drugs. Another main component is
3-trifluoromethylphenylpiperazine (3-TFMPP). In different
combinations these pills basically cause prolonged energy bursts and
hallucinations. They are frequently used by people who want to
enhance their clubbing and partying experiences, or boost their
sexual experience.

Health Canada issued an official warning to consumers claiming that
these pills may pose serious health risks.

"When BZP and TFMPP are taken together and in high doses they have
been reported to cause hallucinations, convulsions and slowed
breathing," said the statement. "Health Canada is carrying out an
assessment to determine whether it would be appropriate for these
substances to be regulated under the Controlled Drugs and Substances
Act (CDSA). Health Canada has repeatedly asked Purepillz to remove
these products from the market. The company has not complied and
therefore Health Canada is taking enforcement action."

All they can do is seized the product, said Wookey, so the company
has diverted much of its sales to the internet.

He said he believed Canadians who want to take non-addictive drugs to
have a good time ought to be allowed, and if Health Canada wants to
test the effects the company would not only welcome that but
encouraged any scientific research body in Canada to take their
products on as a project. The benefits could literally be the mass
saving of lives, Wookey said, when recreational drug users opt for
their stuff instead of the black market mind melters like crystal
methamphetamines or ecstasy (which often comes loaded with meth anyway).

"That is an interesting marketing strategy," said Dr. Lawrence
Fredeen, a Northern Health specialist in drug reduction programs,
including methadone supplements for heroin addicts. "Anytime you are
targeting teenagers and saying you'll get the same effect with less
harm, that is a pretty dangerous message to put across, as is the
very idea that you should take something mind-altering to have a good
time.

"In high enough doses, any drug can inflict harm," Fredeen said. "It
doesn't have to be addictive to be bad for you. May drugs are abused
that are not addictive. Mushrooms, mescaline, a lot of the drugs
used for sniffing like glues can give you significant hallucinations
and we don't see a pattern of addiction to those. We see patterns of
abuse, however. They can cause significant amounts of damage and
permanent cognitive damage to the brain."

Fredeen also warned that even if these drugs do not induce physical
addiction, there is a very strong danger of psychological addiction.

Veteran addictions counsellor Andrew Burton agreed that this is the
trap these so-called legal drug alternatives pose.

"I'll use alcohol as an example because it has a little less stigma,"
Burton said. "You have people who drink and have no problems and
those who drink and do have problems. What is the purpose of taking
that drink? What is it that you're seeking? Where are you coming
from initially? If you're someone who is trying to open the doors of
perception, they may be able to use this stuff without too much
trouble, but if you have emotional or psychological problems to begin
with, this is not going to help. When you deal with people who use
substances to moderate their feelings or thoughts - 'if I do this
drug I can avoid thinking about this or that' or 'if I do this drug
I'll feel better about fitting in' - that is not a matter of if
that's going to be a problem, that is a matter of when that is going
to become a problem. Your perception of reality had better be pretty
stable to begin with."

Wookey said it was company policy to ask questions of prospective
customers to ensure they were selling only to people who would use
their pills for good times not as a psychological crutch.

"The hell they do," Burton said. "You know the guy's not being
genuine when he comes up with stuff like that. They are doing this to
make money."

Fredeen said "People producing these drugs always try to stay one
step ahead of the regulations. There are several examples of this,
particularly in the States where you get one drug that is banned but
they market the precursor chemicals and outsmart the system that
way, but it still amounts to drug abuse."

While British Columbia police have not yet encountered these
Purepillz products they are bracing for it.

"These are not pharmaceutical-grade pills; there are no quality
controls," said Cpl. Richard De Jong, of RCMP E-Division's drug and
organized crime awareness service. "Anytime the Canadian public is
using a drug of a mood altering nature, we are concerned. And these
drugs do have negative effects and out east it is believed to have
contributed to a death. It was banned in the U.S. in 2002 and other
countries have gotten on board. Health Canada is looking at having it
banned for unregulated use in Canada, too, under the Controlled
Drugs and Substances Act."

These drugs stress out the cardiovascular system, tax neurological
systems and there is little science to understand exactly what all
the effects are. Until that is known, he said, it is not safe for
anyone to take.

Wookey said Purepillz would go on selling the pills as long as they
were allowed to by law, and they hoped science would soon back up
their claims that these drugs were better for you and better for
society than the stuff being secretly sold against the law.