DOCTOR WARNS OF PARTY PILL DANGER

Another New Zealand emergency department is speaking out about the
toxic dangers of party pills, echoing the growing concerns of
Christchurch doctors.

Waikato Hospital emergency physician Dr Tonia Nicholson studied 1043
people presenting to the emergency department and found up to 30 per
cent of 14 to 25-year-olds had taken party pills.

Most had also been drinking alcohol and more than one-third had taken
more pills than recommended by the manufacturers.

Nicholson said people were at risk of poisoning from the pills
because many did not read instructions, took more than recommended
and drank alcohol at the same time.

Christchurch Hospital emergency medicine specialist Dr Paul Gee, who
has himself researched and spoken out against party pill use, said he
was not surprised by the high percentage of emergency department
patients who had taken the pills.

Christchurch's emergency department regularly saw three or four
teenagers a week with side-effects of anxiety, panic attacks, racing
heart-rate, hallucinations, headache and vomiting, he said. Several
people had been admitted having seizures after taking the pills. Gee
said repeat users often took more pills than recommended as they
needed increasingly high doses to get the same affect. For the same
reason, he said it could be a gateway to harder drugs. "It's not much
of a reach to go on to harder things. It actually does affect the
areas in the brain that are responsible for attachment and dependence."

Gee said he was concerned the pills were being taken by "otherwise
regular law-abiding good kids who would otherwise not be drug users".

Last year's law change, which meant party pills could only be sold to
those aged 18 and over, had not been effective, Gee said. "People as
young as 14 are getting hold of and using them. Even up to 20 per
cent to 30 per cent of people we see are under age."

Eighty-five per cent of people in Nicholson's study, which will be
published in tomorrow's edition of Emergency Medicine Australasia,
reported feeling effects from the pills, but only half described
those effects as good.

The main active ingredient in party pills, which are sold under brand
names such as Jump, Rapture, The Good Stuff and Charge, is
benzylpiperazine, a central nervous system stimulant that mimics the
effects of speed.

"They result in euphoria and a heightened level of awareness, and
have therefore become popular on the dance scene as they make people
feel good, and keep them awake so they can dance all night,"
Nicholson said.

However, she said the pills could also produce a fast heart rate,
high blood pressure and in excess could cause cardiac toxicity,
hallucinations and seizures.

"The long-term effects of regular ingestion, particularly in
combination with alcohol, are unknown," she said.