HERBAL HIGHS AND LOWS

'Herbal highs" - the latest respectable guise of the recreational drug
scene - may not be particularly herbal, but they are obviously good
business, writes The Press in an editorial.

There is clearly money to be made from them, and the absence of regulation
has opened the way for any ethical and moral shortcomings of the trade to
be waived in the interests of that profit potential. Christchurch in
particular is seeing the emergence of some dubious practices around the
dealing in substances which are blatantly offered as low-strength
alternatives to such illegal drugs as Ecstasy and amphetamines.

While it would be foolish to become hysterical - or to even be much-alarmed
- - about what is simply another chapter in some people's never-ending search
for new ways of artificial stimulation, it would be stupider to continue to
turn a blind-eye to the trade.

Letting this business carry on down an unregulated path is fraught. Jim
Anderton's suggestion of a new measure under the Misuse of Drugs Act to
allow basic restrictions on the sale and supply of these legal highs seems
the most appropriate response.

Herbal highs (the name is largely a misnomer - the key ingredient in the
products currently under the spotlight is usually not herbal at all, but a
synthetic form of a pepper plant derivative known as benzylpiperazine or
BZP) have developed a large and enthusiastic following in a relatively
short few years, coat-tailing on the 1990s' drug-powered dance culture.
From being the preserve of head-shops fewer than five years ago, they can
now be found for sale in corner dairies, service stations, liquor stores,
suburban malls, even a central Christchurch magic shop.

The industry's own figures suggest five million BZP-based doses have been
consumed in New Zealand in "recent years"; another estimate is that 1.5
million of those were manufactured in this country last year. The raw
ingredient is reportedly imported cheaply from China and India for
packaging and re-selling here at a vastly-inflated premium.

The marketing claims which help drive the enthusiastic reception for the
stuff range from the amusingly banal to the eyebrow raising (such as one
brand being offered as a crutch for amphetamine addiction).

Despite the inescapable conclusion that BZP products offer the
impressionable young yet another signal that the illicit drug market is
cool, they enjoy a degree of public forbearance. Only reports that some
users are suffering serious health effects have triggered any obvious concern.

While those reports have been unsubstantiated - it is unclear, for example,
whether the victims had been taking other drugs when the reactions occurred
- - the evidence is mounting rather than diminishing, that BZP can be a
factor in serious health damage.

Yet this substance enjoys unfettered availability and is being offered in
ever-stronger forms.

It is classified as a dietary supplement, but any consequence that may
carry is practically useless: BZP can be sold without advice, to any age
group, with no safety or quality control.

When this regulatory impotence is mixed with the stuff's outlandish
drug-inspired marketing, its growing strength, its mounting street cachet
and exorbitant prices, two outcomes seem inevitable: heightened health
risks to users, and the involvement of low-life who will exploit the ease
with which BZP can be flogged off to the gullible and unwary with no
concern for the consequences.

A group of industry operators has developed an intended code of conduct for
the products to avoid such scenarios.

It urges, in essence, a more socially responsible approach to the business.

As laudable as this is, they would seem to have no hope of convincing the
cowboys to join their voluntary stance.

Rather, some regulatory oversight is needed.

Anderton's proposal is for a new schedule in the Misuse of Drugs Act which
could control such aspects as the legal age of purchase, labelling, and the
supply and sale of the products - similar, perhaps, to the controls on
tobacco and alcohol.

It seems reasonable, hardly an over-reaction that will drive the business
underground, and could offer some teeth against those tempted to
unconscionably exploit the market. Importantly, it offers a way of
capturing future products which will inevitably emerge as BZP's lustre dims
in the recreational drug scene.

Anderton himself has ambitiously suggested the new schedule could also
cover butane-propelled aerosols and other solvents which do enormous harm
amongst a small number of young abusers.

While again, the intention is laudable, that would seem to be an
overly-optimistic challenge, and should not be allowed to side-track the
case for putting legal highs in their rightful place - not outside the law,
necessarily, but firmly within it.