PARTY PILL BAN A GREAT MOVE

Jim Anderton's pursuit of making party pills illegal took another step
forward last week with his announcement that Cabinet will back him,
comments the Manawatu Standard in an editorial.

The new laws are likely to be enacted by the end of the year. After
that, people who use products with the stimulant BZP in them will have
a six-month amnesty, but the dealers have to shut up shop selling it
from the date the law comes into force.

This is a great move. It's a positive step for clearing up what has
been a grey area. There's no doubt that party pills are bad for people
and others they interact with, especially if the pill popper's a
driver. They are particularly dangerous when taken with alcohol, which
is probably what happens most of the time.

And there's a good case for saying that party pill popping is an extra
step along the path to drug taking of an even more dangerous kind.
They normalise the idea that taking pills to get the brain zinging and
acting abnormally is an okay and legal thing to do.

Just note how many of the stores selling the party pills use the word
"legal" in their signage and marketing.

Naturally the party pill industry has been loud in its protest against
BZP pills joining cannabis as an illegal substance.

No surprises there. It's a $35-million- a-year industry and there's
nothing like income being threatened to generate an empassioned response.

The pill dealers' best arguments appears to be that outlawing BZP (a
substance by the way developed in the 1940s as a worming agent for
cattle) will drive former users to harder drugs. And anyway, they say,
new products are coming that give the same kick as BZP.

So, you have a warning of consequences and a threat that the banning
will be futile.

This attitude and obvious lack of interest in the well-being of the
consumers is revealing.

Fortunately, there are indications that rules could be drawn up to
make party-pill makers prove their products are not harmful. This
would put a nice red-tape damper on the launch of a new generation of
BZP-free pills.

As for the moving to hard drugs warning - that just indicates that the
link between party pills and harder drugs does exist and there's all
the more reason to ban all of these drugs.

It's a good move. If the Manawatu Standard person of the year and
Street Van coordinator Lew Findlay says they should be banned because
of what he sees on the streets, then that's all the argument you
really need.