BID TO OUTLAW LEGAL PARTY DRUGS

Health officials are pushing to have some legal party drugs reclassified as
alarm over their use spreads.

The pills, marketed as a legal alternative to amphetamines, landed five
students in Dunedin Hospital last week and have been blamed for the severe
hallucinations three other students experienced at the weekend.

Sold over the counter in clubs, bars, liquor stores and some dairies - and
available 24 hours a day at a Wellington party supply store - they contain
the chemicals benzylpiperazine, or BZP, and trifluromethylphenylpiperazine
(TFMPP). They are outlawed in the United States and some of Australia.

The pills include Rapture, Frenzy, Exodus and Charge.

The Dominion Post understands several are being considered by the
Government's independent expert advisory committee on drugs for inclusion
in the controlled drugs schedule. A recommendation that pills containing
BZP be classified under the Misuse of Drugs Act is expected to go to the
minister responsible for national drug policy, Jim Anderton, soon.

Another potentially lethal party drug, Fantasy or GHB, was made a class B1
controlled drug in 2002 after similar concerns over abuse.

Benzylpiperazine has been used since the 1950s as an agent to rid the bowel
of parasitic worms. It produces increases in heart rate, blood pressure and
body temperature. High doses can induce hallucinations, convulsions and
respiratory depression.

The coordinator of Wellington's Regional Public Health Service's alcohol,
tobacco and other drugs team, Richard Te One, said the long-term effects of
BZP, and its effects in combination with alcohol, were unknown. "That's the
real worry."

It was illegal for licensees to sell or supply drink to an intoxicated
person. If someone appeared to be intoxicated - through taking pills rather
than drinking - licensees could be prosecuted for letting the person stay.

Other government agencies, including Customs and police, had been concerned
about the substances for some time. Customs discussed the issue at an
inter-agency committee of drugs meeting in June.

The acting head of Wellington's organised crime unit, Detective Sergeant
Darrin Thomson, said young people using the substances could end up in
"quite traumatic" situations.

"A lot of these substances affect young people in a far greater way than
they do a mature adult. And of course we have concerns when a number of
substances are taken together."

A spokesman for Cosmic Corner, which stocks the biggest range of "energy"
pills in New Zealand, declined to comment other than to say it had an R18
policy.