DANCE PARTY DRUG FANTASY WILL BE BANNED

Parliament moved to ban the dance party drug Fantasy yesterday with the
introduction of an order to classify the Fantasy range of drugs as Class B
under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975.

Associate Health Minister Tariana Turia said the move was the next step in
making it illegal for individuals to possess, produce, manufacture, sell,
supply, import or export the dangerous substance.

Fantasy is the common name for a range of drugs, including gamma
hydroxybutyrate (GHB), 1,4 butanediol, (1,4-B) and gamma-butyrolactone
(GBL). The substances depress the central nervous system. Small doses have
a relaxant effect, producing short-term amnesia, while slightly higher
doses can put people to sleep, stop people breathing and cause seizures and
coma.

"A number of people have been hospitalised after taking Fantasy. I want to
re-emphasise my previous messages that people need to realise that with
these drugs there is a fine line between achieving the effect the drug
taker is seeking, and having an overdose with potentially serious
consequences," she said.

Early this week Health select committee chairwoman Judy Keall said members
had recommended the classification on the advice of a committee of experts,
including police and customs representatives and a psychiatrist.

Emergency department doctors are treating a rising number of overdoses.

Auckland student Shawn Jacob Brenner, 22, died last April of an overdose,
and in December two men and a woman, all in their early 20s, were taken to
hospital after taking fantasy at a dance party.

The drug is also believed to be responsible for a number of drink-spiking
incidents.

In Hamilton, there have been 17 reported cases in bars since November and
police are investigating five rape complaints as a result.

Fantasy's classification as class B under the Misuse of Drugs Act1975
allows police to search without a warrant and carries penalties of up
fourteen years' jail for importing, manufacture or supply, ten years' jail
for conspiracy to commit an offence and three months' jail or a $500 fine,
or both, for possession.

Green MP Nandor Tanczos was the only member of the cross-party select
committee to object to the classification. He wanted fantasy classified B2,
which attracts the same penalties as the B1 classification but means police
need a warrant to search for the drug.