Kids sent home high on party pills

A new wave of legal party pills has crept its way into Whangarei secondary schools, with the parents of two teenagers asked to take their children home after they arrived for class high on the substances.
Whangarei police campus cop Senior Constable Hank Van Engelen said two local secondary school students aged between 14-15 had been so wasted on the pills, their parents were called and asked to collect them. "Over the last two or three months parents and schools have been telling me about students going to school stoned on a legal high. They're not illegal, and I'm not sure whether Parliament is dealing with it."
A seller of the pills, Rob Allen, manager of Cactus Liquor in the Regent, Whangarei, said the issue came down to personal responsibility.
The law was clear that party pills and synthetic marijuana should only be sold to people aged over 18 and the instructions should be followed.
The store's owner Zoe Baird said the current selection of party pills took six months to come on the market after the BZP-based pills were banned in 2008.
"The BZP pills provided a legal and safe way to give people what they wanted and lots of customers went back to illegal drugs at that time [of the ban]," Ms Baird said.
The pills claimed to mimic Class A drugs like ecstasy and speed, but in reality made you feel wide awake. The pills had names such as Fuel, Avionic, Kaotic and Kinetic.
Ms Baird said the substances weren't mind altering, but too many could make people ill.
"It gives you a high energy boost that doesn't make you want to steal TVs and break into homes."
Users of the pills included people wanting extra energy at work, people going to the gym, and women in their 50s wanting a boost for their child's 21st or a wedding.
Mr Allen said Cactus Liquor was selling only a small proportion of pills compared with before the BZP ban - a bigger seller was "synthetic marijuana", with names like Rasta Ganja, Kronic and Dream.
Mr Allen said it was unfortunate students were taking the legal highs at school but it was natural for young people to experiment.
"They're there for mature people and by the time you're 18 you should have a modicum of common sense."
If Cactus Liquor employees felt someone was buying on behalf of an underage person, or abusing the products, they wouldn't be served.
A Ministry of Health spokesperson said in New Zealand, the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 contains controlled drug analogue provisions whereby any substance that is substantially similar in chemical structure to any controlled drug is illegal by default. That meant that a number of substances traded as so called "legal highs" in other jurisdictions such as the substances mephedrone or naphyrone (also known as "NRG-1") were illegal and not able to be sold in New Zealand.
However, occasionally, substances with a unique chemical structure were not covered by these provisions and some were traded locally as legal highs.
"The Government is concerned that such products are able to be sold without their sponsor first having to demonstrate that they are safe," the spokesperson said.