Fantasy damage rising: doctors

By SCOTT INGLIS

Thirty-six people wound up in hospital this year after taking designer drug Fantasy and a related drug - seven more than for the whole of last year.

Of the 36, seven were critically ill and now one has died.

The 29 last year was up on 1999's total of 21.

Doctors warn that the number of admissions will continue skyrocketing and more people will die unless attitudes to the "lethal" drug change.

Auckland Hospital released the figures to the Herald after student Shawn Jacob Brenner, aged 22, died after taking Fantasy on Friday night.

Mr Brenner's death is believed to be the first from the party drug in New Zealand and Australia and comes as the Government considers making it and related drugs illegal under the Misuse of Drugs Act and the Health Ministry steps up its education programme on them.

Paramedics were called to Mr Brenner's Ponsonby home and found his heart had stopped. While they were trying to restart it, other people in the house alerted them to his girlfriend, who had nearly stopped breathing after also taking Fantasy.

Mr Brenner, an Auckland University engineering student and son of prominent gynaecologist Dr Bernie Brenner, died in hospital on Saturday and was buried in Glen Eden yesterday.

Police are investigating.

A family friend, Dr Allan Pelkowitz, described Mr Brenner as a "lovely young guy, very friendly."

"These drugs are quite insidious. I'm quite sure that he would have believed what he was doing was safe."

The hospital figures were for people who had overdosed on Fantasy - which is illegal without a prescription under the Medicines Act - and its counterpart One4B, a dietary supplement containing 1,4 butanediol.

One4B converts into Fantasy - also known as GBH or Liquid Ecstasy - when processed by the body.

The Health Ministry ordered that One4B be withdrawn from sale after four people were admitted to hospital this year after taking it.

The substance 1,4 butanediol is also found in a compact disc and tape cleaning solution called Puretech and is still marketed by a Timaru importer.

Auckland Hospital intensive care specialist Dr Tony Smith said Fantasy and similar drugs "stand out compared with the number of people we see from other joy-inducing substances."

Fantasy is popular among middle to upper-class working people aged from their late teens to early 30s, who party at nightclubs and raves.

It costs at least $35 a dose - up to a third of the cost of its party drug cousin, Ecstasy - and causes effects including euphoria, drowsiness, increased confidence and dizziness.

It can also cause seizures and respiratory collapse.

"We're talking ordinary people," said Dr Smith.

"These are not scumbags, they're not low-lifes, they're not regular drug users."

He said more deaths were inevitable because there was no safe dose. People taking Fantasy were experimenting with their lives.

A colleague, specialist emergency physician Dr Tony Holley, agreed.

"I feel we should be making a bigger effort to reach the people and tell them this stuff is not safe.

"The average punter out there is getting misinformed."

Health Minister Annette King has said the Government plans to make Fantasy and related drugs illegal under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

That process has two more months to go, including an experts panel and a select committee.

Detective Senior Sergeant Colin McMurtrie, head of the Auckland drug squad, said his team had not focused on Fantasy so far because it was not illegal under the Misuse of Drugs Act - but would if there was a law change.

Fantasy's cheap price was working against polic, he said.

"It's cheaper than Ecstasy ... it's half the price. Do the sums; it's got to make it attractive."