Fears party pill ban may lead youngsters to harder drugs

PARTY pill customers will likely go to hard drugs once BZP drugs are banned, retailers said yesterday.
"The comments we've been having are 'O well, I'll just have to go back to the real stuff", Phil Sutherland, who manages United Video, said.
Kamla Jasmat, of East Side Superstore, said she thinks if the Government bans BZP products "I suppose & the teenagers, the 18 to 25s, will go to drugs".
The party pills or herbal highs have names like Ice Diamonds, billed as "intense energy P alternative", and Red Hearts, "energised, twisted and elevated ecstasy alternative".
Charge is another common product, and one of the more interesting names is Crakaphat, for "male potency".
Aside from the younger age group, Mrs Jasmat said shift workers and women at home buy the pills, "a few ladies, rundown with the children and the housework".
"It's really sad to see it go, Mrs Jasmat said, "Not for us, because we don't sell that much of it, but for the customers who take it more for energy than a good time."
Mr Sutherland said, unlike with illegal drugs, he hasn't seen any "addictive nature" to the party pills, which have been sold at the business since 2004.
"It's cheaper and you haven't got your kids driving down to the dealer's house," he said.
"I think I'd rather have my kids trying this stuff. You get that white powder and you don't know what's in it.
"I think it's a shame that we have these things forced on us by politicians looking for votes, as when you give up any sort of freedom really, freedom of choice."
Mr Sutherland said "anyone over 18" buys the party pills, and for different reasons. "We've got a large clientele of slimmers and shift workers, who use it mainly to keep them awake. They keep you awake and suppress your appetite."
Mr Sutherland said "everyone's guessing" when the ban will take effect, but he thought it might be about Christmas by the time the law was changed.
"We've kind of been anticipating it ... We've been buying a lot less for the last six months, keeping stock levels low."
"When we first got into it, we were one of the first and it was our biggest sales, comparable to cigarettes. The novelty's worn off.
Mr Sutherland believes publicity surrounding the upcoming ban might increase sales again, however. "When it was last in the news, sales went up, and I guess sales will go up between now and Christmas."
Any new party pill products without BZP in them would have to be proven safe first, making them "hard to sell".
"And yet (the party pill industry) hasn't killed anybody, and you can still sell alcohol and cigarettes. I guess this is the sort of industry that's small enough, isn't it, that the Government can just come in and chop it. Alcohol and tobacco are too big, with too many lobbyists."
In the end, however, Mr Sutherland is philosophical, saying he had been expecting the ban for some time.
"From a retailer's point of view, there are always other things to sell. If we don't like the choice we can always go and live in Morocco or something like that, live in Amsterdam. If we want to live in New Zealand we've got to live by the politicians' rules."