Legal party drugs facing ban

By JULIE MIDDLETON

Party pills derived from pepper plants could be made illegal if an expert committee meeting on Friday decides they are dangerous.

The "herbal highs" under investigation by the independent Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs, a heavyweight group of police, Customs, health and drug experts, are legal and their use is soaring. All are central nervous system stimulants that cause an adrenalin-type rush.

The widely sold pills go by names such as Nemi, Charge, Euphoria, Rapture, Blast, Exodus and Frenzy.

A dose - which can be more than one pill - costs about $40. Some, such as Exodus, are sold with an R18 warning and most warn against mixing with alcohol.

They contain benzylpiperazine and trifluromethylphenylpiperazine, substances derived from pepper plants which can also be produced synthetically, says Dr Bob Boyd, the chairman of the advisory committee and the Food Standards Australia-New Zealand Authority chief medical adviser. Pills with these pepper-derived chemicals have been illegal in the United States since 2002 and are illegal in two Australian states.

Five young people were taken to hospital in Dunedin this month, apparently after overdosing on party pills. Side-effects include heart palpitations, increased blood pressure and increased body temperature. In extreme cases, piperazines can cause hallucinations and convulsions.

The head of the police national drug intelligence bureau, Detective Inspector Gary Knowles, a member of the committee, has been quoted as saying that it is of "grave concern to me that these pills are being labelled as a natural high, when people taking them have no way of really knowing what's in them and what they could do to them".

He adds that police have their "radar focused on the drug".

Customs official Jules Lovelock says that border staff note increased commercial importation of piperazines, and say some are marketed as legal substitutes for class A and B drugs.

The advisory committee provides expert advice to the Associate Minister of Health, Jim Anderton, who then decides whether to recommend to the Governor-General that a substance be classified.

If he does, the issue goes to the Cabinet, a select committee and Parliament.

Dr Boyd says the meeting this week will also investigate reclassifying amphetamine on the Misuse of Drugs Act schedule that classifies illicit drugs.

Dance-floor view: Rather these than P

THE PILL-MAKERS

Manufacturers and distributors of pepper-related party pills are against a ban, saying their products are safe and fulfil a need.

Some P-using customers have been switching to herbal highs, says a director of Velocity Distribution on Auckland's North Shore, the company which distributes the New Zealand-made Euphoria.

A manager of the Frenzy and Exodus wholesaler, Elixir Technologies, says the pills pose "little risk to society and that's the thing people have to bear in mind. There's been more than a million doses sold in this country - we've done at least half a million of them - and no one's died."

THE PILL-TAKER

A frequent party-goer who takes Nemi and Euphoria so he can dance all night says the pepper-based capsules are not a public health issue.

"If you take the stuff off the market, you're going to change the nature of the purchase from legal to illegal," said the Aucklander.

"And you might increase the desire for Ecstasy, which is expensive, illegal and of dubious quality, or worse, to P."