EDITORIAL: Party pills'status needs resolving | Hawkes Bay News | Local News in Hawkes Bay

Paul Taggart

Drugs are a serious issue in our community, as is evident from news reports. This week a bizarre trial has been played out in the courts and police raided and closed a caravan park in Mangere, south Auckland. In both cases the drug methamphetamine featured strongly.

Police have also warned that an even worse type of the drug - crystal rock methamphetamine - is now in circulation.

But on a less serious, but much larger scale, is the worry over party pills, which are being popped in their millions mainly by young New Zealanders. The pills have names such as Jump, Bliss, Charge and Euphoria.

Considering how many are being consumed, the problems they cause are relatively few - one provincial hospital reported that, on average, they deal with one person per week who has overdosed on the pills. That is a drop in the ocean compared with alcohol-related hospital admissions.

However, the main concern with the pills - which contain benzylpiperazine (BZP), derived from the pepper plant and legal in this country - is that they fall through a crack as they are regarded neither as a drug nor a dietary supplement.

It is odd that something of this type can go on sale without any checks, when so many areas of our lives are stringently regulated.

Parliament is now considering an addition to the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill, which would ban the sale of party pills to under 18s and make it necessary for the containers the pills are sold in to carry warning labels.

The chairman of industry group Social Tonics of New Zealand, Matt Bowden, says the biggest problem was with people using the party pills with alcohol and illicit drugs.

He may have a point, but it doesn't excuse the fact that the pills are not controlled. The situation is more worrying as BZP has been banned in the United States and in two Australian states. The National Poisons Centre in Dunedin is also seeking approval to research the effects of BZP.

Parliament's health select committee is also considering putting party pills into a new classification of drugs, for those considered less harmful than class C drugs. Whether that is necessary won't really be known until research is done and overseas findings are considered.

If the pills are deemed safe when used properly, there may be no need to take such a tough line. However, without evidence youngsters are playing Russian roulette with their health, and the sooner the matter is investigated, debated and resolved, the better it will be for everyone.