AHS Views

One amazing thing about addiction help is it comes in all shapes and sizes. New Zealand is finally getting around to banning party pills that can be bought anywhere – even at a gas station.

Party pills are banned in New Zealand as of March 14, 2008, but suppliers have until April 1st to “dispose” of their stocks. The pills - with names like Frenzy, Torque, and D-lite - are used as a recreational stimulant and are sometimes compared to MDMA. The manufacturers say they will be driven out of business after BZP (benzylpiperazine) becomes illegal to sell but, in the meantime, they don’t have to destroy their current stocks - they can still sell them.

The same pills were banned in the U.S. in 2002 and in Australia and Denmark in 2005. 

Benzylpiperazine  was originally used to treat cattle for bowel parasites so I am guessing they not only get you high - you can use them for a colon cleanse.

There haven’t been any recorded deaths from the use of these over-the-counter party pills but people that use them and drink have fallen into comas. Matt Bowden of the Social Tonics Association of New Zealand is afraid that people will now look for illegal drugs to replace the over-the-counter drugs. Maybe the same people can chug three or four energy drinks to get the same effect and they won’t graduate to street drugs.

New Zealand has been slow on banning these drugs, but at least no one has died and the need for addiction help services has not changed that much.

Over the last several years there have been emerging problems with the abuse of club drugs and the damaging effects caused as a result. In fact, incidents of the abuse and the fatal effects of these drugs are in the news increasingly.

These types of drugs include MDMA or Ecstasy, Rohypnol, and GHB. All these drugs are most commonly used in the club or rave scene.

While ecstasy is said to be similar to a stimulant and a hallucinogen, ecstasy is a synthetic drug that can have many different properties and effects. Some ecstasy is laced with heroin while other pills can be laced with everything from cocaine to any synthetic chemical that the person making it decides to put into it. So you don’t really know what you’re taking when you take ecstasy.

Drugs like Rohypnol, GHB and Ketamine are drugs that heavily sedate a person and are most commonly used by those committing sexual assaults. Surprisingly, there are people that voluntarily take these drugs. All are tasteless and odorless.

Many people who go to raves on a regular basis say that they go to for the music and to meet new people. Even they cannot deny that clubs and rave parties are very common locations that these drugs are used and sold.

Of an estimated 106 million emergency department (ED) visits in the U.S. during 2004, the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) estimates that: