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Joined: Feb 19, 2008 Posts: 42 Location: Gaddede, Sweden
Re: people getting sick from new party pills Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 9:15 am
Hey folks, I have written a letter to The Press on the topic of a recent report that some people had gotten sick by experimenting with new party pills. I thought I'd give you guys 24 hours to make some comments on it before I flick it off.
========================================
Sir,
The news that young people are getting sick from experimenting with new forms of party pills is a lesson in the consequences of legislating with a sledgehammer.
It is well known that many New Zealanders are not suited to alcohol as a recreational drug; unfortunately, our freedoms to alternative methods of relaxation are few. Although cannabis is widely accepted and enjoyed amongst Kiwis, possession of it remains a criminal offense.
Reclassification of cannabis to a Class D controlled substance, alongside other popular drugs such as alcohol and tobacco, would allow an alternative for Kiwis who do not wish to suffer the physical and behavioural side-effects of alcohol, or who do not wish to experiment with drugs of unknown danger.
In a modern, diverse, liberal democracy, the population must be allowed more freedoms, not fewer. We must be allowed to make our own decisions regarding how we choose to relax, and to find what works for us.
- Vince McLeod
Candidate, Te Tai Tonga electorate
Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party
Edit by paula : I'll just slap the article in here, Stuff doesn't seem to archive for long so eventually the link won't work.
Party pill contents baffle boffins
By ANNA CHALMERS - The Dominion Post | Tuesday, 22 July 2008
The Health Ministry is baffled by ingredients in new-generation party pills and has asked scientists to investigate further before deciding whether to recommend a ban.
Three months after the ministry first asked Environmental Science and Research to test the new substances in party pills that have made some users sick, officials still cannot say if they pose a risk because they do not know what is in them.
It is understood amphetamines are on the list of possible substances, while some pills could be "precursor drugs" used by the pharmaceutical industry to make the likes of anti-depressant drug Prozac.
Public health chief adviser Ashley Bloomfield said initial results revealed high caffeine content in many of the pills that have been marketed as "BZP-free" after the outlawing of the substance on April 1, but some of the substances also had no reference standards. "They're not substances that have previously been seen in New Zealand."
The ministry has asked scientists to inquire overseas about the substances, believed to have come mainly from the United States and Israel, before making recommendations.
Wellington Hospital reported a rash of users being admitted after the new-generation pills went on sale. The ministry ordered testing in mid-April.
Matt Bowden, whose company Stargate International has put three types of non-BZP pills on the market, said the original pills should not have been banned. He was supplying new versions because 400,000 recreational drug takers would otherwise use harder substances, he said. He had been upfront about the "blend of herbal extracts" the new pills contained.
But the Drug Foundation believes the pills are not merely herbal. Executive director Ross Bell said the delay in test results was dangerous because the pills were being sold at corner dairies and accessible to children. "We would have hoped that the testing could be done quicker."
Wellington Hospital emergency doctor Paul Quigley, whose department had dealt with five affected patients a night in May soon after the pills became available, said there had been fewer admissions during winter. This was not unexpected as negative effects were more common in the heat and people were also more likely to stay at home instead of partying.
Dr Quigley said the pills had come from well- developed pharmaceutical laboratories, and New Zealand officials should be working with Australia because it had recreational drugs not yet in New Zealand. He said if, as suspected, prototype drugs were being used, then "we're going to have to go right back like we did with BZP".
ESR could not comment on its testing progress yesterday, with the official in charge overseas.
Associate Health Minister Jim Anderton, who pushed for BZP to be made a class C drug, has said a regrettable flaw in the legal system allowed suppliers to sell pills without having to prove their safety.
Party pill takers Anna Punselie, 19, and Thomas Ryan, 18, said they did not care what was in the pills - they would still use them. However, Thomas thought manufacturers should be forced to list contents for those who did want to know. Both were still using stockpiled BZP pills bought before they were made illegal, but would continue to use the new pills available.
Nice letter. Clear, simple and to the point. Can't ask for much better.
Also I hope this blows up in Jim Anderton's face. People might actually start to see the dangerousness of banning one substance that's gonna push people on to more dangerous substances.
Joined: Dec 01, 2003 Posts: 2436 Location: Christchurch, NZ
Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 12:46 am
I've been looking at it a few times over the course of the evening. Its very good. I think I'd remove the final para, but thats just me
As you were . . .
One of the most titanic contests at the Olympic Games this year will be between scientists, not athletes. Those feeding drug cheats illicit performance enhancing substances will seek to conceal them and those trying to catch the offenders will try to reveal them, writes The Southland Times in an editorial.
The prospects of a scandal-free Olympics are dismal; the best we can hope for is that the worst cheats will be duly stripped of their awards and shamed. Even when this does happen, it is oftentimes long after the event. Witness the doping admission last year by five-time Olympic medallist Marion Jones. Much as Olympic chiefs have stiffened the laws for Beijing, so that mere possession, rather than proven use, of any banned drug will now constitute a doping violation, the chemical contest will continue to be a troubling one, partly because it is so hard to be sure how many athletes are getting away with it.
And yet the struggle must go on. The wretched results from the Tour de France this year, with three doping scandals in 12 days, stands as sorry testament to how corrupted an event can become when drug cheats gain the upper hand.
Sporting contests of high reward and high visibility are far from the only — or for that matter the most significant — forum in which there's a detectable scientific struggle. It should scarcely surprise that the Health Ministry has had to confess it is, for the time being at least, baffled by the ingredients in new-generation party pills.
Not knowing what is in them, officials are hardly in a position to say whether they pose a risk and should be banned, as BZP pills have been. Even when those pills were banned in April it was clear that this was never going to be anything close to a king hit against the problem. Associate Health Minister Jim Anderton had to acknowledge a flawed legal system that allowed suppliers to sell pills without facing any requirement to prove their safety.
Sure enough, not only have the substantial stockpiles of BZP pills failed to go away, rather been stashed by users and persisting underground suppliers, but the new generation pills have emerged to be sold anywhere, including dairies, without age restrictions. These shiny new products are not classified under the Misuse of Drugs Act.
That is liable to change. The Health Ministry in May recommended the Government add party pills to the category of restricted substances, which would whack them with a minimum 18-year-old purchase age, require much stricter ingredient labelling rules and require that sellers be licensed.
Advocates of the pills insist that their real offence isn't medical at all, but cultural — that these are the new drug on the block and therefore are drawing emotive reactions from authorities far beyond any real problems disclosed by their already substantial usage. The pills have been developed at well-developed pharmaceutical laboratories and the argument from some suppliers, that they have been upfront about the "blend of herbal extracts", simply does not tally with Environmental Science and Research's inability to say what the content really is.
Drug use for high-level sporting purposes, or purely recreational escapism, is a problem that we cannot look to our scientists to fix for us. In these contests, it seems victories are only temporary, even fleeting. That doesn't mean that the struggle can, or should, be abandoned.[/b]
Joined: Jun 01, 2008 Posts: 141 Location: New Zealand
Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 5:51 pm
likewise paula that last para could be... "reworked", for lack of a better word. but well done. sounds like something straight out of a "diversity" lecture. go for it
Joined: Feb 19, 2008 Posts: 42 Location: Gaddede, Sweden
Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 3:35 am
I left in the last para because I think that the diversity angle is important. We are fighting bigotry and intolerance here. Don't know how it was printed though, still haven't seen it! _________________ This is our year - TICK THE LEAF: www.alcp.org.nz
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