Pubdate: Tue, 08 Aug 2000
Source: New Zealand Herald (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2000 New Zealand Herald
Contact:  PO Box 32, Auckland, New Zealand
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Author: Libby Middlebrook

DESIGNER DRUG PUTS NIGHTCLUB TRIO IN HOSPITAL

Three young people are lucky to be alive after taking the designer drug Fantasy and collapsing in an Auckland nightclub yesterday.

They were at the Power Station, in Mt Eden Rd, celebrating the end of the Erotica Expo with 500 others, and were found in the venue's toilets in drug-induced comas.

A woman and a man, both in their early 20s, were revived at Auckland Hospital yesterday morning and discharged.

Another woman was transferred to intensive care in a critical condition. She was later revived and discharged.

Senior Sergeant Tony Leighton said he was concerned at the growing popularity of Fantasy, an aphrodisiac drug.

Users experience extreme euphoria, then fall into a deep low.

The drug can also induce comas, inhibit breathing and trigger seizures and vomiting. It has been linked with deaths overseas.

"When taken in a situation like a dance party it's very dangerous," said Senior Sergeant Leighton.

"People have got to be very careful on any drugs that they are given. You don't know when it's going to take a turn for the worst."

Fantasy is officially known as GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyrate) but is often labelled GBH (grievous bodily harm) or liquid ecstasy.

It has been growing in popularity for the past two years, along with Ecstasy, throughout the Auckland nightclub scene.

Police said Fantasy had recently emerged as the drug of choice partly because word was spreading that it was not illegal.

But possession of the drug without a prescription was illegal under the Medicines Act.

Auckland intensive care specialist Dr Tony Smith said after a spate of admissions late last year that Fantasy was clearly a dangerous drug, despite the view that it was not harmful.

Power Station manager Paul Walker, who organised the post-expo party, refused to comment on the incident.

But Expo organiser Steve Crow said he was "absolutely livid" at the erotica exhibition being connected to the drugs scandal.

He allowed the Power Station to advertise the function as the expo's after-party, but he had no control over it.

"We are incredibly upset because the show went so well and this is not really the icing on the cake we wanted," he said.

More than 16,000 people attended the expo at the Logan Campbell Centre over the weekend.

Police have investigated the incident and will not lay any charges.
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