Pubdate: Thu, 26 Jan 2006
Source: Southland Times (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2006, Southland Times Company Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.southlandtimes.co.nz/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1041

PILLS AND SPILLS

Party Pills Pose Two Problems, Writes The Southland Times In An Editorial.

We still cannot be entirely sure of their effects on the user but we can be 
sure that their users are intemperate young recreationists who are hardly 
proving scrupulous in obeying the manufacturers' instructions.

Though the pills are legally sold the Government, last year, introduced 
some constraints, notably an R18 age limit. Clinical research trials, 
though still under way, have not to date provided a compelling case for 
banning them outright.

However, as accident and emergency departments around the country can 
attest, party pills are wreaking damage when taken in excess or combined 
with alcohol.

Given the abandon with which the pill-poppers are so often taking them, it 
is now a significant question whether the problem is really the abuse, or 
merely the use, of the product.

Against this testy background, it is a serious matter that tests 
commissioned by Radio New Zealand on four of the "legal high" pills have 
shown all had higher levels of the active ingredient, benzylpiperazine, 
than was shown on the labels. One brand contained 26mg more than the 
identified 500mg, and in any case recommended a dose of two tablets. The 
Social Tonics Association - a too, too cute name for the producers and 
retailers of most of the pills - says it is unsafe to take more than 200mg 
of BZP, and is itself calling for tighter regulation around manufacturing 
standards.

National's Otago MP Jacqui Dean is petitioning for a reclassification that 
would provide considerably tighter controls, restricting the dose of each 
pill, and banning them from sale in liquor stores and some other stores, 
like clothing shops.

Those who defend the pills make much of the fact that where people have 
been harmed they have invariably disregarded the labelled warnings that 
typically concern the possibility of heart palpitations, rising blood 
pressured increased body temperature.

Not a healthful concoction, to be sure, though not as hideous as the 
warnings on cigarette packs.

Control, rather than criminalisation, appears to be the best option and is 
effectively the approach taken by the Government's Expert Advisory 
Committee on Drugs.

It is an issue where pragmatism, rather than either conservative or liberal 
idealism, must hold sway.

Party pills have been described as a preferable alternative to potentially 
more dangerous, and illicit, stimulants. This is true enough, in itself, 
but they are also potentially an early step down that path for their young 
consumers.

Older generations might as well admit that in their callow youth they 
weren't averse to forays into the potentially dangerous world of artificial 
stimulation, and each generation tends to prefer its own alternatives. 
After all, it's a tad hypocritical for some of those who chuckle their way 
through the Hokonui Moonshine Museum to pucker up too hard at the notion of 
young people taking party pills.

The pills need to be closely monitored and controlled, but let's not get 
too agitated. That's counterproductive, in any case.

There's nothing like a hearty chorus of adult disapproval to lend spurious 
glamour to an indulgence that might otherwise be found out quickly enough.
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D