Pubdate: Wed, 12 Apr 2006
Source: Press, The (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2006 The Christchurch Press Company Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.press.co.nz/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/349
Author: Joanna Davis
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/raves.htm (Raves)

DOCTOR WARNS OF PARTY PILL DANGER

Another New Zealand emergency department is speaking out about the  
toxic dangers of party pills, echoing the growing concerns of  
Christchurch doctors.

Waikato Hospital emergency physician Dr Tonia Nicholson studied 1043  
people presenting to the emergency department and found up to 30 per  
cent of 14 to 25-year-olds had taken party pills.

Most had also been drinking alcohol and more than one-third had taken  
more pills than recommended by the manufacturers.

Nicholson said people were at risk of poisoning from the pills  
because many did not read instructions, took more than recommended  
and drank alcohol at the same time.

Christchurch Hospital emergency medicine specialist Dr Paul Gee, who  
has himself researched and spoken out against party pill use, said he  
was not surprised by the high percentage of emergency department  
patients who had taken the pills.

Christchurch's emergency department regularly saw three or four  
teenagers a week with side-effects of anxiety, panic attacks, racing  
heart-rate, hallucinations, headache and vomiting, he said. Several  
people had been admitted having seizures after taking the pills. Gee  
said repeat users often took more pills than recommended as they  
needed increasingly high doses to get the same affect. For the same  
reason, he said it could be a gateway to harder drugs. "It's not much  
of a reach to go on to harder things. It actually does affect the  
areas in the brain that are responsible for attachment and dependence."

Gee said he was concerned the pills were being taken by "otherwise  
regular law-abiding good kids who would otherwise not be drug users".

Last year's law change, which meant party pills could only be sold to  
those aged 18 and over, had not been effective, Gee said. "People as  
young as 14 are getting hold of and using them. Even up to 20 per  
cent to 30 per cent of people we see are under age."

Eighty-five per cent of people in Nicholson's study, which will be  
published in tomorrow's edition of Emergency Medicine Australasia,  
reported feeling effects from the pills, but only half described  
those effects as good.

The main active ingredient in party pills, which are sold under brand  
names such as Jump, Rapture, The Good Stuff and Charge, is  
benzylpiperazine, a central nervous system stimulant that mimics the  
effects of speed.

"They result in euphoria and a heightened level of awareness, and  
have therefore become popular on the dance scene as they make people  
feel good, and keep them awake so they can dance all night,"  
Nicholson said.

However, she said the pills could also produce a fast heart rate,  
high blood pressure and in excess could cause cardiac toxicity,  
hallucinations and seizures.

"The long-term effects of regular ingestion, particularly in  
combination with alcohol, are unknown," she said.
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