The Government Has Been Advised to Outlaw the Sale of "Party Pills" by an Expert Committee Which Has Been Studying Their Dangers. The pills can be legally purchased by those over 18, but critics say their main active ingredient benzylpiperazine (BZP) is dangerous and pill doses are often far higher than recommended, leading to significant potential harm. A Cabinet committee is looking at whether BZP and related substances commonly found in party pills should be banned or further restricted. Associate Health Minister Jim Anderton today said he was still considering the official advice from the Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs (EACD), but had taken the step of releasing it so people were aware of the pills' dangers. [continues 202 words]
Nothing stands still for long in the party pills business. In six years, it has made deep inroads into the community. One study says one in five people between 13 and 45 has tried them, and about 15 per cent of people in that age group used them in the past year. The political repercussions have also gathered pace. A year and a half ago, Parliament restricted the sale of party pills to those aged over 18. Now, the Government is being advised to follow the lead of the United States and Australia and outlaw them. [continues 532 words]
North Carolina has a cop problem. This is how bad it is. Up until this year, when flashing blue lights showed up in my rear-view mirror or rolled down my street, I went through a mental checklist of what I might have done wrong. No more. In light of recent history, if a siren is meant for me, I fear for my safety. I take no joy in writing these words. I admire cops. A nephew is a Phoenix, Ariz., beat cop. When people claim a law enforcement officer has roughed them up, my gut reaction is to think the perps probably deserved it. The guff that patrol officers endure from citizens of every economic class is way beyond what you and I would put up with. [continues 610 words]
Jason Bishop Uses Party Pills to Smooth the Path of Human Friendship. "You get more of an empathetic feeling towards your fellow people," said the 28-year-old Auckland truck driver. "It just elevates the mood." He swallows the pills, which contain BZP, once a fortnight, taking two or three in a night out. The only bad effects he has experienced are mild insomnia when taking party pills "too close together" and feeling unwell after drinking at the same time. "I have used them with alcohol. I have had some cracking hangovers and have learned from it. [continues 210 words]
Lollipop Drug for Cancer Patients Can Be a Fatal High; Abuse on Rise A rare and expensive painkiller sometimes taken in the form of a lollipop contributed to the death of a 20-year-old Southern Methodist University student at his fraternity house earlier this month. The Dallas County medical examiner has determined that Jacob Stiles, a sophomore economics and psychology major from Naperville, Ill., accidentally overdosed on a toxic mixture of cocaine, alcohol and the synthetic opiate fentanyl. Fellow students found him unconscious the afternoon of Dec. 2 in his room at the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house. [continues 1458 words]
It may be only a minor pot bust in an otherwise quiet Eastern Passage subdivision, but it has the principal of the local junior high school smiling. "I'm just thrilled," said Bernie MacIntyre, principal of Eastern Passage Education Centre after learning about Thursday's raid on a nearby house. MacIntyre has fielded, and passed on, a number of concerns from parents about drug use near the school. The home on Shamrock Court searched by police Thursday night is close to a well-used path leading to the school. [continues 254 words]
A Desperate Craving For Heroin Or Crack Drove All Five Victims To Sell Sex. Stacey Rolfe is resolved to remember the good times with her friend Netty, when she lived across the road from her and they would have waterfights in the garden with her daughter and her friend's little boy. Or the times when they were at beauty college together, and Netty would lend Stacey clothes and do her eyebrows and makeup before they all went clubbing in Ipswich town centre. Not the bare, sorry facts of an almost unrecognisable friend, reduced to climbing into strangers' cars in a desperate attempt to buy heroin. [continues 1112 words]
Dear Editor, Your December 13 editorial offered excellent advice on preventing adolescent substance abuse. The importance of parental involvement in reducing drug use cannot be overstated. School-based extracurricular activities also have been shown to reduce use. They keep kids busy during the hours they're most likely to get into trouble. In order for drug prevention efforts to effectively reduce harm, they must be reality-based. The most popular drug and the one most closely associated with violent behavior is often over-looked by parents. That drug is alcohol, and it takes far more lives each year than all illegal drugs combined. Alcohol may be legal, but it's still the number one drug problem. [continues 137 words]
Police have laid charges against four men after a Portland man was shot in the leg in September while thieves stole his medicinal marijuana. The pot pirates raided the man's home in September, wearing police jackets and barging in early in the morning. When he protested, they shot him. Police later said the man was licensed to have medicinal marijuana in the home and the thieves targeted his cache. The government no longer directly supplies the drug to patients with prescriptions -- used to relieve things like chronic pain or nausea - -- but allows them to either grow their own or designate someone else to grow it for them. [continues 77 words]
Police have seized cash and drugs worth nearly $10 million, a $150,000 car and three homes during swoops on drug syndicates in the past two weeks. The cash, which in one case was too bulky to fit into the boot of a police car, is alleged to have been the profits of dealing in methamphetamine, the highly addictive and destructive drug known in its pure form as P. Superintendent Ted Cox, commander of Auckland police's metro crime and operations support, said police had mounted five operations in the past fortnight, most in Auckland. [continues 578 words]
