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Party Pills debate

By Kim de Leijer

It’s Friday night and you’re at a party. The music’s pumping, the drinks are flowing and everyone’s chilling out. Then someone pulls out party pills containing benzylpiperazine (BZP) and several people start taking them. This is a typical weekend scene for teenagers throughout New Zealand and one that is starting to cause controversy.

Party pills, which come in a variety of colours and sizes, are a relatively new drug in society but one that has proved popular in a short time with young males and females. This week 12 young people met at Youth Parliament in Wellington to have a mock discussion on whether party pills containing the stimulant BZP should be made illegal.

The recent government decision to classify the pills as a C1 drug, effectively making them illegal by the end of the year was acknowledged at the debate.

 Marketed under names like Frenzy, Exodus and The Good Stuff, pills act as a recreational substance for many young people because it gives them feelings of confidence and happiness. Statistics from the New Zealand Drug Foundation show one in five New Zealanders have used party pills with two thirds in the age range from 18 to 24.

So young people are using them … but the industry experts have opposing opinions about the pills.

STANZ chairman Matt Bowden is strongly against prohibiting party pills. He spoke about how the death of his nephew through ecstasy abuse triggered his passion for the party pill alternatives. “To me it is clear that if he had been using a safer, non addictive legal alternative he might still be alive.”

Care New Zealand chief executive Tim Harding spoke about the risk of BZP. “Don’t be confused BZP is a drug. We don’t know the long-term risks of it yet which is dangerous.”

So next time you are out on Friday night and go to take a party pill stop and ask yourself is this substance harmless fun or is it something much more sinister?