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Call to ban party pills By LINDA SHACKELFORD Tuesday, 09 March 2004 ‘Increased heart rate, dizziness and headaches are among side effects to scare some teenagers’ A POPULAR range of energy supplements marketed as legal party pills should be pulled from shop shelves, says a local drug educator. Legal energy pills like Charge, Rapture, Exodus, Euphoria and Blast are predominantly restricted R16 or R18 and cost about $7 to $10 a capsule in most liquor stores and adult novelty shops. Some are promoted as a legal alternative to Ecstasy and amphetamines (P, ice and speed). An increasing number of young adults use energy pills and exceed the recommended dosage, said Howick and Pakuranga schools drugs counsellor Barbara Divehall. “Students can access the capsules easily. They are legal and they can buy them over the counter.” Teenagers think it’s a safe drug to take, and it could be, if they took the correct dose. “They are not using the right dose. They are using more to get the effect they are looking for. It gives them a buzz,” she said. Increased heart rate, dizziness and headaches are among side effects to scare some teenagers, said Mrs Divehall. Ideally she wants the pills off the market, or sold with more guidelines for retailers. The products are readily available at several stores throughout the Times’ readership area. A Somerville liquor retailer, who didn’t want to be named, is also concerned about how youngsters use the pills and agrees the answer is to take them off the shelves. “Ban it. They are not good for children’s futures,” he said. “It’s worrying more that they could take those pills, take alcohol, and on top of that might take drugs.” The outlet began selling the pills a month ago in response to increased customer demand. “For a long time I didn’t sell them. I don’t encourage it but I started losing my regular 18 to 24-year-old customers. You have got to go along with the market.” In Howick, another outlet has stopped selling the pills after concerns from an adjacent bar owner that the products could easily be confused with the illegal variety. When the outlet held the products they were big sellers. Users pay big bucks for their legal fix with three capsules of Jump costing $25. Other local retailers selling Charge and Rapture didn’t want to comment. A spokesperson for Euphoria said it wouldn’t comment and Charge and Rapture manufacturers didn’t respond to the Times by press time. Charge and Rapture are products of Advanced Herbal Supplements Ltd (A.H.S) which lists a Howick post office box as its address. Mrs Divehall’s concerns are mirrored in other centres, including Dunedin, where anxiety and high heart rates hospitalised five youths who’d taken the pills. Some energy pills contain benzyl-piperidine and trifluromethyl-phenylpiperazine, considered controlled substances in the United States and parts of Australia. The health ministry’s expert advisory committee on drugs considers the status of the common ingredient benaylpiperazine (BZP) this month, said public health programmes manager Graeme Gillespie. |