Dean Jacqui: Misuse of Drugs (Classification of BZP) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Dean Jacqui: Misuse of Drugs (Classification of BZP) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 11 September 2007. Volume:642;Page:11716. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JACQUI DEAN (National—Otago) 
: 
 I rise to support the first reading of the Misuse of Drugs (Classification of BZP) Amendment Bill. I am happy to also be known as a killjoy if that is what it takes. 
The regulation or banning of benzylpiperazine (BZP) or party pills has been a huge issue in New Zealand over the past few years with heated debate much of it driven by self-interest. The party pill industry is after all an industry worth approximately $35 million in the previous year. To me there are two major aspects to this debate and why I support the classification of BZP and related substances from a class D restricted drug to a class C1. The two major aspects of this debate are the medical effects of BZP and the social consequences of continuing to allow BZP to be sold legally in New Zealand. 
Arguments around the medical effects of BZP include: “Well nobody has ever died so they’re OK.” That type of argument comes from some quarters—mostly from those who have made millions of dollars supplying promoting manufacturing and selling BZP. Other arguments market BZP as being herbal and therefore good for people. I fail to understand how BZP which was used in the 1970s as the major component in cattle drench can be regarded as being herbal or safe when veterinarians discovered that BZP formed lesions on cattle when it was used as cattle drench and was therefore withdrawn from use. 
In support of a ban on BZP I offer the following evidence: BZP and trifluoromethylphenylpiperazine (TFMPP) and related substances are mixed specifically to mimic the effects of P. The most common symptoms of those scared young people turning up at emergency rooms around New Zealand hospitals over the last few years are anxiety palpitations nausea vomiting and confusion. Interestingly the National Poisons Centre reports that a number of young children—some as young as 18 months; as in babies—have got into trouble taking BZP. A number of young people have suffered toxic convulsions which have resulted in several young people being put on life-support—one of them suffering multiple organ failure. A young man died recently in Nelson as a result of a vehicle accident last month. Alcohol and BZP were found in his blood.  
The side effects of taking BZP are variable and unpredictable particularly when those party pills are taken together with alcohol which is very common. Interestingly when I was in Nelson recently I visited several shops selling party pills. Neither of the shop assistants working in those party pill shops touched BZP. They could not understand why people would want to buy them. The medical effects of long-term use of BZP are unknown. We just do not know yet. Maybe we will know in 20 years’ time. We do not know yet what medical consequences there may or may not be through the use of BZP. We just do not know. 
I turn to the social effects of BZP. Arguments for deregulation and for BZP to be freely available include: “I can put what I like in my own body.” Yes that is fine. But what happens when things go wrong? Who picks up the pieces? I know; it is the medical system that picks up the pieces for people’s so-called choices over their own body. Or there is the argument that BZP provides a safer alternative to P. What a joke! No one has actually established BZP to be safe. There is no evidence to show that the millions of BZP pills taken have reduced the use of P. In fact the opposite is true with the use of pure amphetamine growing in New Zealand. We know that because of the huge increase in P laboratory busts by the police. The argument that the use of P has reduced is totally ridiculous and untrue.  
The evidence shows that the use of BZP pills has a gateway effect into the use of other drugs. BZP pills are also known as starter drugs or trainer drugs with their colourful cartoon marketing designed specifically to target an audience younger than 18 years. I suggest that the marketing around BZP pills is targeted to appeal to those kids of 11 to 12 years of age. That is the real danger of party pills. That is why party pills should be banned. We currently have a legal drug culture in New Zealand where any 10-year-old 8-year-old or 5-year-old can walk into the corner dairy and see party pills displayed on the shelf next to jelly beans.  
I received a phone call from a drug counsellor about an 11-year-old kid in troubled circumstances—a kid in trouble—who was taking BZP. Why? He wanted to “get out of his life”. We have a culture where a patient with a mental illness goes off his or her prescribed pills and self-medicates with BZP. Why? Those people say BZP makes them feel good—much better than their normal pills do. That is a danger. We have a culture where a secondary school teacher in a small town in New Zealand says that he sometimes does not bother teaching National Certificate of Educational Achievement subjects on a Monday morning because some of his senior students are sitting there with a blank stare 48 hours after taking BZP on the Saturday night. We have a culture where the manager of a party pill shop has been convicted of the possession of cannabis. And we have a culture where paraphernalia like pipes for smoking P is sold in cabinets alongside party pills. Please do not tell me there is not a connection between party pill shops and the illicit drug culture.  
I was standing outside a Queenstown supermarket early last year collecting signatures for my party pills petition. A young American guy who was a visitor to New Zealand—a hip skiing character—came up to me and said that he could not believe what we are doing in New Zealand. He could not believe that we can buy these pills legally. He could not believe that we have a legal drug culture in New Zealand. When a substance is legal we are saying that it is safe and that it is OK. That is a very dangerous message. It is argued that if we ban BZP pills then kids will source them from illegal operations. The truth is that yes there are some kids who will. And there will always be people willing to sell them. But by having party pill shops in major shopping malls or on the main streets of small towns we are in effect placing a candy shop in front of young kids and expecting them to make good decisions.  
This bill should have been before the House 2 years ago. The research commissioned by the Minister Jim Anderton is useful but confirms what the medical practitioners social workers police clergy youth workers and parents could see for themselves: that the sale of party pills in New Zealand towns and cities has normalised drug taking. The longer the Minister has held out waiting for an evidence base the more firmly this pill-popping drug culture has become established in New Zealand. I regret that. Thank you.