Party pills

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A selection of products containing BZP.

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Party Pills, also known as "Herbal Highs", "Pep Pills" and "Dance Pills", is a colloquialism for a type of recreational drug whose main ingredient is Benzylpiperazine (BZP). BZP is banned in a few countries, including the USA and Australia, but is available on a more or less restricted basis in many jurisdictions. A range of other piperazine derivatives have also been sold as ingredients in party pills in New Zealand, and some of these brands have subsequently been exported to other countries around the world. Piperazine derivatives sold in this way include BZP, TFMPP, MeOPP, pFPP and several others. mCPP has rarely been sold as a party pill ingredient due to its tendency to cause migraine headaches. These piperazines are usually mixed with caffeine and a range of vitamins and binders to make party pills.

In countries such as New Zealand where BZP and related piperazines face an imminent ban, there is increasing commercial interest in piperazine free 'party pills' sold under brand names such as "head candy" and "pick and mix" which are purported to produce similar effects with ingredients that will circumvent the ban. Common active ingredients (among many others) include caffeine, theobromine, other stimulant alkaloids, octopamine (a chemical which acts as a neurotransmitter with similar effects to dopamine), blue lotus extract (Nymphaea caerulea), natural sources of the LSD precursor and weak psychedelic agent lysergic acid amide (illegal in many countries), passionflower (sedative which contains monoamine oxidase inhibitors), Citrus aurantium (contains small amounts of the stimulant synephrine) and geranamine (alkylamine compound found in geranium oil).

Some ingredients are not revealed by some manufacturers, and some products have been released containing compounds such as methylone, BK-MBDB and Diphenyl prolinol before being subsequently withdrawn following threats of legal action from the government, despite no statute or case law to show that any of these three compounds is explicitly illegal.

[edit] News and legality

Party pills and their legal status are often in the news. Matt Bowden of Stargate International, the original developer of such pills^{[citation needed]} and now an industry spokesperson, is regularly consulted when issues involving party pills arise in the public arena. At one stage Prime television news presenter Alison Mau went so far as to test the effects of certain party pills. A clinical trial by ClubStargate for a pill named Ease was suspended because it contained methylone, which was claimed by the Ministry of Health to fall under New Zealand controlled drug analogue laws (although this was never proven in court).

Although sold through several types of retail businesses, New Zealand has classified party pills as a "Restricted Substance" by the Misuse of Drugs Act and restricted to those over 18 years.^[1]. For more on the legal issues posed by party pills, see benzylpiperazine.

In late June 2007, BZP was classed as a Class D in New Zealand drug and its availability was banned by a law passed on 13 March 2008, with a six month amnesty period.^[2] As a result, many critics believe this will result in handing back power to organized crime, as young people will revert to the illegal drug MDMA, otherwise known as ecstasy. Despite prohibition never traditionally working, New Zealand's status as one of the last countries in the world to offer BZP legally has now dissolved. Critics claim the two most damaging drugs in terms of self harm, alcohol and tobacco, are still legal because it is engrained too deep in society to ban.[1]