Party drugs still potentially deadly

party drugs - corrected and enlarged media release

Party drugs still potentially deadly

Party drugs are still potentially deadly, an emergency medicine conference has heard.

Dr Paul Gee, emergency physician at Christchurch Hospital, today told the winter symposium of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, that these drugs occupy the twilight zone between legal and illegal drugs because they are unscheduled.

They are in a legislative void – not a named drug covered by legislation. Nor are they a food, so they escape legislation covering foods.

They are also readily available from corner stores or petrol stations and via the internet.

Two common party drug types are synthetic cannabis (commonly known as Kronic or Aroma) and DMAA (aka Geranamine).

“We have seen side effects from DMAA, including brain injury, stroke, coma, hypertension, chest pain, and severe panic attacks,” he said.

Dr Gee called for the onus to be put on manufacturers to prove new psychotropic drugs are safe before distribution.

This would be in line with recent recommendations from the Law Commission.

“At present we have to wait until people reach intensive care before there is any action.”

ends

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