EU to ban party pills as experts warn of big risks

'PARTY pills' - which are now legally sold as ecstasy substitutes at dance clubs in Ireland and on the web, or as slimming pills in health stores - are likely to be banned throughout the EU.
BZP (benzylpiperazine) tablets are synthetic and work on the central nervous system. They are already illegal in seven EU states, the US and Australia but legal in Ireland, the UK, New Zealand and Canada.

EU justice ministers will be asked in September to ban the pills in all 27 member states. European Commission experts, at the European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), have warned of serious side-effects. Speaking in Brussels yesterday, they said 13 EU countries had found the tablets increasingly turning up among other drugs.

If most justice ministers agree in September, as Commission officials expect, their sale and distribution should be made a criminal offence no later than a year after the decision.
The tablets are relatively easily and cheaply manufactured, mainly in India, and have been turning up in increasingly large numbers in drugs seizures.

The average profit is at least 300 times the cost of ingredients.

A recent drugs bust in the UK yielded among various quantities of illicit drugs some 65,000 BZP tablets. They are becoming increasingly popular in Northern Ireland and are used to bulk out other illegal 'recreational' drugs.

Withdrawn
European Commission officials yesterday admitted that to date the drugs have not been associated with organised crime but conceded this might happen after a ban.
BZP, originally marketed as a potential anti-depressant in the 1970s, was quickly withdrawn when its effects - similar to those of amphetamine - were discovered.

It started to turn up in Europe just under seven years ago and more recently in Irish nightclubs and at private parties. It can be obtained through health-food stores or from various websites where it is sometimes marketed as 'legal ecstasy' but is also known as A2, Frenzy and Nemesis.

The drug causes euphoria and increased sensitivity especially to dance music.
It is associated with anxiety, delusion, hallucination, paranoia, psychosis, liver failure and seizures.

Source: http://www.independent.ie/national-news/eu-to-ban-party-pills-as-experts-warn-of-big-risks-1039273.html