Party pills and their legal status are often in the news. Matt Bowden, one of the original distributors of such pills was interviewed when issues involving party pills arose in the media. 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). New Zealand has classified BZP-based party pills as a "Restricted Substance" by the Misuse of Drugs Act and restricted to those over 18 years.
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For more on the legal issues posed by party pills, see benzylpiperazine. In late June 2007, BZP was classed as a Class C drug in New Zealand and its availability was banned by a law passed on 13 March 2008, with a six-month amnesty period. It was not long before BZP-free alternatives appeared, Despite this, the ingredients used in the new products lacked the potency of the BZP based pills, This subsequently lead to a decline in the popularity of party pills.
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Young ACT opposed making the party pill BZP illegal, which done in 2008. In the month before the ban came into effect, members sold party pills for $1 each to Auckland University students if they joined the organisation. The group said that around 500 members joined during the promotion. The move was called "grossly irresponsible" by Associate Health Minister Jim Anderton.
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On 31 March 2011, he appeared in an episode of Celebrity Juice with his dad. Lamb presented a programme on BBC Three exploring the world of legal party pills and herbal highs. Lamb also took part in Channel 4's game show The Million Pound Drop Live on 29 October 2010, alongside his father, Larry Lamb. They survived the final question with £50,000 for the charity Plan.
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The majority of the toxic effects information came from a study conducted between 1 April 2005 to 1 September 2005. The study recorded all presentations associated with party pill use at the Emergency Department of Christchurch Hospital, New Zealand by recording them on a prospective data collection form. The aim was to study the patterns of human toxicity related to the use of benzylpiperazine-based 'party pills'. 61 patients presented on 80 occasions.
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On March 18, 2016, educational film maker Shane Monteiro produced a short documentary about the party pills with respected boy scout Henry Schurgin and a full production team. The video which was uploaded to YouTube, provides a basic overview of the drug, including its common nicknames, approximate street value, effects, and many other important details. The video has slowly amassed a cult following over the years and is often regarded as one of the greatest educational mini-documentaries of its time.
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Following a friend's death, Bowden contracted a research team to identify safer alternatives to illicit substances and identified benzylpiperazine from research and began dialogue with New Zealand's Ministry of Health Drug Policy Team, identifying himself as a community member with a potential solution for drug demand reduction as called for in methamphetamine action plan. Products were developed for amphetamine addicts and initially targeted toward them as a substitute therapy. As popularity grew, the Inter-Agency Committee on Drugs (IACD) and the Ministerial Committee on Drug Policy (MCDP) funded research into usage of the products, that confirmed of those who used illegal drugs and party pills, 44.1% recently stopped using illegal drugs and 45.6% used party pills so they could avoid using illegal drugs. A submission by Stargate International in April 2010 to the New Zealand Government, as part of their investigation into the control and regulation of drugs in New Zealand, was subsequently recommended by the Law Commission as part of a range of suggestions encompassing non-psychoactive "lifestyle" drugs such as aphrodisiacs, some cosmetics, and the wide and growing range of substances used in athletics and bodybuilding.
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Dean campaigned for the banning of the sale of "party pills", namely benzylpiperazine (BZP), over which Associate Health Minister Jim Anderton (Progressive party) accused her of indulging in political grandstanding, saying, "Perhaps Mrs Dean doesn't subscribe to the idea that any Government must balance the need to act promptly with its responsibilities to act fairly and follow due process, particularly where its actions affect those who are currently acting within existing legal constraints."Anderton 2007. Dean's press releases refer to BZP as either "cattle drench" or a "worming agent".New Zealand National Party 2007-03-22 (Media story)Dean 2007b.
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In 2012 the New Zealand Ministry of Health banned the sale of methylhexanamine products,New Zealand Ministry of Health. Dunne announces Temporary Class Drug Notice March 8, 2012 due in part to its growing recreational use as party pills. In April 2013, the US Food and Drug Administration determined that methylhexanamine was potentially dangerous and did not qualify as a legal dietary supplement; it warned supplement makers that it was illegal to market methylhexanamine and warned consumers of potentially serious health risks associated with methylhexanamine-containing products. The FDA has issued warning letters to manufacturers and distributors who continued to market products containing methylhexanamine.
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Matt "Starboy" Bowden is a rock musician and activist from New Zealand. Previously known as the "Godfather of the legal highs industry", he is credited with creating non-lethal, non-addictive party pills as safer substitutes for methamphetamine addicts, and successfully lobbying in New Zealand for a quality control and regulatory system for psychoactive substances. He performs musically as Starboy and produces progressive rock music with elaborate theatrical stage shows, and produces short films, most notably Starboy Eternity. His musical single Flying, released 29 October 2012, debuted at number five in the NZ Single charts and number 29 in the New Zealand Top 40 Singles charts.
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MBZP (1-methyl-4-benzylpiperazine) is a stimulant drug which is a derivative of benzylpiperazine. MBZP has been sold as an ingredient in legal recreational drugs known as "Party pills", initially in New Zealand and subsequently in other countries around the world. The effects of MBZP are very similar to those of BZP, but the stimulant effect is slightly weaker and it seems to have less of a tendency to cause negative side effects such as headaches and nausea. Based on the recommendation of the EACD, the New Zealand government has passed legislation which placed BZP, along with the other piperazine derivatives TFMPP, mCPP, pFPP, MeOPP and MBZP, into Class C of the New Zealand Misuse of Drugs Act 1975.
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4-Fluoromethamphetamine (4-FMA) is a stimulant drug related to methamphetamine and 4-fluoroamphetamine. It has been reported to be sold as a designer drug, but little is known about its pharmacology or toxicology. It was first detected from legal highs sold in Japan in 2006 and became illegal to sell or to possess for the purpose of distribution (although not to simply possess for personal use) in Japan in 2008. It was initially reported to be contained as an ingredient in some of the range of party pills sold internationally by the Israeli company Neorganics from around 2006 onwards, but this was later shown to be incorrect and this ingredient was eventually identified as the closely related compound 2-fluoromethamphetamine.
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One in every 45 (2.2%) last-year users of BZP in New Zealand is classed as dependent upon it, although 97.9% of users said that "it would not be difficult to stop using legal party pills", and 45.2% of people who reported using both BZP and illegal drugs such as methamphetamine reported that they used BZP so that they did not have to use methamphetamine, which was perceived as more harmful. Still, most of the people who use BZP, even though they say it is quite easy to stop, do not want to, and continue to use the drug, feeling that it helps them to reach higher levels of mood, sociability, and energy. Studies undertaken on animals have indicated that BZP can substitute for methamphetamine in addicted rats, although it is one-tenth as potent and produces correspondingly weaker addictive effects.
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Following this Law Commission report, the New Zealand Government announced in September 2011 that they would follow the advice of the Law Commission and implement a new regulatory regime. The result of this amendment was the introduction of a "Class D" schedule, which moved to "restrict the sale of herbal highs or party pills to people over the age of 18…and places controls on marketing and labelling of the products." Bowden led the lobbying activity regulations in lieu of prohibition and established an industry body, STANZ (Social Tonic Association of New Zealand) and developed a "Code of Practice" which became the default discussion document for what became the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Act, being the first of its kind of drug regulating legislation in the world. The Canadian Government has subsequently referenced this legislation and activity as a potential new direction in harm minimisation and drug regulation.
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One of the most high-profile party pills products that Bowden developed was EASE. Bowden's organisation Stargate International began 'clinical trials' to distribute EASE, later identified as methylone, after receiving confirmation from the New Zealand Ministry of Health that the product was legal to import and sell. The initial advisement from the Ministry of Health stated: Methylone is structurally and pharmacologically similar in some respects to the illegal and neurotoxic drug of abuse MDMA, although its structure falls outside the definition of "Amphetamine analogues" as defined in Part 7 of Schedule C of New Zealand’s Misuse of Drugs Act. Following the screening of a locally produced documentary into EASE entitled The Truth Files, Associate Health Minister Jim Anderton released a statement classifying EASE as an illegal product, and provided the following assessment: Yesterday, Associate Health Minister Jim Anderton said advice from the chair of the Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, showed Ease contained a substance called methylone, an "analogue" – similar to – cathinone, which is a Class B amphetamine controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act.
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