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Herbal highs and lows

There is clearly money to be made from them, and the absence of regulation has opened the way for any ethical and moral shortcomings of the trade to be waived in the interests of that profit potential. Christchurch in particular is seeing the emergence of some dubious practices around the dealing in substances which are blatantly offered as low-strength alternatives to such illegal drugs as Ecstasy and amphetamines.

While it would be foolish to become hysterical – or to even be much-alarmed – about what is simply another chapter in some people's never-ending search for new ways of artificial stimulation, it would be stupider to continue to turn a blind-eye to the trade. Letting this business carry on down an unregulated path is fraught. Jim Anderton's suggestion of a new measure under the Misuse of Drugs Act to allow basic restrictions on the sale and supply of these legal highs seems the most appropriate response.

Herbal highs (the name is largely a misnomer – the key ingredient in the products currently under the spotlight is usually not herbal at all, but a synthetic form of a pepper plant derivative known as benzylpiperazine or BZP) have developed a large and enthusiastic following in a relatively short few years, coat-tailing on the 1990s' drug-powered dance culture. From being the preserve of head-shops fewer than five years ago, they can now be found for sale in corner dairies, service stations, liquor stores, suburban malls, even a central Christchurch magic shop.

The industry's own figures suggest five million BZP-based doses have been consumed in New Zealand in "recent years"; another estimate is that 1.5 million of those were manufactured in this country last year. The raw ingredient is reportedly imported cheaply from China and India for packaging and re-selling here at a vastly-inflated premium. The marketing claims which help drive the enthusiastic reception for the stuff range from the amusingly banal to the eyebrow raising (such as one brand being offered as a crutch for amphetamine addiction).

Despite the inescapable conclusion that BZP products offer the impressionable young yet another signal that the illicit drug market is cool, they enjoy a degree of public forbearance. Only reports that some users are suffering serious health effects have triggered any obvious concern. While those reports have been unsubstantiated – it is unclear, for example, whether the victims had been taking other drugs when the reactions occurred – the evidence is mounting rather than diminishing, that BZP can be a factor in serious health damage.

Yet this substance enjoys unfettered availability and is being offered in ever-stronger forms. It is classified as a dietary supplement, but any consequence that may carry is practically useless: BZP can be sold without advice, to any age group, with no safety or quality control. When this regulatory impotence is mixed with the stuff's outlandish drug-inspired marketing, its growing strength, its mounting street cachet and exorbitant prices, two outcomes seem inevitable: heightened health risks to users, and the involvement of low-life who will exploit the ease with which BZP can be flogged off to the gullible and unwary with no concern for the consequences.

A group of industry operators has developed an intended code of conduct for the products to avoid such scenarios. It urges, in essence, a more socially responsible approach to the business. As laudable as this is, they would seem to have no hope of convincing the cowboys to join their voluntary stance. Rather, some regulatory oversight is needed.

Anderton's proposal is for a new schedule in the Misuse of Drugs Act which could control such aspects as the legal age of purchase, labelling, and the supply and sale of the products – similar, perhaps, to the controls on tobacco and alcohol. It seems reasonable, hardly an over-reaction that will drive the business underground, and could offer some teeth against those tempted to unconscionably exploit the market. Importantly, it offers a way of capturing future products which will inevitably emerge as BZP's lustre dims in the recreational drug scene.

Anderton himself has ambitiously suggested the new schedule could also cover butane-propelled aerosols and other solvents which do enormous harm amongst a small number of young abusers. While again, the intention is laudable, that would seem to be an overly-optimistic challenge, and should not be allowed to side-track the case for putting legal highs in their rightful place – not outside the law, necessarily, but firmly within it.