The Drug Foundation, which works to prevent and reduce harm from drug use, said research on APVP in New Zealand was scarce since the drug had only been on the market a couple of years.
It confirmed that if the upcoming toxicology report found APVP in the dead man's system, it would be the first documented death from the drug in New Zealand.
"Bath Salts is a slang name out of the United States, which I think confuses a lot of people," the Drug Foundation's executive director Ross Bell Mr Bell said.
"The name is used simply because the people trying to sell it wanted to get around the law.
"Since it looks like the bath crystals people use in their homes for bathing, sellers packaged it and sold it as bath salts, just as a lot of drugs around the world were sold as plant food or fertiliser."
Mr Bell said APVP, which can be snorted, smoked, injected or taken in pill form, had similar speed-like effects to methamphetamine, though was less potent and without the 'good' feeling.
"What we've found through our research is that very few people share stories of positive experiences with this drug, as it seems the high it gives isn't a good one."
He believed APVP was a part of a bigger problem in New Zealand.
"New chemicals are being manufactured all the time and are often sold as something else, for example ecstasy or LSD.
"In this case, because of its crystal-like appearance, people may be selling APVP as meth.
"You're getting people who don't know what they're taking or think it's something else and this brings with it another related problem."
He said because APVP dissolves slowly, a person taking what they believe is a drug that comes on in a few minutes might think it is a 'bad batch' or not very strong, and evidently take more.
"This is when the drug can have nasty effects and, ultimately, overdoses can occur."
Reports showed that on the other hand, there were people who purchased the drug knowing what it was, making "a deliberate choice to get the high this particular drug gives".
The Drug Foundation's advice was to "absolutely avoid APVP", and it called on police and accident and emergency departments to be proactive in reporting cases involving the drug.
"Our recommendations to these people is that if they come across a case like this, make sure the information is made available to health authorities like us, so we can get much earlier warnings out there about what to look for and ways to stay safe.
"We'd like to see the government put more effort into providing warnings to people much earlier on."
A Waikanae Beach man, who had tried APVP and described it as "terrible", said he had witnessed people source the drug because "it's a high to try while getting around legislation".
"From my experience, it induced sweating, energy, hot and cold flushes, a lot of physical motivation, physical body issues such as cramps and mood swings," the 29-year-old said.
"It affected a mate's moods a lot and he went from happy to depressed in seconds."
The man said a subsequent issue with APVP, and other easy to access psychoactive substances, was that sellers also did not know enough about these drugs.
"It's often too strong when bought in bulk and needs to be cut down.
"Not by a pharmacist mind you, but by someone who's watched a YouTube video.
"I've seen the popularity of 'bath salts' rise with horror, as people think it's a better alternative to meth because it's cheaper and available.
"In all honesty, people will continue to do drugs and no amount of laws and legislation will change that, so we need to act accordingly.
"Drug experiences and education need to be made more freely available."
Senior sergeant Anita Dixon of Kapiti Police said police were concerned more people had unknowingly purchased APVP recently.
"More and more often we're seeing dealers 'cutting' drugs with other substances that make the effects highly dangerous," she said.
"While it's reassuring that we've been able to move quickly to identify this particular supplier of drugs, it's a reminder to people about the dangers of recreational drug use, and a drug that is currently available and causing such adverse reactions.
"If anyone purchased any such drug over the last couple of weeks, police recommend destroying it."
The 25-year-old Waikanae man arrested and charged with drug-related offences appeared in the Porirua District Court on Wednesday last week, where he entered no plea to a charge of supplying amphetamine, a class B drug.
