KEY POINTS:
Nearly one million party pills worth more than $6 million will soon be dumped on the market, says one supplier.
Gary Read of Tauranga, who owns NZ Party Pills, expects his stocks to run out before a proposed ban comes into force in December.
He finished a run of 950,000 pills shortly before Associate Health Minister Jim Anderton announced that he expected a law banning "legal highs" to be passed by Christmas.
Mr Read, 40, believes people will stockpile the pills. The average packet of three retails at $20.
Tauranga's Aristocrat Adult Shop, which sells party pills from about 10 different suppliers, also thinks people will begin stockpiling.
A spokesman said banning them was a big mistake. "People will just go back to the harder stuff."
Sales at Aristocrat had remained steady since news of the impending ban, but the shop expected demand to grow before it came into force.
Mr Read set up NZ Party Pills last November and supplies pills to about 270 outlets, mostly in the North Island.
He said business had picked up since Mr Anderton announced he would introduce legislation to ban the pills, saying sales had increased and the looming ban would push pill prices up. "I won't be doing another one [batch of pills] before I work out what the class is [drug classification]. I'll probably run out."
A recovering cocaine and amphetamine addict of 13 years, Mr Read said his six varieties of party pill, all of which contained the stimulant benzylpiperazine (BZP), were healthier alternatives to hard drugs, in particular pure methamphetamine (P).
Over a year of research, Mr Read said he used P addicts to test his products, one of which is named "Sub P", suggesting it as a substitute for the real thing.
Mr Read said banning BZP would only result in the manufacture of party pills going underground.
Acting Western Bay police area commander Inspector Karl Wright-St Clair could not recall any serious injuries or deaths occurring in Tauranga as a result of party pills.
"Alcohol plays a far greater role than party pills. I'd have to say that that's of far more concern to us."
Mr Wright-St Clair was not satisfied party pill poppers would switch to harder drugs. "I'm yet to be convinced that that would be the case because there are those harder drugs available now."
- DAILY POST
