Lack of testing leads to Kronic problem: NZ Emergency Doctor

Posted by Drug Test Australia

Original; Emma Dawe, The Southland Times; http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/5264514/Lack-of-testing-leads-to-Kronic-problem-emergency-doctor

An emergency physician believes people are using party drugs, including Kronic, under the misguided belief they have been rigorously tested by authorities.

Paul Gee, from Christchurch Hospital, said that was not the case at all and party drugs were actually in a "twilight zone" between legal and illegal drugs because they were not covered by legislation.

"They're not a named drug covered by legislation. Nor are they a food, so they escape legislation covering foods.

"They're being slickly marketed and people are buying them not realising they've never been tested before in humans."

Speaking at the winter symposium of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine held in Queenstown yesterday, Dr Gee called for the onus to be put on manufacturers to prove new psychotropic drugs were safe.

"At present we have to wait until people reach intensive care before there is any action."

The herbal ingredients in the products were mixed with unlisted synthetic Cannabinoids that had been declared illegal in some countries but were unregulated in New Zealand.

Dr Gee said he was seeing more patients affected by the drugs – those patients were showing symptoms similar to those of people using cannabis, such as drowsiness, increased heart rate and feelings of euphoria.

Those symptoms were what doctors had expected, but what was not expected were the amphetamine-type symptoms some party drug users were displaying, including seizures, he said.

"We've seen some people probably close to unconsciousness," he said.

While it was too soon to determine what the long-term effects of using the drugs were, Dr Gee said there was evidence prolonged cannabis use could lead to long-term memory loss, and there was no reason why that would not be the case for the prolonged use of party drugs.

Dr Gee said his main concern was nobody had done any scientific research on the drugs.

While any new food or medicine was stringently tested before being licensed for consumption in New Zealand, the chemicals in these substances were not.

"It basically amounts to experimentation but without the upside of gathering any information."

Meanwhile, former Central Otago District Mayor Malcolm Macpherson is calling for people to join him in a footpath demonstration outside the only shop in Alexandra selling Kronic – C&C Traders.

Mr Macpherson said there was no justification for the owner to sell Kronic, and other products that exposed the community to health risks.

C&C Traders owner Bill Clements said he was being "pushed into a corner" for no reason, as the products were not to blame for the problems parents were having with their teenagers.

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