Warning on legal dance drug that experts say can kill

· Health Loophole in law allows BZP to be sold as 'fertiliser'
· Report urges EU to consider imposing ban

Rupert Neate

A dance drug described as "legal ecstasy" faces a possible Europe-wide ban after a report catalogued a number of deaths and serious injuries linked to the stimulant. Two people have died after taking the drug with ecstasy and it has been found during postmortems on two road accident victims in Britain.

Medical experts warn that benzylpiperazine (BZP) can cause convulsions, anxiety, abnormal heart rates, stomach pain and even death through over-stimulation of chemical pathways in the brain.

It is not illegal to take BZP but sales to the public are banned because it is registered as a prescription medicine. However, a loophole in the law allows retailers to sell the drug marked "not for consumption" as a soil fertiliser.

It can also be legally imported into Britain from foreign websites, mostly operating from New Zealand, where it is a multimillion-dollar industry and 20% of the population have taken the drug, which is sold under names such as Pep Twisted, Legal E, Nemesis and Euphoria.

The Home Office is reviewing the safety of BZP after the joint Europol and European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) report called for an urgent risk assessment to be carried out.

If the assessment, which will be released in June, finds the drug to be dangerous it could be banned throughout the European Union. If the drug is not banned by the EU, the Home Office could add BZP to the list of substances controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

A report published in the Lancet today describes one weekend in May last year when seven BZP users were admitted to St Thomas' hospital in London suffering from seizures, abnormal heart rates and anxiety.

It describes the case of an 18-year-old who bought tablets from a dealer in a nightclub thinking they were ecstasy or amphetamines. She collapsed after taking five of them and appeared to have a seizure lasting 10 minutes. When she arrived at hospital her pupils were dilated, her heart was racing and her body temperature and blood pressure had plummeted. She was treated in hospital with tranquillisers and within 12 hours had recovered and was discharged.

The paper says that standard medical tests may not pick up BZP, and warns it is potentially life-threatening. One of the report's authors, John Ramsey, a toxicologist at St George's hospital in London, told the Guardian: "We have no real idea how widespread the use of this drug is, as it is rarely reported. But it is quite clear it should be a controlled drug."

Originally designed as a cattle wormer, the drug is considered so dangerous by US authorities that it is classified as schedule one, the same category as heroin. The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs discussed the legal status of BZP in November but no action was taken.

Phil Willis, chairman of the Commons science and technology select committee, said: "BZP gives the government the perfect chance to play new drugs with a straight bat. They should look into the harm they cause and give drug users proper information about the drug. It is then up to the criminal justice system to decide how illegal the drug should be based on criminality."

The European report lists a series of deaths and serious injuries linked to the drug, including a 23-year-old Swiss woman who took BZP together with ecstasy and drank more than 10 litres of water. She died of hyponatraemia, or water poisoning. The report also gives anecdotal evidence that BZP was used in an alleged drug-induced rape case in Britain.

The authors of the report are concerned that many of the injuries caused by the stimulant may go unreported because it is not routinely tested for and clubbers are unlikely to tell doctors they have taken it.

Last month the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency announced a crackdown on the sale of the drug, warning retailers that they could face up to two years in prison and an unlimited fine.

But despite several raids by the agency and police, including the seizure of 64,900 tablets from a car in London, online shops are still selling thousands of pills a day.

Lesley King, a former head of the drugs intelligence unit and a British adviser to the European report, said that whether BZP is controlled by the Medicines Act "is a legally interesting point. If people sell it as a medicine it is illegal, but if it is sold as something else, like a soil fertiliser, it is not necessarily illegal. The courts would have to decide on a case-by-case basis."

'Its legal status is a big reason for people taking it'

"You feel very racy when you're high on it, your heart beats a lot. It gives you really loved-up feelings and mild euphoria. It also gives you an insane appreciation for music, though only music with a solid beat.

"When I took it, I noticed I was talking at crazy speeds and probably annoying everyone else around me. I also felt very dreamy and trippy, and space and time seemed to distort, although I didn't get any actual hallucinations."

Lewis and his friends, who have taken both BZP and ecstasy, say that the highs provided are somewhat similar, but Lewis is wary of taking ecstasy tablets.

"If you get caught with lots of BZP on you, you'll get a slapped wrist, but if you get caught with loads of MDMA [ecstasy] you'll be charged with possession and intent to supply a class A substance, which could result in a life prison sentence and an unlimited fine. So from a legal standpoint it's still far preferable.

"I didn't like the insane raciness and the dirty feel the BZP high provides, so I wouldn't choose it over other drugs.

"But I would imagine the legal status and its availability is the main reason people take it."

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UK March 2007: sale of benzylpiperazine (BZP) banned