I saw a news item this morning stating that the NZ government had just passed legislation banning BZP-based drugs which actually made me ask Annette if there had been lots of deaths or incidents involving BZP that I had somehow missed in the news.
She told me that she thinks that one person had to go to hospital, a couple of years back.
Is this true? And if so, what the hell? Jim Anderton sponsored the bill and his web site says that BZP is a health risk and causes seizures, but I’m not sure what the probability is – this is of course only anecdotal but I know a lot of folk who take party pills and neither I nor they have EVER heard of anyone having a seizure because of it.
Andertons web site doesn’t say what the risk level actually is, just that there is some. Is this really just a Drugs Are Bad (If They’re Fun. And Not Alcohol. And Untaxed.) thing?
While I personally don’t use ’em, so am not affected by this ban, I have to ask if there’s not something more important the associate minister for health can be doing about the NZ health care system than this kind of apparent nanny state knee-jerk crap.