• 🇳🇿 🇲🇲 🇯🇵 🇨🇳 🇦🇺 🇦🇶 🇮🇳
    Australian & Asian
    Drug Discussion

    Welcome Guest!
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
  • AADD Moderators: swilow | Vagabond696

ease? mdma alternative trials

Hey person! Well put, especially about them having to offer an alternative to bzp if they take it away.

I'll be coming home (NZ) for Easter so will definitly be on the hunt for Ease! I hope my application gets through in time!
 
does anyone know if this is just available to new zealand citizens?
 
Party pill sparks official concern

Apr 7, 2006

Health officials have issued a warning about a so-called clinical drug trial being run by one of the big players in the party pill scene.

Ease is being sold on the internet - under the guise of a clinical trial - as a safe legal alternative for people using ecstasy.

But tests show the main ingredient is basically the same as in ecstasy, making it illegal to manufacture or sell.

"Because it's an analogue, which means it's similar too, it's covered by the act and there are quite severe penalties for this," says Associate Health Minister Jim Anderton.

The man selling Ease, Matt Bowden, says he stopped the trial once he realised health officials had a problem.

He says he has done nothing wrong and has acted in good faith. Bowden claims he got permission from the Ministry of Health to import the methylone.

But experts aren't just taking issue with the drug itself, they say Bowden should not be using the term "clinical trial" which implies it has been approved by medical experts as well as supervised and analysed by them.

Medical bioethics professor Grant Gillett says calling it a clinical trial is very misleading.

"The most uncharitable thought one might have is it's a kind of designer drug version of a Tupperware party," he says.

Bowden says he only ever sold to people on the trial and if he wanted to make money he would have sold it to everyone.

Jim Anderton is not convinced.

"We cannot countenance this kind of activity going on... I think it shows how quickly you can get into very difficult areas when you're playing around with so-called social or party drugs," says Anderton.

The pills are now with the drug squad while police investigate the matter.

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411749/697050
Click to expand...

...
 
Ouch.

And to think, methylone could have been (quasi)legal in NZ. From what I've read, it would make a decent legal alternative to ecstasy. Better than BZP anyway.
 
Ecstasy copycat sales stopped

08.04.06
By Anne Beston


Sales of party pills that mimic the effects of the drug Ecstasy were suspended yesterday after tests showed the pills were almost certainly illegal.

But producers of a television show say it wasn't until they commissioned independent testing of the drug that any action was taken.

The party pills with the "Ease" brand have been sold since last year under the guise of so-called "clinical trials" run by a company called Stargate International.

After signing up for the trials, prospective buyers watch a "safety video" and are told their reaction to the drug would be part of further research.

Yesterday, Associate Health Minister Jim Anderton said advice from the chair of the Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, showed Ease contained a substance called called methylone, an "analogue" - similar to - cathinone, which is a Class B amphetamine controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

"On this basis, the so-called clinical trial being conducted via the Stargate website might well be a breach of the Misuse of Drugs Act, and accordingly the police have been informed," Mr Anderton said.

Stargate International's Matt Bowden then immediately suspended sales of the drug.

But producers of the Great Southern Television-produced consumer show, the Truth Files, getting its first airing on TV2 this season, said Mr Anderton only acted after it commissioned tests on Ease by the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR).

"[Mr Anderton] would not have made this statement without us going to him with the information from ESR," said executive producer Rachel Gardner.

Mr Bowden said Government agencies, including the Ministry of Health, had approved importation.

"We checked the legality of this compound with the Ministry of Health and we received written consent to import it," he said.

But he stopped the "non-therapeutic clinical trial" of Ease now that tests showed it might be illegal.

Mr Bowden styles his company as trying to reduce drug-related harm "through the development of safer, legal alternatives" to drugs such as Ecstasy or methamphetamine.

Mr Anderton said evidence about the drug was presented by the ESR after it tested several products containing methylone, and scientists were of the view it was subject to the Misuse of Drugs Act.

He could not be reached for comment on whether the claims by the television show, that they had discovered Ease might contain an illegal substance, were correct.

Party pills are generally cheap, legal stimulants containing low-risk substances such as benzylpiperazine which energise users and give a sense of euphoria.

Source
 
chopped_chimp said:
Well he's got some balls. Stupid me. I should've applied earlier!!!
Click to expand...

I'm pissed off. I've had the forms at home for a couple of months, and never got round to applying. Too late now.

Might have to stock up on the BZP/TMFPP based ones, as well.

Person: I hope you're right, but I think that seems somewhat optimistic, unfortunately. They don't really need to present conclusive evidence that a drug is harmful, in order to criminalise it. They just need to decide to criminalise it. If I read the legislation right (see legislation.govt.nz), they just need to get an Order in Council to do that.

What that means is that the Governor-General signs an Order changing the legal status of BZP. This Order would first come through Cabinet, having been proposed by a Minister (in this case, Anderton). So all that needs to happen is for Anderton to get approval from Cabinet. No need to go through Parliament, no need to really justify it.

And at least two Ministers (Anderton and Cosgrove) are strongly anti-drug, specifically BZP/TMFPP. None of the rest are in favour, as far as I know (c.f. Helen Clark saying people should get high on life). And Labour are competing with National to appear tough on drugs.

So if there's any evidence that these drugs are harmful, even bad evidence, I think it will be seized on, and we will be looking at a ban on them :( Which I think is stupid, because, as you say, it will encourage people to use harder drugs. But I think that's what's going to happen. And there is already some evidence of potential harm.
 
It wasnt half obvious they where methylone. Its pretty funny how they managed to keep selling them for so long.
 
LOL I got my orders before it hit the news :\ , and glad+lucky for that, had a hunch wouldnt be round for long/or fingers crossed for ease to still be avail to over 21, highly doubtful heh, now I dont know whether to hold on to them for nostalgic reasons or be a greedy pig 8(
 
If they are found to be a class b drug, does that mean anyone who purchased Ease or is found with Ease on them now can be prosecuted?

Maybe there'll be some kind of amnesty on them... Good luck!

Oh well, Stargate is about to make some much better money on the black market.
 
^^
I would suspect that they could be prosecuted, because they'd be breaking the law, and ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking it. I would doubt that police would be trawling through Stargate's customer lists to identify people who bought Ease in the past. But equally, I'd think if you were caught at a club/rave/whatever with Ease, that they'd have to consider prosecution.
 
So you guys that all signed up to be on this medical trial were actually paying them to be their lab rats, that sort of rings alarm bells right there in my mind.
 
not really mate...over here the rave crews place a lot of faith in mr bowden. nobody is even remotely pissed off that these 'may have been illegal' and full support will be put behind him for the impending court/legislative battle.
 
There is a really, really good write-up of this in Russell Brown's weblog, Public Address. Russell is a respected media commentator, and seriously knows his shit. If you're reading this thread, you should really read that article.

Cyberdyne said:
not really mate...over here the rave crews place a lot of faith in mr bowden. nobody is even remotely pissed off that these 'may have been illegal' and full support will be put behind him for the impending court/legislative battle.
Click to expand...

I'd agree with this. Matt Bowden's definitely on our side. And he's known in the scene - he posts on NZ rave/dance boards (and he's registered on BL). Sure, he's a businessman, and he wants to make money, but he also has a genuine goal of developing legal, safer alternatives to the illegal drugs.

I do think he may have gone about this trial slightly wrong - I mean, it started off (apparently) as a legitimate trial, but in the latter phases it looked like it was more about direct marketing the pills. Or at least, it was easy for opponents to describe it that way.
 
I think this test was both highly innovative and highly unethical. Personally, I can't say in one breath that pill users have the right to know what they're taking and in the next, condone the blind testing of a branded pseudo-legal substance. Sorry!
 
Bah, this bowden is a crock - a false mesiah to drug addicts.

Did anyone think they'd actually hide a BRAND NEW compound - highly unlikely.

He knew he was making money off you idiots - off something he was probably importing from asia at an amazingly low cost - hiding under the rouse of 'clinical' testing.

You guys should quit following this idiot - any way - you all know, no matter how hard you try - if the government finds any kind of chemical responsible for getting you high - it will be labled dangerous and taken off the market - and those responsible are demonised. Would you not expect that anyway?

Be thankful you got this far.

BTW - He would have known it was Methylone - no way can the director of a DRUGS company not know what he's selling. Methylone is far from being able to be classed a safe alternative to ecstacy - fuck, it's quite possible it does more damage. It's just another research chemical.

Well done NZ - you got some legal drugs for a few months, i for one am envious of that much.

Peace.
 
zaineaol.nu said:
Methylone is far from being able to be classed a safe alternative to ecstacy - fuck, it's quite possible it does more damage. It's just another research chemical.
Click to expand...

Have you bothered to read the blog post linked above?

Like ecstasy (MDMA), methylone works by triggering serotonin release in the brain. Unlike ecstasy, it is selective and does not release the monoamines dopamine and noradrenalin, which are responsible for the amphetamine-like effects of ecstasy.

In practical terms, the effect is one of elevated mood, empathy and sociability, without the out-of-it-ness of ecstasy, the intensity of physical effect, or the hangover. As a friend of mine put it, "ecstasy for grownups". There are quite a number of experience reports at Erowid. (To answer the obvious questions: yes, I have tried Ease and I am not the only journalist to have done so, and, yes, I found it highly effective.)

But the monoamine dump triggered by ecstasy is also linked to its neurotoxicity: depending on dosage, frequency and recovery time, ecstasy really can hurt your brain. With its more selective effect, methylone would seem to lack ecstasy's neurotoxic effects, even at high doses. This is the argument Bowden made in the ministerial advisory, also suggesting that it lacked the mechanisms to cause addiction or acute hyperthermia, which is the main cause of (very rare)ecstasy deaths.

http://www.publicaddress.net/default,3066.sm#post3066
Click to expand...

"Research Chemicals" are only called that because little research has been done into them. Now there is a body of research around Methylone use I'll guess we'll see what happens.

ALL drugs have risks. This was an exercise in trying to find a drug with less risk. Politically it seems to have stumbled because opponents are able to point out some risk and say this is the reason it should be banned.

That right there is the difference between harm reduction and zero tolerance, because of course zero tolerance doesn't apply to sanctified harmful drugs that are currently legal.

Question Matt's motives all you want but at least this was progress.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top