'New Ecstasy' (BZP) Poses Major Health Risks, Reveals Research, UK

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edgarshade

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Medical News Today

Main Category: Alcohol / Addiction / Illegal Drugs
Article Date: 03 May 2011 - 3:00 PDT

With reader comments

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/223988.php

Scientists at Anglia Ruskin University have revealed for the first time the serious long-term health risks associated with Benzylpiperazine (BZP), dubbed the "new ecstasy".

BZP was a popular legal high before it was reclassified as a controlled substance in December 2009.

According to Dean Ames, the Forensic Science Service's drugs intelligence adviser, the designer drug has replaced MDMA as the main ingredient in ecstasy tablets.

"It's a rare drug now, MDMA," said Ames. "There are hundreds of thousands of tablets in circulation in the UK that look like ecstasy tablets, but which actually contain piperazines (a class of compounds that includes BZP).

"The tablets are still being sold as ecstasy and because they have an effect, young people may think they are taking ecstasy."
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The data produced by Professor Cole and Dr Vaughan provides clear evidence of the cellular cytotoxicity of BZP and its synthetic by-products at levels likely to occur following their ingestion. It also indicates that in general the liver, the site of detoxification for the body, is most sensitive to the actions of these drugs.

"Cells derived from the liver and kidney were exposed to BZP - its starting materials and its impurities - at concentrations which reflected a dose for a user of these drugs. The cells were examined to determine whether significant changes had occurred, including apoptosis (cell suicide) and necrosis (cell murder)," explained Professor Cole.

"It was found that BZP itself is toxic to the kidney whilst the starting material, piperazine hexahydrate, showed toxicity in only the liver. In general the study showed that water soluble drugs, impurities and mixtures were toxic to liver cells, whilst compounds and mixtures which are fat soluble are toxic to the kidney.
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Addictions expert Sarah Graham, who is a spokesperson for the Government drugs helpline FRANK, said: "BZP is not safe - it is an entirely synthetic party drug which mimics the effects of ecstasy and speed. It is a stimulant which can raise your blood pressure and may lead to a fit or heart attack.

"You never know what you are getting because the chemical make up continually changes and mixing the drug with alcohol can increase the risks."
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I found an interesting parallel from alcohol prohibition times...

http://www.slate.com/id/2245188/

By mid-1927, the new denaturing formulas included some notable poisons—kerosene and brucine (a plant alkaloid closely related to strychnine), gasoline, benzene, cadmium, iodine, zinc, mercury salts, nicotine, ether, formaldehyde, chloroform, camphor, carbolic acid, quinine, and acetone. The Treasury Department also demanded more methyl alcohol be added—up to 10 percent of total product. It was the last that proved most deadly.

The results were immediate, starting with that horrific holiday body count in the closing days of 1926. Public health officials responded with shock. "The government knows it is not stopping drinking by putting poison in alcohol," New York City medical examiner Charles Norris said at a hastily organized press conference. "[Y]et it continues its poisoning processes, heedless of the fact that people determined to drink are daily absorbing that poison. Knowing this to be true, the United States government must be charged with the moral responsibility for the deaths that poisoned liquor causes, although it cannot be held legally responsible."
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I can't believe many people are still using BZP.. this article seems outdated.

Pipes aren't as big a problem now as they were a few years ago (when they were everywhere)

But yeah they are bad for you.
 
It's just appeared in the Daily Mirror tabloid.


Ecstasy pill 'can cause serious liver and kidney damage'

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/05/03/ecstasy-pill-can-cause-serious-liver-and-kidney-damage-115875-23104466/

An ingredient found in ecstasy pills can cause serious liver and kidney damage, researchers say.

The compound, known as benzylpiperazine (BZP), is toxic to the body's cells, according to the first study of its kind. BZP has replaced MDMA as the main ingredient in ecstasy tablets, though it does not produce the same intense feeling of euphoria. But in terms of toxicity, researchers found that BZP can cause serious damage to the body. Scientists at Anglia Ruskin University analysed the most serious effects of BZP and other compounds in a class known as piperazines.
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We already knew / figured we know this kind of thing had to be true, but the large majority of people out there still don't know the difference between mdma and 'extasy'. It's great this was published, even if it's late it's still valuable. Molly may be flowing like water again, but people fuckin with pills are still in constant danger, the quality of the pill market doesn't seem to have improved much with all the molly floating around so this can wake more people up
 
Yeah they are a little late with the studies, cant blame them to try and keep up with the drug market, they did say at one point in the UK that mdma is non existant in a BBC news study, now its almost the completle opposite mdma is everywhere
 
A more complete report in Chemistry World

With reader comments

http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2011/May/09051102.asp

The legislation drove the synthesis underground, as it's a fairly straightforward one-pot reaction, but once the drug is made it starts to react with the starting materials, and badly made BZP also contains other substances such as dibenzylpiperazine.'

Cole's group, in conjunction with his colleague Lata Gautam, made a number of batches of BZP under different conditions to manipulate the proportions of the impurities. They then tested them against several human cell lines - fibroblasts, liver and kidney cells - both singly and as mixtures. They found that BZP is toxic to the kidney, while the precursor piperazine is toxic to the liver. The impurities are even more harmful and have synergistic effects with BZP itself. 'The damage you see is greater than the sum of the parts,' he says. 'If people suspected to have taken these drugs end up in hospital, medics should do liver and kidney function tests, as it's not always immediately apparent that damage has occurred,' he says.
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'Benzylpiperazines are not that difficult to make, and you could make thousands of them with different substitutions,' he says. 'I doubt we've yet touched the surface of what's likely to be active, and what will appear on the market next. No doubt people are going to start making some of these to see if they can hit on one that's really marketable.'
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BZP was never called 'the new ecstasy'… it should have been called "I can't get any pills so this shite will have to do ecstasy" :)
 
MDMA ain't back where I am either, shittest pills ever wouldn't even give my shoe for 20 :( I miss the old days
 
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