“Head Shop” drug BZP to be placed under control across the EU

The decision of the Council of the EU was adopted today in the final stage of a three-step procedure designed to respond to potentially threatening new psychoactive drugs in the EU.

The Council Decision is based on the findings of a formal risk-assessment report on BZP produced in 2007 by the Scientific Committee of theEU drugs agency (EMCDDA), with participation of additional experts from the European Commission, Europol and the European Medicines Agency (EMEA). The report, submitted to the European Commission and Council of the EU on 31 May 2007, examined the health and social risks of the drug as well as information on international trafficking and the involvement of organised crime. The Council Decision states that: ‘due to its stimulant properties, risk to health, the lack of medical benefits and following the precautionary principle, there is a need to control BZP’, through measures ‘appropriate to the relatively low risks of the substance’.

EU Member States are thus called on today to take, within one year, the necessary measures to submit BZP to: ‘control measures proportionate to the risks of the substance’ and ‘criminal penalities’ in line with their national laws (which in turn comply with the UN drug conventions). Eight EU Member States (Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Malta andSweden) already control BZP under drug control or equivalent legislation and two (Spain and the Netherlands) regulate it under their medicine-related legislation. BZP (1-benzylpiperazine) is a psychoactive drug belonging to the group of piperazine derivatives, which includes substances such as mCPP and TFMPP. Like amphetamine and methamphetamine, BZP is a central nervous system stimulant and is reported by users to provoke similar effects to these substances, although it is less potent (around 10% of that of d-amphetamine). Whereas the parent compound piperazine has been widely used for many years as an anti-worming drug in animals, BZP has never been used for such a purpose. Health risks or adverse reactions reported by BZP users include: vomiting, headaches, stomach pains/nausea, anxiety, insomnia, mood swings and confusion — with certain symptoms sometimes lasting for up to 24 hours. Clinical reports on BZP patients have suggested links between use of the drug and grand mal seizures, although this finding is based on a very small number of cases. BZP has also been found in some post-mortem samples, but the extent to which the drug was implicated in the deaths is unknown as other substances or circumstances were also involved.

BZP was first notified to the EMCDDA and Europol via their early-warning system on new drugs in 1999, but there was an increase in the number of notifications of BZP to the agencies at the end of 2006. Over the last two years, BZP-containing products have been aggressively marketed by various retailers and websites as ‘natural’ or ‘herbal’ highs and as a legal alternative to ecstasy (‘Legal E’, ‘Legal X’), misleading potential users to believe the drug is safe. Many BZP tablets and capsules contain TFMPP, the combination of the two substances mimicking some of the effects of ecstasy.

Contact: Kathy Robertson, Media relations

email: Kathryn.Robertson@emcdda.europa.eu

Rua da Cruz de Santa Apolónia 23–25, 1149-045 Lisbon, Portugal