As of midnight tonight, BZP party pills will no longer be available for commercial sale, as the ban on the active ingredient comes into effect on April 1^st. Sorry party people, this is not an April Fools’ joke.

The Misuse of Drugs act has been amended by Parliament to reclassify any drug containing benzylpiperazine (BZP) as class C, the same as cannabis.

Since its launch into the mainstream party scene in New Zealand in recent years, BZP party pills have been sold as a legal alternative to heavy drugs such as ecstasy - and because they have been legal, users have not been treating them as potentially dangerous.

Ingestion of BZP can result in vomiting, abnormal heart rhythms, severe pains and anxiety among other things. In rare cases, users may suffer from serotonin syndrome which can result in death.

There is an amnesty on personal use of the drug for 6 months, but possession of more than five grams of BZP (100 pills) is illegal from midnight.

Penalties for possession include up to three months imprisonment, while suppliers can face up to eight years.

There are many services in New Zealand to get help with drugs and addiction. Never hesitate to speak up and reach out.

Image from Flickr.

Our personal health and fitness is one of our biggest concerns, so it’s no surprise that we look online for health information, advice, diagnosis, products, insurance, health shops and pharmacies… but what exactly are we looking for?

According to Hitwise, gatherers of online search data and statistics, the top 10 New Zealand health searches for December 2007 were:

1. movember
2. les mills
3. bmi
4. treasures
5. weight watchers
6. pubmed
7. southern cross
8. sparc
9. depression
10. auckland hospital

Viewing and analysing search data such as this can be hugely valuable in terms of creating content, targeting Web users and reading the minds of New Zealand searchers. We’ve got a lot of health issues on our minds, covering:

• Health fund raising - Taking part in the men’s health event of the year (the month formerly known as November)
• Health and fitness - Finding gyms, fitness centres and recreational pursuits
• Weight loss - Calculating Body Mass Index and signing up for Weight Watchers
• Health care - Sourcing private health care, hospitals and PubMed (an online medical information resource)
• Mental health - Depression, an all-too-common symptom of modern living?
• Baby nappies - The essential item for newborns and infants!

Not only is this kind of information useful, it’s also changeable throughout the year; in winter, for instance, ‘cold and flu’ searches will be big, as will any hot current events, such as immunization or bird flu. So, keep an eye on search data - it makes for a fascinating insight into the world of search.

Yesterday the #1 searched phrase on NZS.com was “hoodia.”

It’s always a laugh seeing something turn up as the most searched term in a day when you have absolutely no idea what the term means.

After some quick research it turns out Hoodia (otherwise known as Hoodia Gordonii) is an as yet unproven weight loss appetite suppressant made from a specific cactus-like plant that grows in the Namib Desert (or so Wikipedia tells me).

So who mentioned Hoodia to have New Zealanders searching for it?