Synthetic drug poses ‘widespread harm’ risk

A rapid increase in seizures of a new drug at the border has prompted a warning from authorities, who say little is known about it, but its potential to cause harm could be ‘‘disproportionally large’’.

Dimethylpentylone, also known as dipentylone or sold online under names such as ‘BU crystal’, is likely to become the most prevalent synthetic substance of its type in New Zealand, a new report has found.

Police predict the drug, a synthetic cathinone, will completely overtake the consumption of eutylone, a drug which caused extensive harm throughout the country in late 2020 and early 2021, after it was mis-sold as MDMA (ecstasy), causing dozens of hospitalisations.

‘‘The real fear of course is that we just have no idea of how harmful this new drug really is,’’ National Drug Intelligence Bureau (NDIB) manager Detective Inspector Blair Macdonald said. ‘‘Because there’s just no evidence as it’s such a new substance, we don’t know what harm this will cause people.’’

A report about the drug by the NDIB, a multi-agency intelligence unit involving police, customs, and the Ministry of Health, called for authorities to consider prioritising dimethylpentylone-related investigations over other less harmful drugs. ‘‘Although dimethylpentylone is present in relatively small quantities, the associated harm has the potential to be disproportionately large,’’ it said.

The drug was first detected in New Zealand in November, at a drug testing clinic in Dunedin, and first seized at the border in February.

Since then, the amount seized has continued to increase, totalling more than 12.2 kg, or 122,660 doses, so far.

‘‘It’s definitely surprising,’’ Macdonald said. ‘‘What we are worried about is how it has been quicker to escalate to a point where this drug is more prevalent in the community more quickly than eutylone.

‘‘When we are talking about synthetic substances which have high dose rates . . . we’re talking dangerous amounts of a drug that can be used hundreds of 1000s of times in the community.’’