A bodybuilding product has been stripped from New Zealand shelves over suspicions it may contain a party drug used for date-rape.
The manufacturer of Dorian Yates GH Blast, which sold online for NZ$109, has withdrawn its product from New Zealand.
The Ministry for Primary Industries investigated after The Dominion Post, tipped off by a concerned consumer, made inquiries.
Tests are under way to determine whether the product contains the Class B drug GHB, which goes by the street-names Grievous Bodily Harm, Fantasy, and GABA.
MPI said it had contacted the Australian supplier and all stock had since been withdrawn here.
The ministry said last night that it was unable to confirm final test results from the Institute of Environmental Science and Research.
Illicit performance and image-enhancing drugs are allegedly being traded at some of the country's leading gyms.
A source, who no longer sells GH Blast, said his industry self-regulated and usually did it well.
"The main problem with the industry is . . . how someone can just set up in their garage and sell you whatever you want . . . The product that you're talking about - I don't know how it slipped through the cracks."
The source said the use of proprietary blends in the products - where ingredients are trademarked under an umbrella name to protect manufacturing secrets - was problematic as some countries did not require disclosure of the contents.
ESR was alerted to the product in August. In a statement it said that without having yet tested the product, it was possible it contained GHB - because of its list ingredient Gamarex.
A global drug developer that supplies Australia listed Gamarex in some of its products, describing it as containing gamma-aminobutyric acid.
ESR identified this as GHB.
Former champion bodybuilder Justin Rys was jailed for dealing Fantasy and now, despite going clean, suffers from health problems.
He has warned that many bodybuilding products are risky.
"There's no long-term studies into these things - chemists come up with a new chemical, they chuck it in. It's not like medicines that have to be proven. With these it's whatever makes a buck - like party pills.
"They know it's going to do something but there's no research into the side-effects. So if five years later your arm falls off they don't care. It's like a Wild West."
An American study published last month found 85 per cent of weight-loss, sports and sexual-enhancement supplements recalled for causing strokes and heart attacks re-emerged in the market laced with substances including steroid-like compounds.
The researchers called for aggressive enforcement to protect consumers, USA Today reported.
Rys said New Zealand also needed "big fines" for products that did not meet food and medicine standards.
"It's not regulated at all. It's a friggin' shambles," he said. "I just want people to feel confident and safe in what they are buying."
The manufacturer of GH Blast has not commented.
- The Dominion Post
Bodybuilding product may contain date-rape drug | Stuff.co.nz
The manufacturer of Dorian Yates GH Blast, which sold online for NZ$109, has withdrawn its product from New Zealand.
The Ministry for Primary Industries investigated after The Dominion Post, tipped off by a concerned consumer, made inquiries.
Tests are under way to determine whether the product contains the Class B drug GHB, which goes by the street-names Grievous Bodily Harm, Fantasy, and GABA.
MPI said it had contacted the Australian supplier and all stock had since been withdrawn here.
The ministry said last night that it was unable to confirm final test results from the Institute of Environmental Science and Research.
Illicit performance and image-enhancing drugs are allegedly being traded at some of the country's leading gyms.
A source, who no longer sells GH Blast, said his industry self-regulated and usually did it well.
"The main problem with the industry is . . . how someone can just set up in their garage and sell you whatever you want . . . The product that you're talking about - I don't know how it slipped through the cracks."
The source said the use of proprietary blends in the products - where ingredients are trademarked under an umbrella name to protect manufacturing secrets - was problematic as some countries did not require disclosure of the contents.
ESR was alerted to the product in August. In a statement it said that without having yet tested the product, it was possible it contained GHB - because of its list ingredient Gamarex.
A global drug developer that supplies Australia listed Gamarex in some of its products, describing it as containing gamma-aminobutyric acid.
ESR identified this as GHB.
Former champion bodybuilder Justin Rys was jailed for dealing Fantasy and now, despite going clean, suffers from health problems.
He has warned that many bodybuilding products are risky.
"There's no long-term studies into these things - chemists come up with a new chemical, they chuck it in. It's not like medicines that have to be proven. With these it's whatever makes a buck - like party pills.
"They know it's going to do something but there's no research into the side-effects. So if five years later your arm falls off they don't care. It's like a Wild West."
An American study published last month found 85 per cent of weight-loss, sports and sexual-enhancement supplements recalled for causing strokes and heart attacks re-emerged in the market laced with substances including steroid-like compounds.
The researchers called for aggressive enforcement to protect consumers, USA Today reported.
Rys said New Zealand also needed "big fines" for products that did not meet food and medicine standards.
"It's not regulated at all. It's a friggin' shambles," he said. "I just want people to feel confident and safe in what they are buying."
The manufacturer of GH Blast has not commented.
- The Dominion Post
Bodybuilding product may contain date-rape drug | Stuff.co.nz
