OVERDOSE EMERGENCY
● Bedside vigil for seven students of elite Gold Coast school ● Teens, aged 15 and 14, believed to have taken Russian designer drug ● Police seize mobile phones, warn students against sharing footage
THE parents of seven students at the prestigious Saint Stephen’s College kept a bedside vigil at Gold Coast University Hospital last night after they overdosed on a drug. Five were fighting for their lives in the intensive care unit.
SO exactly what is phenibut?
Seven Saint Stephen’s College students who overdosed yesterday on the Gold Coast are understood to have taken the potentially deadly drug, but it is not a drug commonly used on the party scene.
A designer drug first “synthesised” in Russia in the 1960s, phenibut, also known as fenibut and aminophenylbutyric acid, is a legal intoxicant with a poor safety profile that has long been regarded as potentially dangerous – and in some cases, highly toxic.
Australia became the first country in the world to ban phenibut on February 1 this year after the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration made it a prohibited (schedule 9) substance due to health concerns relating to withdrawal and overdose.
The ban means it is no longer legal to buy phenibut marketed as a therapeutic substance in Australia or order it to be shipped into the country from overseas.
However the drug can easily be found for sale on the internet.
While the synthetic amino acid derivative has been around for more than 50 years, very little research has been conducted into its effects on humans – most likely because it’s classified as a nutritional supplement, not a drug, everywhere except Russia, the Ukraine and Latvia.
Phenibut is derived from Gaba (gamma-aminobutyric acid) but unlike Gaba, has the ability to cross the blood brain barrier and enter the brain.
Users have likened the drug’s effects to “benzodiazepines without the fog”. Considered to be highly addictive and extremely dangerous in large doses, users say withdrawing from the drug can be extremely painful.
Often sold under the brand names Noofen and Citrocard, the “untested” supplement was extremely easy to buy online without a prescription as a nutritional supplement in powder or capsule form until the ARGA ban came into effect on February 1.
Referred to as “the Russian wonder drug”, phenibut is commonly used as a relaxant or as a substitute for alcohol and is marketed in the US as a dietary supplement designed to “help keep you calm”.
Phenibut is also used to lessen anxiety, insomnia, posttraumatic stress disorders, depression, stuttering and attention deficit disorders.
Unlike most other anxiolytic drugs, it’s also promoted as a nootropic drug, which implies that it can improve motivation, attention and concentration.
Users begin to feel the drug’s effects 80-90 minutes after taking it but they can kick in within 35 minutes if it’s taken on an empty stomach – and up to four or five hours later if taken on a full stomach.
Research indicates its effects vary wildly depending on the emotional state of the person taking it and whether or not it has been mixed with alcohol or THC.
Reported side effects of the supplement include headache and depression while overdoses can result in lowered body temperature, muscle relaxation and sleepiness.
While fears about phenibut’s recreational potential prompted calls for it to be reclassified as a controlled substance in Europe in 2015, Australia is believed to be the first country to ban it.