Media release from Alcohol Action NZ

Previously buried medical research undertaken in the UK published in 2005 has come to light showing that alcoholic drinks made through the fermentation of white and red grapes contain small amounts of a drug known as Fantasy. Fantasy is the street name for gamma-hydroxy butric acid (GHB) and related substances (including the alcohol butanediol) and was one of the first new drugs examined by the NZ Government's Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs (EACD) using new "evidence-based" criteria in 2001. On the basis of this EACD investigation, Fantasy was scheduled as a Class B prohibited drug, which means this set of drugs are considered to be of high risk to public health.

New Zealand researchers subsequently examined ethanol (the normal alcohol in wine) with the same EACD criteria and used Fantasy as a comparison. This research, published in the prestigious international Journal of Psychopharmacology in 2009, showed that ethanol posed the same risk to public health as Fantasy, ie ethanol was a Class B equivalent drug. The greater potency of Fantasy was judged to be balanced by the carcinogenicity and brain damaging impacts of ethanol.

"The UK finding that wine contains Fantasy raises the intriguing situation that New Zealand wines contain a prohibited Class B drug" said Dr Geoff Robinson, medical spokesperson for Alcohol Action NZ and one of the authors of the New Zealand research comparing ethanol with Fantasy.

"Given that there are no specific data on wine sold in New Zealand, it would be appropriate for the Government to sponsor such research. Little is known about the specific synergistic effect of ethanol mixed with Fantasy and at what doses the mixing of these drugs is important".

"There was more Fantasy found in the red wines investigated in the UK study than the white wines" added Prof Doug Sellman, another author of the New Zealand ethanol research, "but nevertheless the actual amounts were small - about 1/50 of an intoxicating recreational dose of Fantasy in a 750ml bottle of wine".

"However, the situation we are facing with the existence of two Class B drugs in wine - one legal and sold in supermarkets, the other illegal and associated with severe legal sanctions - highlights the irrational and inconsistent drug laws we have in New Zealand, particularly with respect to our favourite drug alcohol".

Dr Geoffrey Robinson
Chief Medical Officer
Capital & Coast District Health Board

Professor Doug Sellman
Director, National Addiction Centre
University of Otago, Christchurch

Medical Spokespeople
Alcohol Action NZ
www.alcoholaction.co.nz