“食药署”研究检验组科长林美智表示，“食药署”去年10月协助检警检验管制药品案件时，也在送验的三件糖包等检体中，首度验出MAPB类成分。

　　这项新兴毒品会以铝箔糖包、咖啡包、小玻璃液态瓶等形态贩卖，外包装还标示热量等，企图鱼目混珠；一开始使用后会产生兴奋感，但可能会逐渐出现高血压、心跳加快、心脏毒性等副作用，甚至丧命。

　　2013年英国一名女研究生在毕业前夕找到工作，在家狂欢，因好奇上网购买“Benzo Fury”助兴，却在几小时后突然失去意识、身体抽搐、心跳剧烈，急救后仍不幸死亡。

　　林美智说，“Benzo Fury”因尚未受管制，不少不肖业者在海外网站公开贩卖，甚至注明官方、化学研究物质等字眼，降低民众的戒心；可能主要在娱乐场所流通，目前规划纳入管制药品管理。

　　“食药署”提醒，不要因一时好奇尝试来路不明的助兴物品。

"Legal high" Benzo Fury may harbor addiction risk

　　(Reuters) - A party drug available over the Internet and often taken by young people in Britain and the United States may harbor unknown risks because it has both stimulant and hallucinogenic effects, scientists said on Tuesday.

　　Researchers who analyzed the effect of the drug called "Benzo Fury" on the brains of rats found it had similar effects to some illegal drugs such as amphetamines or cocaine, which can cause hallucinations and are also addictive.

　　"It's in the combination of these stimulant and hallucinogenic properties that the greatest danger lies," Jolanta Opacka-Juffry of Britain's University of Roehampton, who led the study, said.

　　Benzo Fury is one of the most popular "legal highs" in Britain and is also sold in the United States, the experts who conducted the study said. Such drugs are mostly synthetic laboratory-designed substances that imitate the effects of illegal drugs such as cannabis, amphetamine or ecstasy.

　　Experts who presented a study of Benzo Fury at a British Neuroscience Association conference in London said it appears to be fairly easy to buy via the Internet, at music festivals and in clubs - priced at around 10 pounds ($15.35) a pill.

　　Speaking at the conference, Opacka-Juffry said it showed how the active ingredient in Benzo Fury, known as 5-APB, behaves a bit like amphetamine - in other words like a stimulant with addictive potential, and like a hallucinogen, which effects brain receptors of the hormone serotonin.

　　"Pure hallucinogens are not addictive as such because they do not cause an increase in dopamine release, unlike amphetamine or cocaine," she said. "But Benzo Fury with its mixed properties is a trap as its repetitive use for the hallucinogenic effects could lead to dependence."

　　She said its effect on serotonin receptors also suggested it may lead to high blood pressure by causing constriction of the blood vessels, making the substance potentially more risky.

　　"It's possible that the reason these drugs are so popular is because they are seen as safer than their illegal counterparts," she said, so it is "important to challenge such assumptions".

　　A report by the United Nations International Narcotics Control Board earlier this year said that in Europe alone, a new "legal high" comes onto the market every week.

　　David Nutt, a professor of psychopharmacology at Imperial College London and a former drugs advisor to the UK, said the big risk for people taking such substances was ignorance about what might be in them and what a safe dose might be.

　　"At present it's a lottery," he told reporters. "People just don't know what they are taking.