Chiral Posted September 29, 2009 (edited) LINK HEALTH authorities are investigating a herbal party drug called Giggle after a teenager took one tablet and developed a potentially dangerous heartbeat. The 19-year-old, who is 1.88m tall and weighs 90kg, was taken by ambulance to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital emergency department on Saturday after ingesting the Giggle pill. He had a heart rate of 166 beats a minute – more than double the normal range – was unsteady on his feet, nauseous, dizzy, pale and sweaty. Doctors put him under observation and discharged him later that night. His case has prompted Queensland Health and Australia's medicines regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, to launch separate investigations into the drug, manufactured in New Zealand. Emergency specialists have also issued warnings about the potential dangers of the tablets, said to contain guarana, geranium extract, calcium, magnesium and "tableting aids". They sell on the internet for about $10 each. RBWH emergency medicine director Alan O'Connor said ingesting one Giggle pill was the equivalent of drinking 20 cups of coffee in one hit. And Australasian College for Emergency Medicine Queensland chairman David Rosengren described the pills as a "significant health risk". "Any person taking concentrated caffeine in either the form of a drink, or tablets wrapped up as party pills, should be very cautious about going down that pathway," Dr Rosengren said. "It's not uncommon for us to see people coming in with symptoms of excessive caffeine ingestion and irregular palpitations, heart arrythmias." Police have seized all remaining Giggle tablets from a shop in Brisbane's Queen Street Mall, called Off Ya Tree. Management of Off Ya Tree would not comment yesterday. Queensland Health's Forensic and Scientific Services division will test the seized pills to determine whether they contain any illegal substances. But the results of the tests are expected to take at least a week. QH's Environmental Health Branch acting senior director John Piispanen said the department's investigation would focus on the substances in the pills and whether regulatory requirements had been adhered to. A spiel about the pills on a website selling them says: "Sometimes life is too serious, Giggle will have you cracking up in fits of laughter while being completely off your pickle. These are one of our strongest pills so only take one. Don't Double Drop!" Edited September 29, 2009 by Chiral Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderIdeal Posted September 29, 2009 dudes these sound awesome. i won't be messing around with dangerous ecstasy if i can get some of these. thanks big brother Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mu! Posted September 29, 2009 A spiel about the pills on a website selling them says: "Sometimes life is too serious, Giggle will have you cracking up in fits of laughter while being completely off your pickle. These are one of our strongest pills so only take one. Don't Double Drop!" so if im to interpret that as ravings of another dodgey party-pill dealer, i should eat 5 of them right? LOL how come ppl cant appreciate the finer points of caffeine ingestion by way of a good cup of joe! caffeine pills, wat a joke. harden up and drink half a pot of oil-consistency arabica goodness... tsk tsk tsk Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mu! Posted September 29, 2009 (edited) . Edited September 29, 2009 by mu. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Smiling Cloud Posted September 29, 2009 RBWH emergency medicine director Alan O'Connor said ingesting one Giggle pill was the equivalent of drinking 20 cups of coffee in one hit. If a cup of coffe has 100mg of caffiene in it then these things must be monsters! A friend of mine bought some 'geranium' pills (they were red so probably not giggly) and he said they were horrible. He said it was just like E but without any of the nice part. He and a few friends ate them at this years splendour. I went round the day after and they were all taking turns at spewing over the toilet, did not look fun at all. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ace Posted September 29, 2009 RBWH emergency medicine director Alan O'Connor said ingesting one Giggle pill was the equivalent of drinking 20 cups of coffee in one hit. After reading a few articles about these, this line is in all. I wonder how much caffeine is actually in each pill, since after a few cups of coffee this morning (around 4-5 tsp instant within about 3 hours) I was buzzing/jittering quite hard (to the point where I was getting mild shakes - bad Ace, no need to go there again...). Throwing this figure out seems absurd - like saying 'I caught a fish the size of a bus on the weekend'... Does anyone know the accurate figure, or if this comment is legit? Considering the price, I'm suprised kiddies arent just hitting the local supermarket/bigW for NoDoz - a mere fraction of the price for the same active ingredient. Plus it is ready to go in pill form and it's extremely easy to obtain. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AndyAmine. Posted September 30, 2009 Thats the thing ACE, there is no Caffeine in these pills. All the press have been mixing it up, the original statement was that it was 'equal' to x20 cups of coffee not that it actually have caffeine in it. Then all the social commentators on shows like 'Morning with Kerry Anne' and the Today show etc grabbed at the line with both hands and started saying it was in fact a super dooper caffeine pill similar to NoDoz.. (where they both said the TGA needed to toughen up! LAWLZ) I think Geranamine (sp?) will be getting lots of publicity shortly along with a ban. Thank god it was sold via OYT and not HHH. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Μορφέας Posted September 30, 2009 20 cups of coffee will kill a person twice, a very bad analogy there Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gromit Posted September 30, 2009 (edited) Thats the thing ACE, there is no Caffeine in these pills. ummm... it's in the guarana dude! but yes i have seen people on these and there was not a lot of 'giggling' involved not something i want to try in a hurry! why can't they just let us have the real thing Edited September 30, 2009 by gromit Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AndyAmine. Posted October 1, 2009 Ahh, yep my bad, thank you for pointing that out I really dont know much about gurana. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tainted_Love Posted October 8, 2009 Had one of these about a month ago, wasn't expecting much but it took me by surprise when effects were starting, felt quite anxious to get out and do something. Always thought there was something weird about how it made me feel this way(not like a typical stimulant) but after seeing these reports, i now know why. One would be better just legally obtaining geranamine powder and guarana and making your own safe mix, although from my experiences pure geranamine powder is 100% negative- again made me feel even more anxious-as if I needed to be doing something every second while I was in effect, but far from enjoyable, even in low doses(50mg). Even though the giggle pill's effects, at the time, weren't that detrimental, I can definetly see the potential dangers and don't advise taking them, nor will I again. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SunChaser Posted October 8, 2009 OYT would have got some nice national publicity out of it, they didn't have to spend a cent. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
