Toy turns into drugs

[tellner]

The popular toy Bindeez (Aqua Dotz in the US) has been banned in Australia. The beads are filled with a glue that turns into the drug GHB when ingested.

A toy that won the Australian Toy of the Year award this year has been recalled because it contains small beads that are filled a glue the body metabolizes into GHB. As in gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid,, the party drug popular among ravers. In America, the toy was sold as "Aqua Dotz" but there's no information yet as to whether they shared the same chemical composition.

Chinese-made Bindeez, which won the 2007 Australian Toy of the Year award at the Melbourne Toy and Hobby fair, contains hundreds of beads which can induce seizures, drowsiness or a coma if eaten.​

The beads should contain a non-toxic glue but instead contain the chemical which the body metabolises into gamma-hydroxy butyrate (GHB), also known as fantasy or Grievous Bodily Harm.
All Bindeez products would be removed from sale, Minister for Fair Trading Linda Burney said today, and households with the toy were urged to get rid of it.
"This Bindeez product is Australian Toy of the Year, it is extraordinarily popular," Ms Burney said.
Ms Burney said an investigation into the toy, which is manufactured in Hong Kong, also would look at whether the substitution was deliberate.

Here's another news article on the same story.

 

[bydand]

If word of this gets out around here, there will be fist fights in Wal-Mart over the stupid little things. Kind of scary actually. How many times you see a kid pop some toy in their mouths without even thinking. Glad I thought they would just make a gigantic frigging mess and didn't pick them up for the Ruffians.

 

[tellner]

You don't know how hard it was to choose that bland headline for the story