Cosgrove Clayton: Misuse of Drugs (Classification of BZP) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Cosgrove Clayton: Misuse of Drugs (Classification of BZP) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 13 March 2008. Volume:645;Page:14942. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Minister of Immigration) 
: 
 Before I deal with the issue in respect of the Misuse of Drugs (Classification of BZP) Amendment Bill which I wholeheartedly support I will highlight one of the things the ACT member Heather Roy said. Of course the ACT party believes in a free market and in live and let live. If we followed the ACT party prescription for everything and its view of the world then maybe we would legalise every drug—LSD crack cocaine the lot. Where would it stop if we were to follow ACT’s belief that we live and let live and have no rules? 
That silly member who scurries around the Chamber said that benzylpiperazine (BZP) was a medication. I will read out statistics from an eminent medical practitioner in my area Dr Paul Gee who is an accident and emergency specialist in Christchurch Hospital. He led a charge—and I congratulate him on it—to prove to silly people like the previous speaker that this stuff should be banned and that it is bad. Why? Because it is harmful. It is not a medication. I take it that the previous member has no medical qualifications. 
Paul Gee’s research shows that between 1 April 2005 and 1 September 2005—a 5-month period—61 patients presented on 80 occasions at the accident and emergency department of Christchurch Hospital. Those patients were experiencing a number of symptoms. I do not know whether the member alluded to any of them. Interestingly 15 toxic seizures were recorded and two patients suffered life-threatening toxicity. The findings of the study state: “The results of this study indicate that BZP can cause unpredictable and serious toxicity in some individuals.” 
I do not know what planet the previous speaker is on or what stratosphere she orbits in her spare time but I say that I would trust the evidence of a medical practitioner in an accident and emergency department before I would listen to the claptrap we just heard when a member of Parliament stood up and said that BZP is medication. I support Jim Anderton’s view of the world on this issue. We have to remember that BZP was developed by one Matt Bowden—the sort of godfather of party pills—who interestingly I am told is or was represented at an exorbitant cost by the same ethical lawyers and expensive lobbyists whom the Real Estate Institute is now being represented by. Members should work that one out. 
Let us be clear about BZP. It is a very sophisticated device. It is a pill for kids. That is whom it targets. That is whom it targets in my electorate.  
Hone Harawira 
: Same with cigarettes. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: That member over there Mr Harawira made some very smart comments. I say that respectfully. He made some good points. He said that alcohol and tobacco are legal drugs that do a lot of harm. I accept that. I accept that absolutely. But equally I say to that member that having two bad drugs in the market place does not mean we should add to the list. If we follow that thesis—as I asked that genius from the ACT party whose leader as we speak may well be on BZP—then where do we stop? The ACT party may say “Legalise everything. Who cares? Live and let live.” We cannot get a handle on people using LSD so the ACT party may say we should legalise it. 
I do not subscribe to that point of view; I subscribe to the point of view of the constituent in my electorate who started a petition the day after the Herbal Heaven shop opened in Kaiapoi which was about a week before the last election. That person does not want to be named because of some of the disreputable folk who are involved in that industry. I take advice from the police the acting principal at Kaiapoi High School at that time drug rehab folk from the Salvation Army and others who convene meetings at Kaiapoi High School to reassure parents and educate parents to educate their kids.  
There are members who say we cannot legislate for everything and that it is not Parliament’s place to do so. I say this: there are those who look at this place and say that what we do counts. There are those who look at this place and say that if the intent of Parliament is such and the lawmakers say it is OK then it must be OK. What we do in this place does count. People look and ask what the intent of Parliament was. 
I say to the ACT member that she is right on one count: the industry is developing the next generation of party pills. We had a public admission from the godfather of the industry who has made millions off the back of young people that the industry is trialling the next generation of party pills which mimic Ecstasy. What a genius that person is. Would we want a party pill that mimics an illicit drug? What a disreputable thing that is. 
Mr Anderton has proposed that we change the onus so that instead of the Crown and the taxpayer having to prove that some substance on the market brought in by those who want to make millions off the back of our kids is safe the manufacturer must prove that it is safe and pay for that proof. It is the reverse onus of proof. I believe that is a very logical position to be in. 
I thank the communities in my patch and around the country that stood up and said they were not having a bar of this. I am one politician who says that we should draw some lines in the sand and we should say when things are bad otherwise the ACT party member’s thesis of life is the law of the jungle. I think it was the ACT member who said that we have not had any deaths yet. I would have thought the smart thing to do is to try to provide prevention not to have a reaction that says: “Hey suddenly we have had a death. We should do something about it.” 
Hone Harawira 
: 4500 every year from cigarettes. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: As I said to Mr Harawira just because we already have two bad drugs on the market it does not mean we should add more. We have had those two drugs for centuries—namely alcohol and tobacco—and maybe if we knew then what we know now about the physical and mental effects of those drugs over generations we may not have embarked on the legal reforms we have in place now. But that is no excuse to add to the list. I thank people like Dr Paul Gee and people in the various communities around the country because on evidence they have proved that this substance will have and does have harmful effects especially on our young people. 
I think it was Jacqui Dean who had a crack at Mr Anderton and continues to do so by saying that he took 2 years to do this but on the other hand Opposition members say that we should not have knee-jerk reactions—and I agree with that. So what is the process for one who was a member of the ministerial drug council committee? Mr Anderton quite logically went and got medical practitioners and scientists. Those people are not the sort of bush doctor or witch doctor we had talking from the ACT party but medical practitioners and scientists. He instructed them to go away and examine the level of danger this substance may or may not cause. I would have thought that was a logical thing to do. Then the scientists and the practising medical folk came back to advise Mr Anderton on an appropriate course of action. 
I would have thought that was a logical thing to do. That takes time because one should exhaustively test. It is true that we should not ban everything that is different; we should get rid of only those things that are harmful and we should manage around that situation. I say to Jacqui Dean that it was a nice cheap shot on the waka a nice little political statement but it does not hold water in logic. 
In Papanui a shop called Jordy’s opened with a wonderful combination special where for cheap rates people could buy party pills samurai swords and BB guns if they bought them all at once. What a cracker that was. It was right next door to my electorate office in Papanui. I am pleased to say that whoever owned Jordy’s saw the writing on the wall packed up and left. 
I hope that Mr Terry Brown that bastion of moral fortitude who lives in Kaiapoi and has some association with the Herbal Heaven shop there will go and sell shoes tennis racquets or some legal thing to make his money. I hope that he will shut his shop or change his product. For him the writing is on the wall; it is game over. 
I think today that we have listened as a Parliament to our communities both as local members and as a collective Parliament. We have listened and we have responded logically. We have the scientific evidence we have done the testing and we have a plan in place not only to have this substance removed from the market but also quite logically to take off the market other similar substances that are there purely to make money. Let us be clear about it. Making money is the only reason for doing it. It is not to prevent harm or to stop people going on to harder drugs—how silly is that? The science has disproved it; those substances are there to make money. Future-proofing is also proposed so that the manufacturers will have to prove that their products are safe before they are legalised. 
For once I think that the people who gathered in the Kaiapoi High School hall and in people’s homes and the mothers and fathers who were very concerned about this have finally had a bit of a victory today. Maybe those with the live and let live attitude where anything goes—those who wave the white flag of surrender and say: “Because we cannot get a handle on it let us forget about it and have the law of the jungle.”—have had a loss today. I am gratified by that. I support this legislation. It is a great day for the battlers in our community.