Leavasa Dr Anae NeruDr ANAE NERU LEAVASA (Labour—Takanini): Fa'afetai lava Madam Speaker. Thank you for the opportunity to speak on the Drug and Substance Checking Legislation Bill (No 2). I also acknowledge the member who spoke before me Kieran McAnulty and say yes I agree taking drugs is not good. I mean being a clinician and seeing the harmful effects it has where I'm from in South Auckland—it is so dangerous that I've seen people lose their lives as well. Working at Middlemore Hospital's emergency department (ED) and seeing the effects there and also seeing people come through our primary clinic doors as well.This bill deals with the reality of drug use. We say that obviously in a utopian society we wouldn't see people take drugs but in reality they do. So this is one of the levers to minimise harm in order to protect our community our whānau and those who are taking drugs. As I said being in a clinic setting I remember seeing a couple of teenagers in school uniform come to the clinic in Manukau and seeing that one friend was so concerned about her other friend who had taken some tablets but didn't know what the actual drugs were—in an emergency setting trying to stabilise her friend and her friend didn't know what was taken. She had taken it from home. We rang the family; they didn't know what was taken. So these are the types of scenarios where we really definitely need to know what the patient has taken in order to provide treatment. Obviously sent her to ED for them to do a drug test as well. That's why this is one of the bills that I fully support in order to minimise harm.When we talk about MDMA and the testing of that drug—ecstasy molly or pingers as it is called—this is one of the things where some of the providers or the drug suppliers lace it with different things. One of the drugs that is so harmful is the eutylone or the synthetic cathinones as it's also known as. The risk of seeing our young ones whether it be with fast heart rates seizures collapsing in front of you all these different harmful effects that when we identify these drugs we really need to make sure that this new system can be put in place in order to prevent and lower the risk of these issues occurring. As I see with those who have fatally and tragically lost their lives here and overseas—especially I point to Australia and what we've seen in their studies and evidence across the Tasman. It is so important that we learn from international studies that we can bring this into the ongoing work that's going on with the temporary Act that we can roll this out smoothly and that it carries on providing safety.We've seen the numbers. We've heard the research done by Victoria University about the 68 percent that once they knew of the test results were able to get rid of it and change their minds. Also the number of 87 percent which I think is really pivotal in terms of getting tested and knowing and getting education; the 87 percent that had said that they have increased their understanding of the harm reduction for the drug they were about to take; and also the 53 percent from the study that said that their knowledge has substantially improved knowing the test result.We look to the companies that provide the testing as well—this bill will help in terms of providing licences provisionally to make sure that there is some oversight and they can get their full licences after a period of time. This bill is one I would recommend and support because it does so much to minimise harm and also educate our community in drug taking and that's why I support this bill. Thank you.