Blue Jackie: Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Blue Jackie: Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:674;Page:20190] 
Dr JACKIE BLUE (National) 
: 
 I am pleased to speak in the Committee stage of the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill and I certainly want to congratulate the Associate Minister of Health the Hon Peter Dunne on bringing in the Supplementary Order Papers on Part 1 that make provision for the temporary class drug orders which are for these untested psychoactive drugs that have caused so much harm in our society—and the drug Kronic is the one that most people relate to. The legislation will effectively bring in a 12-month ban of these substances while they are assessed and tested. 
I am pleased the Minister has moved swiftly; there has been growing concern mounting in the media and in our community about these untested products. They are not benign—that is for sure. We have certainly had a lot of reports of health problems: youth presenting to accident and emergency departments with difficulties with their health. Also drugs such as Kronic have been found in the wreckages of cars in road accidents. So there definitely has been concern. It has been growing it has been mounting and I am pleased that the Minister has moved swiftly. 
This law is expected to be in place by 5 August which means that all 43 current products that are in this category will be off the shelves within the week. It means that they will be tested looked at and assessed over the following year. It is an interim measure. It is not meant to be a long-term solution but we had to have an interim measure that was viable and workable and this certainly is all of that. I am pleased that the Minister has made a comment that there will a more durable law in place sometime next year but this will certainly be a stopgap measure and I applaud him for that. 
It is important that we do get the eventual enduring law—one that will endure into the future—and it is important that we get it right hence the 12-month pause to assess the situation assess the drugs on the market and take it from there. It would be too easy to have a knee-jerk reaction and bring in legislation that was not going to work as has happened in other countries. I must admit I have been quite surprised—probably I should not have been too surprised—by the defiant attitude of the sellers and manufacturers of these substances. In the newspapers they are saying that they will just bring in new substances that will replace the ones that are banned. But I am also equally pleased that the Minister has been equally defiant saying that if that happens those substances will be gazetted just as quickly and put under temporary drug order bans. 
This bill complements a suite of actions the Government has introduced to combat the effects of P—methamphetamine. This is just one part of the whole suite of actions. There is no doubt that P methamphetamine has had a devastating effect on our community and on individuals. It has wrecked lives basically. Specifically ephedrine and pseudoephedrine will now become class B drugs which means they will be available on prescription and people can no longer buy them across the counter as has been the case. We know that there are other alternatives to treat flu and colds. I am speaking of phenylephrine which will be able to be bought across the counter. Of course pseudoephedrine can still be a prescription medicine. 
The Supplementary Order Papers the Minister has brought in send a very strong message to our community that we do not want our young people to be harmed by these untested psychoactive drugs and that they have no place whatsoever in our society. We want to reduce harm from these untested psychoactive drugs and I applaud the Supplementary Order Papers that the Minister has brought in in a very timely way. Thank you.