McClay Todd: Psychoactive Substances Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMcClay Todd: Psychoactive Substances Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 09 July 2013. Volume:692;Page:11818. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon TODD McCLAY (Associate Minister of Health):I want to take a brief call here because I know that other members also want to speak on this Part 3 of the Psychoactive Substances Bill. I really want to say that this too is a very important part. This is what the public are probably most interested in. At least they are going to see on day one what changes this Parliament is about to make.Firstly is that these products will not be available to people under the age of 18. I think that the evidence is probably becoming clearer on a daily basis that anybody who takes many of these products is being harmed. I do know from speaking to parents and particularly mothers around the country over the last few weeks about the significant harm that seems to be caused to young people through addiction through withdrawal and through all sorts of other horrible things we would not wish upon any family at all. So on day one no under-18s will be able to possess these or have them sold to them and I think that is very important.Secondly is where people will get hold of them. So there will be very strict restrictions around availability. We have heard other members speak in the debate earlier so there will be no more dairies and no petrol stations selling them. There is a very exhaustive list and I think the Health Committee has done a good job here in helping define where these products cannot be sold.Most important also are some rules around labelling. Any product that is approved will have to have clear information on it. Yesterday in Dannevirke a mother gave me the empty packets of a 6-week supply of this product which her young son had been consuming. These ones I am holding are the ones she could find and there were probably 70 packets. She told a heartbreaking story about a bright young man who was very engaged in school a good academic student who loved sport and whose life had changed so very quickly. He sold everything and stole everything and could not stop this. Sadly when that mother went down to the dairy to tell the dairy owner who did not really know he was doing anything wrong of the harm that was being caused there was a suggestion that the boy owed $45 and that his mum should stump up. Well actually quite quickly the dairy owner realised the harm when he spoke to others and he went and apologised and that community is now working through that as a community.On one of the products this young man took it says: “Not for human consumption. Do not purchase if your health is impaired in any shape or form. Do not purchase if you are pregnant or breastfeeding. Keep the product out of the reach of children. Restricted to adults over the age of 18.” That is it—that is all that is on there and that is just absolutely frightening. So we will ensure through this legislation that adequate labelling is there with health warnings with information about where to get help but also with information about who is importing about the manufacturer and about who is distributing. That is going to help the Ministry of Health keep an eye on these products but it is also going to help the consumer.There are also restrictions around promotion. Here is another product. I will not mention the name because these guys have had enough promotion as it is. It says on here: “For a limited time only send 10 empty” of these “packets to” such-and-such address and a country “with your name and return address details and we will send you 2 grams of this product for free.” Well it is not actually free because it is doing harm so that will not be possible either. So these are very important rules that we are putting in place.One of the important areas that gives local communities a greater say through this part of the bill is an extra tool for local councils should they wish individually or collectively to place further restrictions on availability. This is again certainly the Government but also the Health Committee and Parliament backing local communities to have a bigger say. I think that we will now see communities all over the country speaking up on this issue and local government—not only because it is election time for them—and mayors deciding that actually we need to do something about it and they need to do something about it. I would expect that there will be restriction orders consulted on and put in place quite widely and that is appropriate because this is about local people.Finally I have a Supplementary Order Paper 277 which I introduced today and I apologise to the Committee that it is so late. Last night I was at a public meeting in Invercargill the electorate of the hard-working member Eric Roy. A couple of hundred people turned up and they were passionate and they were angry but their anger was not directed at this House or the Government; it was directed at the people who had been harming their community and it was about their desire to do something about it. They made a case that made me come back and actually question officials and in consultation with parties in the House we have reached agreement. So what this Supplementary Order Paper says in the schedule is that where a product is currently on the market—if it is currently possible to sell it so it is not illegal—an application for approval can be made and can be granted on a temporary basis. It says that as soon as practicable after the date on which the regulation around the type of testing it will need comes into effect information shall be given or no later than 18 months after the regulation comes into force and they must come forward and they must present their full application.I think that is far too long for the mother whose son took these 70-odd products. So in agreement I am putting forward a Supplementary Order Paper that says that within 3 months—not 18 months—of the regulations coming into force anybody who wants a temporary application must come forward with detailed information some clinical information so we can have greater certainty about what is in these products. I would hope we can apply a precautionary principle to this because this House wants and has put on record to the importers these dangerous products off our streets out of our shops and away from our young people. This amendment will give us the ability to ensure that any product that an importer or a manufacturer wants to bring to market is as safe as it can be and ensures that those importers and manufacturers take their responsibility seriously and that they are doing the studies and the tests that our expert committee says are appropriate. Where they are not we will have the ability to take it away. If they cannot do that within 3 months then they are not serious about reducing harm and they do not deserve to be able to sell to peddle this muck to our young people. Thank you.