Campbell HamishDr HAMISH CAMPBELL (National—Ilam): I rise in support of the Misuse of Drugs (Pseudoephedrine) Amendment Bill. It's great to hear support from around the House. I do note that doesn't include Te Pāti Māori.We all know what it's like to have a cold. Typically we probably will experience two or four colds a year and that probably equates to about 14 to 40 days of feeling like absolute rubbish each year. Prior to 2004 you could actually buy some great medication here in New Zealand which had an active ingredient known as pseudoephedrine that would actually make you feel at least a little bit alive during those times. But of course I will just point out these medications are still available in Australia the UK the US and most of Europe. We've heard a lot about its role as a precursor for meth but it's also important to acknowledge the valuable role that pseudoephedrine plays in relieving nasal congestion—whether that's been due to a cold or a sinus infection it's one of the most uncomfortable symptoms you can experience during a cold. Therefore I think this is one of the more highly effective decongestants and it helps relieve that symptom of pain and pressure.I know a lot of people are going to claim that we're only dealing with the symptoms but I think you just need to be a young parent battling a cold when your toddler also has a cold to know that this is kind of magical medication because you need to function not only for your own good but also for the good of your family. Additionally a number of other medications we take without batting an eyelid also just treat our symptoms and not really cure the underlying causes. I think this is probably something we need to remember next time we take some Panadol.I am a member of the Health Committee and I do just want to acknowledge all the submitters that took the time to make submissions to the Health Committee. We heard from a whole range of people including some industry bodies including from pharmacists—and they really do care about their patients and they want to have the most effective medications they can distribute to their patients. And that is the reason why a lot of pharmacists want to stock it. I will just also note that pharmacists could choose not to stock it if they felt it was a security threat.We have heard in opposition to this bill that it would create a lot of bureaucracy but I will just point out this is like any controlled medication that a pharmacist needs to distribute: they need to have that face-to-face contact and there's paperwork and prescriptions to go along with it. This would not require a prescription and it would allow people just to walk into the pharmacy and be able to procure it once they've had consultation.Now we've heard a whole range of issues. One of them of course is the supply and the availability of methamphetamine. We have already heard that since a ban of this precursive that we still have a problem with meth and it actually has increased. I think one of the members already has alluded to a shipment of in the vicinity of 400 tonnes was intercepted before coming to Australia and New Zealand. I will just once again point out that it takes 2430 packets of pseudoephedrine medication to make 1 kilogram of meth. I think we can probably do the maths there and you'd need an awful lot of medication. But of course that level of supply coming into the country has meant the price of meth has dropped a lot so any supply from pseudoephedrine would be at a fairly low level. But of course it is important to note that there will be some people that may try and make meth from the pseudoephedrine and we do need to make sure we can do all we can in our powers to prevent that because meth is a scourge on our country and a number of people do take it. So with that I think this is a great medication for people who have colds we all know what it's like and I therefore will commend this bill to the House.