Curran Clare: Psychoactive Substances Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCurran Clare: Psychoactive Substances Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 06 May 2014. Volume:698;Page:17542. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CLARE CURRAN (Labour—Dunedin South): I would like to do something unusual here tonight and that is to actually thank John Banks for his contribution to this debate on the Psychoactive Substances Amendment Bill—not only tonight. Actually I have to admit that I was wrong in criticising him when he spoke against the original legislation in August last year and for the reasons he spoke against it. I would also like to acknowledge Mojo Mathers for her passionate consistent defence of the no animal testing regime and also Trevor Mallard for the work he has done on this. I have to say that this unlikely trio has probably sparked something new in 2014. I sense that we are actually opening up a new debate on animal testing in this country and the reasons for it. I think that is an important thing.I also unusually want to thank the Minister in the chair tonight for being here as the Minister of Health and by his presence signalling that this is a significant and important issue. I am going to ask the Minister respectfully whether he can answer a couple of questions tonight if not in the chair then in the third reading because I think that the people listening to this debate tonight throughout New Zealand have got a couple of questions still in their minds that do need answers from the Government around the implementation of this bill and around the resourcing of the care of peoplewho are badly affected by these terrible drugs. And they are not just drugs; they are actually poisons.I also unfortunately would like to take issue with what one of the Green members Kevin Hague said tonight about the impact of the Psychoactive Substances Act since it has been enacted. I suppose I cannot blame him because he relied on the regulatory impact statement which I know was prepared in some haste and actually does not reflect the full facts. I do want to put on the record again that there has been a recorded increase in the number of contacts with the National Poisons Centre. This is not just because there is an 0800 number on the drugs as they are being sold; this is because there are stronger adverse effects. Although the number of drugs that are actually for sale has lessened in the actual physical number moving down from 300-odd to 40-something some of them are extremely toxic. There are more and more toxic adverse reactions presenting at emergency departments and being reported through the National Poisons Centre. Again—and I am going to table this at the end of my speech tonight—this here is the latest report the April report from the National Poisons Centre which I do hope the Minister has had access to. I know that it was sent to the Associate Minister of Health Peter Dunne. The graph shows in red the line where those numbers of calls about adverse reactions have gone up and they are going up every month. This is a significant issue.I also want to draw attention to a couple of other things and I know that the Hon Annette King also drew attention to these and they are the estimation that has been made of the number of people being badly affected who have developed dependency and the inadequacy of the research and work that is being done within the Ministry of Health. This is not to criticise individual people; this is basically to say that the resources are not in place to do this work. Estimating that 100 to 150 people might be dependent on these drugs throughout the country is woefully inadequate. It would be my contention that there may even be that number of people who have a dependency on the drugs in Dunedin alone—perhaps even more. I am sure that many of my colleagues around the Chamber tonight would get up and say that they know of dozens and dozens of cases of people who have a terrible dependency on these drugs and of the impact that it is having on their families and their communities.I ask the Minister to please tell the Committee what plans are in place for increasing the resources that are available through the Ministry of Health—