Scott Lynda: Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill (No 3) — Referral of S.O.P. 298 to Health Committee 
Scott Lynda: Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill (No 3) — Referral of S.O.P. 298 to Health Committee 
[Volume:621;Page:16819] 
Dr LYNDA SCOTT (National—Kaikoura) 
: 
 We just heard the Minister in charge of this bill say he is unsure whether this Supplementary Order Paper is a good idea or a bad idea and that it will be up to the select committee to sort it out. There is an old saying: the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Nobody wants to see our young people abusing drugs. That is the bottom line and I totally agree with the Minister on that point. 
But the fact is that in March 2004 the Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs recommended that this Supplementary Order Paper be devised. The Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill (No 3) was introduced on 8 September 2004 but leave was sought today at the Business Committee to add a Supplementary Order Paper that is outside the scope of the bill and to refer it straight to the select committee with no debate in the House. We did not want to support that. We wanted this debate in the House. 
We will support this motion today and this Supplementary Order Paper to be debated by the Health Committee as part of the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill (No 3) but I do question the process this is going through. These are serious issues. They are not easily dealt with either by justice or health staff. They are complex issues that need to have full scrutiny rather than this process. 
Today also happens to be members’ day. I have had a bill about mental health in the ballot waiting to be drawn for the last 4 years which I am sure the Hon Jim Anderton would like to see progress. The bill is desperately needed. It is an amendment to the Mental Health Act. Yet here we are today using members’ time on a members’ day when we have the only chance especially for those in Opposition to be able to do something substantial to help the health of this country. So I have to say that having this debate today is an imposition on the members on this side of the House—although of course we do want to see that all we can do is being done to help our children stay free from a life of drugs and crime. 
We also heard from the Minister about how the new schedule would actually work and I have some questions. These are questions that the Health Committee will have to ask because the schedule which is blank at the moment will be able to address age restrictions advertising restrictions and labelling. One has to ask—and I do not think the Minister can answer this question—whether the age limit labelling and advertising for alcohol could be changed under this process. The way I read it it looks as if it could be added to and devised that way. 
The expeditious scheduling of drugs was a system devised by the Hon Wyatt Creech and when it was discussed by the select committee we approved that process of rapid scheduling of drugs for substances like Ecstasy and Fantasy—drugs that have a high classification can be very addictive and can also cause major harm and death to individuals. The use of the process for lesser substances has to be questioned to some degree. We have to have a good look during the select committee process at whether that is what should happen. 
The Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs did not classify drugs such as benzylpiperazine—BZP as it is generally known which gives a legal high—or solvents as drugs needing to be in class A B or C which is the normal classification of drugs and which means a criminal offence is committed by anyone using them. We have heard from the Minister that anyone who breaks the rules in the schedule regarding sale age advertising or labelling will be open to a criminal conviction so these are serious issues. 
Other substances used in volatile substance abuse are solvents which comprise one of the other areas the Minister wants examined. How do we stop people from sniffing petrol or nail polish glue? How do we restrict the age for somebody to be able to buy those products? I am certainly shocked by the deaths of those six young people in Wellington recently and I think it is a tragedy for this country that we have such a high suicide rate that so many of our children are involved in taking drugs and that we have a P epidemic. There is something systemically wrong with the care of our children that we have so many in those categories. 
However using this particular process to schedule these drugs is something the select committee will have to call for submissions on and have a very clear look at. We must have the right process. We know that the Minister actually brought in the sherry tax under urgency in the middle of the night. The intention was to try to stop alcopops being used by the under-18s but that did not happen because the process was not correct. That tax ended up being a sherry tax instead of a tax on what it was targeted at. That is what happens. It was a good intention but the process was a mess and it did not hit the target. 
We have to be sure that we actually get it right and this is not the correct way to do it. This Supplementary Order Paper should have been part of the original bill. We could not support it just going straight to the select committee without any debate but we are having debate tonight. 
The legal highs we have been hearing about such as those from benzylpiperazine have been discussed with me by quite a few constituents. Mums and dads come and see me very concerned about these drugs being able to be sold to children because whatever their effect the fact is that their use is conditioning our young people to think that they cannot go to a party and have a good time without popping a pill and that they cannot have a high that is natural. That is not correct and that is not the situation we should have. The fact is that conditioning people to pop a pill to have a high is obviously going to lead to children taking other drugs stronger drugs to get that high. They condition themselves to think: “I can’t dance all night unless I take this pill.” and that makes them very very exposed to the scum who prey on the young just to make money. We see the deaths and destruction of these young people’s lives. We see unwanted pregnancies and we see death. 
So National will support this process tonight although I am very sorry that it has occurred in the way it has. I do not think it is a good process but because we have so much concern about drugs we will support the referral of this Supplementary Order Paper to the select committee.