Sharples Pita: Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Sharples Pita: Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:666;Page:13536] 
Hon Dr PITA SHARPLES (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker. I will take a short call on the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill. The bill amends the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 and the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Act 2005 by inserting a complex drug vocabulary into the statute. The basic incentive of the bill is to reclassify ephedrine and pseudoephedrine as class B2 controlled drugs remove thalidomide as a class A controlled drug allow hazardous substances to be scheduled as restricted substances extend the definition of amphetamine analogues and extend the controls over drug paraphernalia. The bill prohibits the supply importation or possession for the purpose of sale and supply of a pipe other utensil or identifiable component of a pipe. That is the paraphernalia part. The bill also amends the Land Transport Act 1998 to reflect that thalidomide is no longer a controlled drug. Previously it was an exception to the offences of driving under the influence of schedule 1 controlled drugs. As it is no longer a controlled drug it does not need to be an exception to those offences. 
Let us be clear: the real purpose and value of the bill is to add to the campaign against P. Technically speaking this legislation defines ephedrine and pseudoephedrine as class B2 controlled drugs whether or not they are contained in a substance preparation or mixture. The key point is that the risk of pseudoephedrine being diverted into the manufacture of methamphetamine outweighs the requirement of its ongoing availability over the counter. 
Anyone who has experienced the havoc that P wreaks on families and communities will tell us of the devastating impact this drug has on health and the well-being of a community. We have however done some amazing things in our communities in fighting the scourge of P in our midst. For years besieged communities have run programmes responding to the effects of P and trying to help keep people away from it. The Patua Te Ngangara programme at Hoani Waititi Marae is one such programme. I am proud to say that I initiated that programme and I ran it for 4 years and it is still going now. We took that programme around New Zealand to educate people about P and we stopped at various towns from Kaitaia to Invercargill. We heard devastating anecdotes and we heard of situations from police and people attending those hui. We heard of mothers sending their children out to prostitute for them so that they could get money for their P habit. A little girl tried to hang herself at school and was cut down. She said she was on P but she was not; she was prostituting for her mother who was on P. We heard of a man coming home from work to find a gang in his house with his wife who owed $10000. We heard story after story. We heard of a man who wanted to shoot his son because he had caused such havoc within his family because of his P habit and so on. It is really horrific. P is the most antisocial of all drugs and it attacks society. 
However towns and communities around the country have declared themselves to be P free. There are rahui set up in certain places against P and generally there is a spirit in the community that it is not good to use P. Even amongst gangs there is some work being done on getting rid of P. Denis O’Reilly is leading a lot of that work amongst the community. We know that children as young as 9 years old have been sold P in fruit-flavoured tablets. There are all sorts of different things going on. It is all scary stuff and anything at all that stops the assault of P on our young lives has to be considered. So the Maori Party will support any initiative to curb the underbelly of the P industry. If this reclassification will help towards that end then we will support it. 
I commend the local councils for working together with iwi police and Government agencies to remove the pushers cooks and suppliers of this drug. But I hope that low-income families will not incur additional costs for doctors’ prescriptions for cold medicines that contain pseudoephedrine if those families are merely visiting the doctor to get those prescriptions only. The Maori Party will support this bill and let the korero be had at the select committee. Thank you.