Uffindell SamSAM UFFINDELL (National—Tauranga): Thank you Madam Speaker. I rise to support this reading of this bill the third reading of the Misuse of Drugs (Pseudoephedrine) Amendment Bill. This is a relatively simple change. It is a reclassification of pseudoephedrine from a class B2 to a class C3 controlled drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975. What it will effectively do is reverse the blanket ban on pseudoephedrine that came into effect following the National Government's decision in 2011 to remove the sale of pseudoephedrine. That's had a lot of issues for people and I think that the previous speaker and in fact the Minister in charge of this bill the Hon David Seymour talked about how Kiwis have struggled over numerous winters with the impacts of colds and flu without having any useful medication or anything as useful as pseudoephedrine to help manage those symptoms alleviate their cold and flu conditions and then allow them just to get back to living their lives and going to work and going about their daily business. So we are very supportive of this bill and the availability it will give to people to use pseudoephedrine when they most need it. At the moment you can't get it over the counter. There are no alternative medicines that work as well as pseudoephedrine does and it's been noted that there are some other options there in the market but also their impact on reducing cold and flu symptoms isn't as effective. We also note that there are other jurisdictions out there that when you look at say the United States or when you look at the United Kingdom Canada and Australia there are a range of other countries similar to New Zealand that do allow the over-the-counter sale of cold and flu medication such as pseudoephedrine. Look it's not without any controls at all and I think that we've heard a bit of commentary that there are significant risks around that. Look pharmacies don't have to opt in to selling pseudoephedrine—they don't have to. It is their choice. As a business they get to make that decision on whether they want to stock and sell pseudoephedrine. So the risk that the pharmacies may then be raided—look if they don't want that risk then they don't have to stock pseudoephedrine and that is quite simple. If pharmacies do choose to sell it people will have to buy it face to face and we have it in here that the pharmacist will need to note down the names and the details of people that are purchasing pseudoephedrine and talk to them about it. It's not going to be something where you can just submit your orders online and it turns up in your house. You have to go in there and your information and what you're purchasing will be collected because you do need to have some safeguards in place around that. I did hear the Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall talk about her desire for pseudoephedrine to be stored such as codeine is today in locked safes and the feedback—I mean that's a nice thing for her to want. But the pharmacists have come back and said Look that just isn't practical. We don't have the ability to store pseudoephedrine supply in locked safes." because the quantities would be considerably larger than what they hold of codeine. Therefore it just isn't a practical measure and that takes me back to that point I made a minute or so ago. Look if the pharmacies don't want to wear the risk of storing pseudoephedrine then simply they don't have to store it. There has been some commentary too around the impact this will have on methamphetamine use supply and consumption and that's why we're in this situation because the National Government back in 2011—quite rightly on the evidence that they had before them at the time—thought that if we wanted to reduce the P epidemic in New Zealand then a good way to do that would be to stop the sale of pseudoephedrine over the counter in pharmacies because that was being used a precursor in the manufacture of methamphetamine. We are here now 13 years later and the sale and supply of methamphetamine is up the price of methamphetamine is down and so in effect it hasn't made any difference. In fact the people and criminal organisations who want to procure methamphetamine have found different ways to do it. Instead of cooking it up at home they are tapping into international drug markets and black markets and importing it into New Zealand which is effective in getting the supply of meth that they need into the New Zealand market. So to say that this is going to lead to real problems around the availability of meth isn't true. It is already quite readily available for those people who want to go out there and seek it and the advice that we received back from the numerous people that we talked to throughout this process said just that. Yes it was noted that there will be some small-scale use of pseudoephedrine to manufacture methamphetamine. It is likely to be on a non-commercial basis with very small quantities for personal use and manufacturing meth does have a lot of risks attached as people in this House are probably aware. So we went through this. It is a relatively simple bill as the Minister has said and it was quite pleasing—and I'd like to take a moment to thank members on the Health Committee who are present—Dan Bidois: Hard-working committee. SAM UFFINDELL: —hard-working select committee—including those who have left the House including the Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall who I found very easy—DEPUTY SPEAKER: You're not allowed to mention a member who is not here. SAM UFFINDELL: Apologies Madam Speaker. I thank all members whether they are here or not for being supportive. The committee did not recommend any changes to this bill which reflects the relatively straightforward policy we are discussing. We received submissions from 169 individuals and nine organisations and most of the organisations were supportive of this. That included the pharmaceutical industry bodies and it included the drug harm prevention groups and they indicated their support for the bill in their submissions. Now I want to read you some notes here from some of the submitters that were noted in the select committee process. They said that "pseudoephedrine products are of little value to people interested in commercially supplying methamphetamine as there are now cheaper and easier ways to manufacture it." and another quote here—I'll only read two—"This position was supported by advice we received from the Ministry of Health which consulted with the New Zealand Police the New Zealand Customs Service and the National Drug Intelligence Bureau." So what we are getting back here is that the major agencies—the New Zealand Police Customs the drug intelligence bureau and the Ministry of Health in consultation with those bodies saw that the risk of meth manufacture and supply as a result of this bill was fairly minimal. The channels for getting P into New Zealand and supplying it to the local market are already well-established and the consumption of P in New Zealand has continued to trend up which is incredibly unfortunate and as a society we need to continue to be doing all that we can to make sure that we get on top of these criminal organisations that are supplying methamphetamine—we really need to—and we need to make sure that there are treatment options available for people who are addicted to methamphetamine. We need to tackle it from both sides—that is making sure that we get people who are addicted to meth off through treating the addiction that they face and also making sure that we make it increasingly harder for criminal organisations to supply it into the domestic market. But all in all we see this bill as a very good bill which is why we have supported it throughout and we are happy that the members in this House have supported it and have supported through select committee without any amendment. I can feel myself having a bit of a sore throat and a cold coming on. Tom Rutherford: Do you need some—do you want some? SAM UFFINDELL: I don't know if it's available yet Tom. We need to get through this third reading first. But I know that there will be a lot of New Zealanders out there who have not been able to get through winter or get to work or enjoy life to their potential because they have been hit down by the cold and flu symptoms that go through New Zealand communities during the winter. Well good news for all of them: help is on the way and with the passing of the third reading of the Misuse of Drugs (Pseudoephedrine) Amendment Bill we come one step closer to having pseudoephedrine available to New Zealanders over the counter from pharmacies. Thank you Madam Speaker. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you. Now I'm just going to say to the Hon Casey Costello that the debate is going to be interrupted at 4.30 for a local issues debate. The member is welcome to start and have 10 minutes but the remainder of the speech would be after the dinner break. If the member—Hon Casey Costello: I'll be guided by you Madam Speaker as to how you want to do it. I'm happy to—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Well I think—it's actually 4.29. If the member is available after the dinner break we may—actually it might be a better idea to let you have your full speech then. Hon Casey Costello: Yep that would be fine. Thank you Madam Speaker. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Yeah OK. Thank you. For the House's purposes I'm just going to wait until the designated time of 4.30—thank you. Debate interrupted."