King MattMATT KING (National—Northland): Thank you. It's a pleasure to speak on the Psychoactive Substances (Increasing Penalty for Supply and Distribution) Amendment Bill. I'd like first of all to acknowledge my colleague Simeon Brown for launching this. He's a bit of a legend in our group. And I'd also like to acknowledge the support—amongst several legends around here—of Darroch Ball and New Zealand First. I listened to Darroch's contribution and it made a hell of a lot of sense because what we're talking about are the dealers; not the users. And I've heard some arguments coming from across the floor talking about the users. But we're talking about the people who peddle this.So we're here for the likes of 22-year-old Calum Jones who died of consuming this drug last year and I looked into his father's eyes today and shook his hand and I cannot imagine being in his situation. I have a 20-year-old son and I could not imagine being in a situation that Lewis finds himself in. So we're here for him and we're here for people like him. Now the supplier of that drug that killed Calum was charged under the two-year penalty and as Hon Andrew Little said the judges never give the maximum except in extreme circumstances; so they're guided by the maximum penalty of the offence that they're charged with and it only carries a maximum two-year penalty. So that offender got home detention for the death of Calum Jones—home detention. That's gutting. It is absolutely gutting.So the select commit couldn't agree on putting this bill through because half of them were Labour MPs—so there you go. So what we're seeking to do—this is not brain surgery—we're trying to increase the penalty from two years to eight years. Now dealing in cannabis is an eight-year penalty. I don't know of many people who have been killed directly by consuming cannabis; maybe indirectly from their actions but not directly. But this drug that they're consuming can kill them and it's a two-year maximum penalty for a person who sells and deals the drug to these users. And we're not talking about the users; the fine for using it is $500—no imprisonment at all. So we're talking about the dealers. We're here for Lewis Jones—that's why we're here. Labour and the Greens oppose it—surprise surprise. Soft on crime open the door let 'em all out—pure ideology. I was a front-line policeman for 14 years. I saw the victims of drug abuse on a daily basis. I saw the suffering first-hand. The argument that was put forward that the penalty is not a deterrent—well I've heard from the mouths of criminals myself that penalties do deter them because the crooks themselves have told me that. Hon Andrew Little: Not fixing the problem.MATT KING: So what we're saying is that this is not going to fix the problem. This is actually just one of the tools to fix the problem. This is just one of the tools. We're not saying that increasing it from two years to eight years is actually going to fix the problem; we're just saying it's a tool. It's common sense to make these penalties proportionate to the harm that they cause so at the very minimum it should be class C like cannabis—it should be on that level—and I understand that there might be moves to make it even higher. Reclassifying meth as class A where there are obviously serious penalties actually did reduce harm in the community. It also gave police more powers—Hon Andrew Little: What did it do to supply? It shot up. MATT KING: With all due respect to the Hon Andrew Little I've heard him make some arguments across the House over a range of bills and he doesn't make a lot of sense a lot of the time. So what we did was that in 2013 we brought the Psychoactive Substances Act in. At that time the potency of these drugs was not at the level that they are at now. The drugs nowadays—these psychoactive drugs—are many times more potent than when that Act came in in 2013. Forty-five people have died in the last year from that. So yes we agree: we treat the users of this drug—we treat it as a health issue. We absolutely agree with you on that. This is where we go—that's why it's a $500 fine to consume it—but we still have to go after the people that peddle and deal with it and make money from it. So here you go. So 965 individual synthetic drug-related call outs for St John Ambulance last year—965. Dr Paul Quigley of the Wellington Hospital emergency unit said that synthetic cannabis dealers should be charged with manslaughter. Another doctor said that there's no guarantee that some of those affected by this bad batch of synthetic cannabis will survive and Dr Margaret Wilsher Chief Medical Officer for the Auckland District Health Board said there has been a dramatic increase in the numbers of patients in A & E having consumed synthetic cannabis. Literally hundreds of these synthetic cannabinoids are available and they change pretty rapidly so it's not the case of one particular compound being a problem. Some of them were found to be 85 times more potent than THC. Doing nothing is not an option. I accept there is a review coming up and there'll be a wide-ranging look at the drug problem and how we deal with it but just standing across the other side of the House and arguing to us that we'll just keep it at two years when we could put it up to eight years and at least match it with class C drugs makes sense—it just makes common sense. So again I'd like to acknowledge my colleague Simeon Brown for bringing this bit of legislation to the House and I would also like to acknowledge Lewis Jones and his family for coming down to Wellington today and for meeting with us earlier on and for backing Simeon Brown in this just cause. I commend this to the House. Thank you.