Hide Rodney: Misuse of Drugs (Classification of BZP) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Hide Rodney: Misuse of Drugs (Classification of BZP) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:645;Page:14660] 
RODNEY HIDE (Leader—ACT) 
: 
 I agree with my colleague from the Maori Party that this legislation is hypocritical. The ACT party will be joining the Green Party and the Maori Party to oppose this bill. Normally I always listen to Barbara Stewart’s speeches most carefully because I have come to admire her contribution to this Parliament but I have to say that I think Mrs Stewart is wrong on this issue. She said we should look to ban things because they might cause harm. I just want to dissect that thought a little bit. 
Hone Harawira 
: Let’s ban Maoris then. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Well we should certainly ban Hone Harawira if that is the case! 
Is that really what we think Parliament is about—banning things because they might be bad? It seems to me that risk and danger are part of life. I think we make the same mistakes with sports and accidents. Parliament is trying to create in a world where we cocoon everyone from the risks and realities of living in the world—and that would be the direct consequence of what Barbara Stewart was saying here today. 
I go a bit further and pick up the point that the Green Party and the Maori Party have made. I think we overestimate what this Parliament can and cannot do. We sit in this House and pontificate as though all the young people who might be taking party pills are listening to us say that party pills are bad and as though on a certain day in a certain year they will therefore suddenly stop taking them. It is as though we think that these young people will know this legislation has been passed and that—oh my goodness—the police might come and that will make them stop. That will not happen and anyone in this House who thinks it will happen needs to get out more. 
Barbara Stewart 
: We don’t think it will. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Barbara Stewart says New Zealand First does not think it will happen. So are we passing this legislation for looks? For the signal it sends? So we can stand up in the town halls and tell the mums and dads that we stood firm against party pills? 
None of us are asking the real question: why is it that our young people want to get blotto? Is that not the question? Why is it that so many of young people with all their lives ahead of them and with all the opportunities that they have in this great country want to get blotto? I would have liked to hear Barbara Stewart address that question because I think New Zealand First has some experience of this actually. 
Barbara Stewart 
: No I haven’t taken party pills. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Well party pills are no laughing matter. I do not think they are fun. I actually do think they are dangerous. I think any chemical one puts in one’s body is potentially dangerous so it is not a laughing matter. 
We sit around in this House and make a great joke about drinking alcohol yet the risks with alcohol are not perceived risks—the abuse of alcohol is seriously risky. Alcohol is killing people and destroying lives and families. I do not hear New Zealand First jumping up to ban alcohol because of the risk. I will not name names but there are people in New Zealand First who are finely acquainted with that drug of choice and very experienced in getting blotto on that drug of choice. But I do not see New Zealand First members standing up and wanting alcohol banned. Indeed New Zealand First has seen the effects of that drug sometimes on a daily basis—and the long-term effects. There is also nicotine the most addictive substance that people can take. 
Barbara Stewart 
: That’s right. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Barbara Stewart says that is right. Again New Zealand First has some experience of that drug and the ravages it can cause young people. But do we hear New Zealand First explaining why people are taking these drugs? 
Why is it that we are in here banning party pills—which as far as we can tell have not killed anyone—when nicotine is killing New Zealanders in their thousands and alcohol is destroying lives left right and centre? This legislation is steeped in hypocrisy—not the members voting for it but the legislation itself. 
Another problem with the legislation is that we will just add to the mystique of the drug culture. Funnily enough we will attract more people into taking drugs because it will be somehow naughty just like it was in our day—if Mr Clarkson can remember. In our day we would get a half-g and head down to the riverbed on a cold night and drink it thinking we were terribly naughty. Now it is party pills and other drugs. By passing this legislation we will put serious drugs up there with party pills. People will try party pills and say: “Oh that wasn’t so bad. What about the other drugs that are available?”. Also there will be no regulation on party pills and the other drugs we prohibit so they will be freely available 24/7 everywhere one goes. That is a grim reality of passing this legislation. 
Here is the next thing that will happen. The legislation will empower the gangs and make them rich and powerful. New Zealand First talks about the gang culture in New Zealand and thinks it can deal to the gang culture by getting rid of patches and fortifications. Actually the way to get rid of the gangs is to get rid of prohibition because it is actually the prohibition that enriches the gangs gives them the money and leads to the violence that we see so much of in New Zealand. The slayings that we are seeing are related to money made from drugs. We will not deal with that by making another drug illegal. 
I ask members of Parliament to think a bit harder before we run to the legislative pen to make ourselves feel good and somehow moral because we are stopping a scourge. By adding more drugs and more prohibition and bringing in more police we are making matters worse. We are powering up the gangs we are deregulating drugs we are encouraging people to join the underground drug culture and we are adding to the violence and misery in society. And we are not even doing it in a way that is consistent or principled. If we are to deal to the drug culture in New Zealand it will be through the lessening and the ultimate removal of prohibition and through a real inquiry by us and others into the dark corners of our society in order to question why with the wonderful God-given mind each of us has and our wonderful bodies and wonderful opportunities so many of us so often want to get blotto and call that fun.