Cosgrove Clayton: Misuse of Drugs (Classification of BZP) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Cosgrove Clayton: Misuse of Drugs (Classification of BZP) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 11 September 2007. Volume:642;Page:11718. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Minister for Building and Construction) 
: 
 I rise to support the Misuse of Drugs (Classification of BZP) Amendment Bill. I will make one comment about the speech made by the member who has just resumed her seat. Up until the last couple of paragraphs of political posturing I agreed with many of Jacqui Dean’s sentiments but she somehow decried Mr Anderton for engaging in an approach that is logical and has been around for many years. 
I am a member of the Ministerial Committee on Drug Policy along with Mr Anderton and as I said the approach is logical and has been around for many years. The process is to engage medical practitioners and scientists and put the issue before them. The approach is not to put one’s finger in the air—even though we might all agree that the stuff should be banned; I certainly do—and say that this is what we should do but we are not basing it on logical scientific fact or anything. There are one or two medical practitioners on the other side of the aisle who I suspect—although they may not get up and say so—may well agree with me because of course they have medical qualifications. They have studied medicine based on scientific fact and evidenced-based medicine. But to put forward in this House the point that Mr Anderton and the Government have somehow sat on their hands for 2 years and done nothing about this is grotesque. It is about as grotesque as Matt Bowden the so-called head of Social Tonics Association of New Zealand who parades around with credibility akin to that member’s saying that he is socially responsible. The facts are that this is a serious issue. 
Mr Anderton did exactly the right thing. We have an Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs and he put this matter before the committee. He asked the medical experts—which Mr Anderton is not and which I am not and which the member who has just spoken is not. He asked the medical experts to verify what indeed most of us apart from one or two of us in the House thought already—that this stuff is bad and should be banned. But it is appropriate that we go through a logical process so that we can go out with confidence to communities and say that those professionals—those medical practitioners those who are qualified in science and medicine—agree with us that these substances should be banned. So apart from the political posturing and the point scoring this is a serious issue and I congratulate Mr Anderton. 
I want to point to a very community-based example of courageousness. I congratulate the woman unnamed in my electorate of Waimakariri who came to me before the election when the Herbal Heaven shop was set up in Kaiapoi. Before Jacqui Dean was a twinkle in the eye of this Parliament that courageous woman set up her own petition. She would not be named. Why? Because she knew people who were selling these substances she knew people who were on these substances and she feared retribution from some of the people involved in this industry. She came to me she gave us that petition and she showed a ton of guts. 
Today the thanks for those examples of courageousness should go not to politicians posturing and making themselves into heroes but to members of the community—the mums dads and grandparents in Kaiapoi for instance. Within days of that shop being set up they convened a meeting with police drug experts and the principal of the local high school because they were so concerned about what it would do to their kids. These people were not prudes or killjoys; they were parents—ordinary folk—who feared what this would do to their kids. They worked out the marketing principles of Mr Matt Bowden’s Social Tonics Association in about 1 minute and that was the development of a pill targeted at kids—not a pill for young adults acting illegally and popping an Ecstasy tablet or whatever in the pub in their 20s but a pill for kids. 
I want to pay tribute to an eminent physician in my patch Dr Paul Gee. He does not posture and he does not score political points. He works in the emergency department of Christchurch Hospital. He is not here to speak for himself but he spoke for himself when he did a number of studies and conducted some research. This is a chap who sees the gurneys and the stretchers come in and out. He has to deal with the issues. He has to deal with the kids and the mums and dads. The research that he has done into the effects of benzylpiperazine (BZP) is based on first-hand experience. 
Dr Gee’s research showed that between 1 April 2005 and 1 September 2005—a 5-month period—61 patients presented on 80 occasions at the accident and emergency department in Christchurch. Those patients were experiencing a number of the symptoms the member alluded to but interestingly 15 toxic seizures were recorded and two patients suffered life-threatening toxicity. His findings state: “The results of this study indicate that BZP can cause unpredictable and serious toxicity in some individuals. BZP is currently a legal stimulant in New Zealand and this status makes it available and attractive to a far wider market of users than if it were illicit.” I quote again: “Moreover it has propagated a culture of accepting pill use as normal behaviour at parties. These factors should be carefully weighed up in any consideration of the legal status of BZP.” 
Nandor Tanczos 
: Is he a doctor? 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: I say to Mr Tanczos that yes he is a doctor unlike that member who condones cannabis use and who I believe held shares in some of these shops or a shop or whatever. That member sits there and grins intently because his logic around drugs is: “Hey let her go. Anything goes; she’ll be right.” Well yes Dr Gee is a doctor. He is qualified unlike that member and unlike Matt Bowden the chairman of the Social Tonics Association. It was found out in the  
New Zealand Herald 
 that Mr Bowden had been trialling another version of the party pill to mimic Ecstasy. What a wonderful objective that is—get a synthetic party pill that mimics Ecstasy with all the tragedies and ramifications around that! Is Mr Bowden a doctor? Is Mr Bowden the godfather of the industry—an industry worth 35 million bucks a year—motivated by social responsibility? Not when he is making 35 million bucks a year. So I ask that member when he was last in an accident and emergency department watching the stretchers come in. When was the last time he spoke to parents as their children suffered a toxic shock? When was the last time he witnessed that? Oh no! Anything goes with that member. 
A Massey University study on legal party pill use in New Zealand showed that contrary to popular belief party pill users are much more likely to be using illicit drugs than the general population. One in seven of those surveyed who had a history of party pill and illegal drug use admitted they moved on to mainly illegal drugs after starting out with party pills. But of course the supporters of the party pill industry have the macabre view that if pills mimicking Ecstasy—that is illicit drugs or BZP which was used as a cattle drench until they found out it was too tough for cattle—are put on the market that in some way will stop young people from moving on to harder drug substances. Well I have to say that I have not used illicit drugs. People may call me a prude—I know one or two people do—but where is the logic in that? I cannot see it. Maybe I am wrong. But I know that the mums and dads around the show and around the communities instinctively knew before any of the pontificating came out of the industry that this was wrong—fundamentally wrong. 
I commend Mr Anderton as well. I commend him for his proposal which is logical that if one wants to produce it then it should be incumbent on the producer to prove that it is safe and it should not be incumbent upon the Crown to prove that it is a dangerous substance. I just say that it is one of those line-in-the-sand issues and it will be an interesting debate because the previous member was right in saying that the medical community is stacked up on the side of this debate that says “Get rid of it.” The communities are stacked up on the side of the debate that says “Get rid of it.” The only argument against that is that we already have bad drugs on the market—booze and cigarettes. We are guilty; I agree with that. But that does not mean that we open the door and say: “Anything goes.” which is the modus operandi of that member over there. 
I say to Mr Harawira that he knows about the carnage and destruction that current alcohol abuse and substance abuse has caused within Maoridom and within Pakeha communities. If that is the case surely logic will prevail and we will stop another substance from coming on to the market. Or have we learnt nothing? One has to look at Mr Bowden and the objective he portrays—he is a very slick guy wears a suit good haircut—which is social responsibility and regulation. Well that objective is about $35 million and that is about commerce and that is where Mr Bowden’s moral fibre sits.