O'Connor Damien: Misuse of Drugs (Classification of BZP) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
O'Connor Damien: Misuse of Drugs (Classification of BZP) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 13 March 2008. Volume:645;Page:14930. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR (Associate Minister of Health) 
 on behalf of the  
Hon Jim Anderton (Associate Minister of Health) 
: I move  
That the Misuse of Drugs (Classification of BZP) Amendment Bill be now read a third time 
. This bill removes the legal market for so-called party pills that contain the drug benzylpiperazine commonly referred to as BZP and also related substances. Today I would again thank all members of the Health Committee for their valuable work on this bill. They had to tackle a complex public health and justice issue within a tight time frame. I know that the majority of us here understand the need to move as quickly as is practicably possible to respond to the harms associated with the misuse of psychoactive substances and a proper evidence-informed process has been followed in the case of BZP. 
This House will be aware that in 2004 the Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs informed us that although there was insufficient evidence available at that time to justify a ban on BZP there was a need to place some controls on the sale and advertising of BZP while further information into its effects was gathered. The 2005 amendment to the Misuse of Drugs Act provided just that with a new restricted substances schedule allowing for BZP to be sold only to and by people aged 18 years and over as well as placing controls on advertising and a ban on free of charge distribution of BZP. The enactment of this schedule remains an important achievement and provides New Zealand with a valuable tool to place legislative controls on new drugs that it would otherwise not have sufficient evidence to ban under the Misuse of Drugs Act. BZP and related substances however do now have such evidence to warrant a ban and therefore the continued consideration of this bill is very timely. 
This current bill originally had an enactment date of 18 December 2007. However as members of this House will know there was a significant amount of work before us at that time and it was not possible to progress this bill any further before the year drew to a close. For this reason it was necessary that a Supplementary Order Paper was drafted to amend the original enactment date of this bill to a new date in 2008. I have been asked why a set date for the enactment of this legislation is necessary and why the enactment could not have been linked to the day after the legislation receives the Royal assent as is consistent with the majority of other bills we pass into law. The answer is simple: a set date in the legislation provides for certainty around when this classification will come into force. There are a large number of party pill retailers in New Zealand and having a specific date in the legislation allows for better clarity around the obligations of these retailers under the law. It also provides more clarity to users of BZP and related substances regarding the exact date that the amnesty for possession and use offences will expire. 
On advice from the Attorney-General and the Ministry of Health the date of 1 April 2008 was chosen as this was seen as an appropriate length of time to allow for both the ministry to properly communicate this change in legal status and the industry to comply. I am pleased that the members supported this important Supplementary Order Paper during the Committee stage. The Green Party also chose to introduce an amendment to this House that would have delayed the banning of these substances deemed by experts to pose a moderate risk of harm by a further month until 1 May 2008. The Green Party justified this delay on the grounds that the party pill industry needed more time to facilitate the recall of its products. However it needs to be noted that in the time since the Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs advised us in December 2006 that available evidence commissioned by this Government now shows that BZP and related substances pose a moderate risk of harm. 
There have been two public consultations on the proposals in this bill. There has also been extensive debate in the media as well as in press releases from the Ministry of Health. No one in this industry in my view is able to claim that there has not been sufficient warning of the ban. Furthermore it needs to be noted that this bill was originally intended to be enacted before the end of last year and I am advised that some in the party pill industry did recall their products in order to comply with the pending legislation at that time. I have also recently received a letter from one distributor stating that the enactment date of 1 April would indeed allow them time to complete an orderly thorough and safe withdrawal of these products from the market. Thankfully this House had the sense to vote down that proposed amendment which would have continued to expose New Zealanders to these harmful substances for an additional month. 
A Supplementary Order Paper was introduced by the National Party which sought to amend this bill to require the expert advisory committee to review the effects of this classification and report back to the House in 2½ years’ time. In considering this proposal it is important to understand that the Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs is mandated under the Misuse of Drugs Act to report to the Minister with responsibility for the National Drug Policy—not to the House of Representatives but to the Minister. I consider that members of the Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs have enough on their plate already without being subjected to additional pressures from this House. Additionally the member who put forward the Supplementary Order Paper justified it on the basis that action against illicit drug use needs to be evidence-based. On that view I agree in full. It is for this reason that our actions on BZP to date have been informed by the best available evidence and the continued advice of the expert advisory committee and the Ministry of Health. 
Membership of the Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs which has considered BZP on nine separate occasions since 2004 consists of among others respected leaders in the fields of pharmacology toxicology psychology community medicine and addiction treatment. I have always respected the advice of this committee and I find it concerning that this member would put forward a Supplementary Order Paper to bring into doubt the evidence base behind the bill that we are considering today. Furthermore and importantly the Supplementary Order Paper was not necessary as it does not take an amendment to the Misuse of Drugs Act to require the Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs to reconsider the classification of BZP after this ban comes into effect. The Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs is mandated to consider not only new substances as they emerge but also the classification of currently controlled drugs as new research becomes available. I can ask the committee to reconsider BZP at any time and members of the public can write to the Ministry of Health to request that items such as BZP are considered for the agenda in future meetings of the committee. It is my view therefore that the Supplementary Order Paper proposed by the National Party would have unnecessarily complicated this classification process should it have received enough votes during the Committee stage to go ahead. 
The continued legal availability of party pill products containing BZP and related substances is concerning and cannot possibly be condoned by members of this House when we know that the available evidence indicates a moderate risk of harm. It is for this reason that the bill must be progressed into law. I believe that party pills will virtually disappear from New Zealand following the enactment of this bill. This legislation will remove the legal access to BZP and related substances. It will allow the police and the Customs Service to prevent these substances from being imported and marketed and it will prevent them from causing the moderate risk of harm that experts have identified. I would like to acknowledge the great work and determination of my colleague the Hon Jim Anderton in nurturing and guiding this bill through the House. I commend this bill to the House and support its passage through its final reading.