Laban Luamanuvao Winnie: Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Laban Luamanuvao Winnie: Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill — First Reading 
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Hon LUAMANUVAO WINNIE LABAN (Labour—Mana) 
: 
 Kia ora talofa lava and warm Pacific greetings. Thank you for the opportunity to speak on the first reading of the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill. As the bill is an attempt to get pure methamphetamine or P off the streets of New Zealand I am very happy to support it going to the Health Committee. However I have a number of concerns which I will discuss later. For now I will discuss some of the effects of P and what it does to New Zealand and New Zealanders. 
As we all know methamphetamine is incredibly addictive—more so than other drugs such as cocaine. The Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs has noted that users of methamphetamine move more quickly from initial use to regular use than other drug users and are more likely to move on to dependency—and we all know the results of that. Even if someone receives treatment and overcomes his or her addiction to P the psychological and emotional consequences are likely to remain with that person for years. The long-term effects of P on the individual have been well documented and include fatal kidney and lung disorders brain damage depression violent and aggressive behaviour and lowered resistance to illness. 
But as we all know the effects on the individual although extremely harmful are only half the story. The impact on the family and close friends of addicted individuals is devastating not to mention the impact and effects on our communities and on wider society. We all know about the links that P and the manufacture of P have with crime. P is hugely profitable for gangs and for many other groups including white-collar criminals and addiction to the substance can spawn criminal activity in itself. 
This bill intends to make the manufacture of P more difficult by restricting access to ephedrine and pseudoephedrine which are some of the active ingredients of methamphetamine. Currently pseudoephedrine is available over the counter in cold and flu remedies from pharmacies. Reclassifying both pseudoephedrine and ephedrine as class B2 controlled drugs will make their availability impossible in the future will hopefully lead to restriction of supply to the manufacturers of P and will help to control the prevalence of the drug. 
I will quote Iain Lees-Galloway my colleague and the spokesperson on alcohol and drugs for this side of the House. He has made an interesting comparison with alcohol and has said that far more people are affected by harmful drinking than by drugs. 
As I said before the bill is an attempt to get P off the streets and that is enough to warrant its progress to the select committee where I hope it can be further deliberated upon. But I have some concerns. Firstly one of the things that my colleagues have emphasised which I hope will be discussed is the possible effect on the availability of cold and flu remedies to New Zealanders. Approximately 20 percent of cold and flu remedies available currently contain pseudoephedrine so attention will have to be paid to securing effective alternatives to those remedies. Certainly it should never be the case that New Zealanders who have never approached methamphetamine or the manufacture of methamphetamine have to pay a doctor’s fee and a prescription fee for cold and flu medicine. If that is what results from this bill then we have a clear case of most of the population of New Zealand being adversely affected by the actions of a small minority. 
Secondly we are not sure as yet how much of the ephedrine and pseudoephedrine used in the manufacture of P is actually sourced in this way. It is likely that the vast majority of it has been obtained overseas and imported separately. Therefore it seems strange that at the same time as the Government is supposed to be restricting P manufacturers’ access to their ingredients it is also cutting funding to the Customs Service and the Police. It is restricting access in one sense and opening up opportunities for criminals in another. To be effective this measure needs to be combined with more targeted border enforcement not a weakened Customs Service. 
Another area that I am concerned about is mental health services where the Government is making huge cuts. That has led over the last 2 years to the restriction of services that would help with addiction and addiction-related problems and provide support for families. Just this year $12 million was cut from mental health services. They were cast as low-priority services and district health board funding was cut. Surely in order to have an integrated and effective plan to rid New Zealand of P and associated problems we need to be funding the services that provide the much-needed support that can help people remove the scourge of P from their lives. 
In short as the bill is a measure to help restrict the manufacture of P I support it going to the select committee. It is hugely important that we do what we can to rid New Zealand of P and associated harms. But I do see a number of weaknesses in the implementation of this plan including the failure to adequately back up this measure with increased border control and increased funding for addiction and mental health services. 
Our leader Phil Goff and our law and order spokesperson Clayton Cosgrove when talking about this issue in October last year said that Labour supported any move that got P off New Zealand’s streets. There is a contradiction in resourcing with most ingredients for P coming from overseas at a time when the Police and the Customs Services have suffered budget cuts. The Police and the Customs Service have been asked to do more with less. 
There is concern that law-abiding Kiwis will be forced to pay doctors’ fees and prescription fees for cold and flu medicine because of the actions of a few. On the face of it the innocent are being whacked with extra costs and we are not sure what effect this bill will have on the perpetrators of crime. We question the depth of the National Government’s plan to wage war on P with cuts to mental health funding in both Budgets and with the closure of addiction and treatment centres under this Government. Thank you.