Lees-Galloway Iain: Psychoactive Substances Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLees-Galloway Iain: Psychoactive Substances Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 06 May 2014. Volume:698;Page:17549. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North): Labour supports the Psychoactive Substances Amendment Bill because it removes the transition provisions from the Psychoactive Substances Act which in effect will remove from the market all the untested drugs that are currently available on the market and it also removes the provisions that allow for animal testing of psychoactive substances in any tests that are used to prove that a psychoactive substance is of low or no risk. It improves but does not overturn the original Psychoactive Substances Act.I want to remind anybody who thinks that passing the Psychoactive Substances Act was a mistake that before it was passed we had no regulation over psychoactive substances at all. There was an unknown number of products out there being sold from an unknown number of outlets. When the original Act was passed we took control. We now know how many products are out there for sale and more have been removed from the market since the original Act was passed. We now know how many retailers there are out there. We even know who wants to import substances so that they can carry out research on products to perhaps make them one day become approved products. We know a lot more about what is going on in the legal high industry as a result of the passing of the original Act.However it was not enough. It did not satisfy legitimate concerns about untested substances being available on the market and being used by people particularly young people without us being fully cognisant of what both the short-term and long-term effects of those products are. The decision to leave on the market the products for which there had been no previous complaints made was made for legitimate reasons by a select committee the Health Committee that was under pressure to deliver on a very very short deadline to meet the Government’s requirements. But it was it turns out the wrong decision to make.Overturning that decision has been an amazing demonstration of people power—the people who have demonstrated in towns and cities around New Zealand and the people who have lobbied their MPs. I do not think there is probably a single electorate MP or list MP in this House who has not had a very large number of people come and ask that we improve the legislation. Those people have worked tirelessly to ensure that their representatives understand what it is that they want to have done.I want to particularly acknowledge in my own community the people on the Psychoactive Substances Task Force which is a self-established group within the city and which I have been a member of. It has involved the police it has involved concerned parents and it has involved health practitioners. It was formed ostensibly to make submissions to our local council to make sure it made the best use of the provisions in the Act to apply a local approved products plan. But also as time went on it became a lobbying vehicle. As a member of it I found I was spending more of my time being lobbied by the people in the group than talking about what we were going to talk about with the council. That was fair enough—that was fair enough.I hope that everybody in that group and people around the country know tonight that the politicians have listened. We have responded and I think we have responded in a way that does what people wanted us to do which is to get rid of these untested drugs without undermining the original intent of the legislation. That is a position that it seems a number of parties arrived at independently. We could all see that this bill is the smart way forward and I do want to acknowledge the Minister of Health Tony Ryall for his work in ensuring that we did get cross-party consensus on this legislation.We want to pass this legislation tonight. I find it slightly ironic that we are rushing to fix up a mistake that was caused by rushing the original legislation but nevertheless the people want these drugs off the market and that is what Parliament wants to do. We want to do it tonight so let us get the job done and do what the people want.