Ryall Tony: Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill (No 3) — First Reading 
Ryall Tony: Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill (No 3) — First Reading 
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Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay Of Plenty) 
: 
 It is most interesting to hear members’ contributions on legislation like this—particularly that from the member for Rotorua in light of her support for the decriminalisation of cannabis. I draw the House’s attention to how long it has taken this Government to deal with this issue which was identified way back at the end of 1999. It has taken this Government ages and ages to deal with an issue. It cannot help but convey the impression that it is half-hearted about it. It took this Government 4 years to reclassify methamphetamine as a class A drug. Does that portray any sense of urgency in this Parliament? 
This is another case of Mr Anderton introducing a bill and not understanding the consequences of what he is doing. He brought in a bill that is now known as the “Sherry Tax Bill” claiming that it would curb under-age drinking. I am sure we have all seen children under bridges with bottles of Madeira! That turned out to be a lot of nonsense. 
What I want to alert that Minister to is that this bill effectively decriminalises the use of needles for injecting illegal drugs. If this legislation is passed effectively it will no longer be an offence to have needles for injecting illegal drugs. It will no longer be an offence because the police will find it nigh on impossible to prosecute any intravenous drug user who possesses a needle. This bill is part of this Government’s politically correct approach to drugs. I suspect that this Government has us on a path to legalised injecting rooms. That is where this decision takes us. 
The Government says it wants to protect the police and to encourage intravenous drug users to be more responsible. It claims that the police are arresting hundreds of people for carrying legal needles but that is nonsense. This afternoon I spoke to a senior drug investigator in this country who said that people are arrested not because they have one of these needles but because they are housing the needle in an unsafe way. There is a requirement that people house needles in a safe place and often those people are prosecuted because the needles are not being housed safely. They are also prosecuted in association with other drug-related crimes—generally the possession of illegal substances. In fact the numbers that the Government quotes in its own documents which we have been able to get from the Ministry of Health website are a load of nonsense. That senior drug investigator told me that under these changes it will be nigh on impossible for the police to prosecute people for possessing needles for the purpose of injecting illegal drugs. 
So what is the Government doing here? Right now section 13 of the Misuse of Drugs Act states that every person commits an offence who has a needle or syringe for the purpose of committing an offence under that Act—that is for injecting drugs. The exception is if a person possesses that needle because he or she got it from a needle exchange programme. That latter part is in the health regulations. Instead of taking those regulations and putting them in the Act what has the Government done? The Government has done this: instead of requiring the drug user to prove that the needles came from a needle exchange it will now be up to the police to prove that the needles did not come from a needle exchange and that the person who illegally has those needles obtained them believing that the person he or she got them from was not entitled to them. 
Let us go through what the hoops are. Instead of the drug user having to prove that he or she is part of the needle exchange and providing a certificate or something like that it will now be up to the police to prove that the needles did not come from the needle exchange and that the person who has those needles knew that they did not come from the needle exchange. That just makes it so much harder for the police to obtain prosecutions against users of drugs who have this paraphernalia. Effectively this measure decriminalises the possession of needles for injecting illegal drugs. 
I will tell members something: I bet that Jim Anderton does not even realise that. I think he has been misled by his officials just as he was with the sherry tax. Members might remember that he said in Parliament that that legislation was about targeting teenage drinking then was absolutely humiliated when the Opposition National Party said that it was about putting up the tax on Madeira sherry and fortified wines which are not the drinks of choice of teenage drinkers. With this bill he has not asked the questions. He is reversing the onus and that will make it harder for the New Zealand Police to obtain prosecutions against people who are illegally in possession of needles. There is no argument for that. 
I pulled from the Ministry of Health website the review of the needle exchange programme and it is the recommendation of that programme that the New Zealand Parliament approve the proposed amendment that would remove the offence of possession of needles and syringes legally obtained through the needle exchange programme. Well the Government has gone further than that. Effectively it is decriminalising the possession of needles for illegal drug use. This Government just does not get it. Corner dairies and shops in Auckland sell pipes for methamphetamine. They say they are ornaments and are not used in the performance of an illegal activity. This Government should be moving to make those items illegal. This Government should be moving to make P pipes illegal but instead it is moving to decriminalise the use of needles for injecting illegal drugs. 
It is all part of a politically correct liberal agenda being pushed by this Government and the health authorities under the name of harm minimisation when what is required is leadership that says this stuff is wrong and should be stopped. This afternoon I spoke to one of the leading drug educators in this country— 
Simon Power 
: It’s true; the member did. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: I did. I asked her why she thought the Government was doing this and her clear answer was that it was all part of the politically correct soft-on-drugs agenda that we are seeing from the Government time and time again. I want to tell the House that the National Party in Opposition will oppose these changes to the needle exchange. Why would we make it harder for the police to secure a prosecution against an intravenous drug user who has those needles and is using them in an illegal way? I cannot believe that Mr Anderton would agree with that. I think that as with the sherry tax he has been fooled. Let me remind the House again of what is happening. Instead of the drug user having to prove that the needles came from the needle exchange then getting off the charge the police now have to prove that the needles did not come from the drug exchange and that the person who has the needles knew they did not come from the needle exchange. Well how hard will that be for the police to prove? The advice I have received from a senior police drug investigator this afternoon is that it will be nigh on impossible. 
The Government is absolutely wrong on this. It is late to the party on dealing with the methamphetamine crisis and it will cause another problem—which it does not need to cause—with its plan to decriminalise the possession of needles for the purpose of illegal drug use. 
Bill read a first time and referred to theHealth Committee.referred to Health Committee