Turei Metiria: Misuse of Drugs (Classification of BZP) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Turei Metiria: Misuse of Drugs (Classification of BZP) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:645;Page:14656] 
METIRIA TUREI (Green) 
: 
 The Green Party policy on these matters is about reducing harm. We believe that a drug-free lifestyle—and that includes that unlike the lifestyle of all the drinkers out there—is the healthiest and that all drug use regardless of whether legal or illegal can cause harm. But it is also a fact that not all drug use is problematic and that many of the Government policies in this area exacerbate harm rather than reduce it. Unfortunately with the Government having failed to learn any lessons in the past this bill is a classic example of that failed policy. 
The Green Party favours strict regulation of party pills not prohibition—regulation such as heavily enforced age restrictions restrictions on sites where outlets can be placed mandatory health information quality and quantity controls of the drug itself severe restrictions on advertising and severe penalties for breaching such regulations. This approach would much more effectively address the problems that have been raised by members in this House rather than criminalising users and putting the control of these drugs into the hands of organised crime. We supported the Manukau City Council’s ban on party pills being sold at bottle stores for exactly this reason. The council made a very good decision. This legislation will be a disaster for this country and for young people who often are the ones who tend to take party pills more than older people. 
Jim Anderton’s crusade against the Green Party which again he launched into this evening includes wrongly blaming us for his Government’s failure to prioritise his bill which therefore made him look ridiculous. He promised the bill would be passed before Christmas and failed to make sure that it would happen. He cannot disguise the fact that this is politically expedient knee-jerk legislation that will increase harm rather than reduce it. Some MPs—some have done it tonight—and some media will be able to thump the table about being harsh on drugs but this bill will result in many people switching from party pills to more harmful illegal drugs such as methamphetamines and the new generations of illegal pharmaceutical drugs that are coming through all the time. There is good evidence—and Barbara Stewart talked about it—of new generations of party pills being developed that may cause increased harm. The Government is giving away its ability to control that. So rather than reducing harm and offering less harmful options to consumers we are back to driving this recreational substance underground and boosting the illegal market for some wealthy drug dealers. 
We have long deplored the widespread uncontrolled availability of party pills including the fact that we can get them in dairies and gas stations and the fact that the Government and Jim Anderton have made no attempt at all to reduce their availability through the regulations that Jim Anderton has available to him right now. There has not even been any real enforcement of the age restrictions on the access to party pills. It is absurd that Parliament is making a legal substance illegal before it has used any of its regulatory powers to control the access to and the sale of that substance. The 2005 change to the Misuse of Drugs Act provided that regulations could be made to restrict where party pills could be sold and the manufacturing dosage packaging and marketing of them. These are regulatory powers that the Government and Jim Anderton have in their hands right now. But they have not been used at all. The Health Committee was informed by submitters that there has been virtually no monitoring or enforcement of the party pill industry by enforcement authorities. So the Government has allowed this ready access to these drugs; it has not done a thing about it. There is little wonder that the status quo is not working and party pills are widely available because the Government has allowed it to continue. 
The select committee was told that the Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs initially recommended that party pills be controlled by regulation but later changed its mind and opted for prohibition on the basis of two reports that were not peer reviewed until the middle of last year. Several submitters to the select committee criticised the key research paper that was prepared by the Medical Research Institute. All of the reviews including the ministry’s review concluded that the study was so flawed that its findings had no scientific credibility. Given that the science on which this legislation is based is utterly flawed and there is no scientific basis for it what is the heinous evil that this Government is trying to remedy? The Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs described benzylpiperazine (BZP) as a moderate risk and agreed that there is no evidence of aggressive behaviour sexual assault or date rape type behaviours from its use. There have been no recorded deaths solely as a result of BZP use. Should BZP be made illegal this will discourage people who continue to use it from seeking medical advice. We have seen that same kind of research come out around other drugs that are illegal as well. It stops people getting help when they need it. There is no guarantee that scheduling a substance will reduce its availability or its potential risk of harm so making it illegal is not going to change anything. Why do the MPs in this House and this Government not understand and learn from the experiences of the past. We cannot control a substance if we prohibit it and put it into the hands of an underground industry over which there is no control or regulation. 
This legislation puts our people at risk directly and clearly when the alternative is to regulate and therefore be able to control how our kids might get access to these drugs. About 20 percent of New Zealanders have used party pills. They have been used for a number of years by around 400000 New Zealanders consuming about 26 million pills covering 10 million different occasions. All of the available research shows that simply banning BZP will send those people into the dangerous illegal markets where they will be able to access other street drugs including P. Mr Anderton cited the fact that young people can buy party pills from dairies and gas stations; he was talking about that earlier. But again I reiterate that he is responsible for that easy access because he refused to use his powers to control it. It does beg the question of why he decided to do that. He had the option of making regulations but he chose not to because he was pursuing a prohibition approach. Does it serve his interests that our 13-year-olds have been able to access these drugs? Does it serve his interests that there has been no monitoring or enforcement and therefore there is a proliferation of the sale of these drugs in easy places such as gas stations and dairies? What was Jim Anderton’s motivation behind failing to use his powers to properly control and regulate these drugs when this was the legislation he wanted to bring to the House to put in place prohibition and give these drugs back to the illegal drug markets over which he has no control? 
People have spoken about the dangers of BZP and all drugs have dangers. Last night Jo Goodhew spoke in the debate on the Alcohol Advisory Council Amendment Bill and talked about the police who deal with over 250 alcohol-related incidents every night of every day of the year. That is a terrible record for the police and a terrible indictment on the harm that alcohol causes to our society. The select committee was told that the recorded adverse effects from party pills included things like anxiety headaches nausea vomiting—they sound quite familiar do they not to anyone who has ever had a hangover—and heart palpitations. We know that so many other legally sold pharmaceutical drugs have these effects and often far worse ones that cause psychosis and adverse health effects but there are no moves to remove them from sale—nor alcohol which we know causes so much damage nor tobacco which we know kills 5000 New Zealanders a year. Five thousand New Zealanders a year are killed by the use of tobacco and 1000 are killed from alcohol abuse. They are killed by these drugs. Where is this Government’s commitment to protecting those young people those families from these drugs? It does not exist because those drugs are accepted by this Government as being justifiably usable in this community. But when young people are finding alternatives to these drugs—alternatives that do not kill them—their choices are being taken from them and they are being driven to the illegal underground drug markets instead. They are being put in the hands of people who have no consideration or care for their health or well-being. 
It is a disgrace that this Government chooses to criminalise and threaten those young people while protecting other drug industries such as the alcohol industry and tobacco industries because those are the kinds of drugs that the members of this Government prefer to use. Those are the choices that are being made here. It is disgraceful that this legislation is before the House. The Green Party opposes it and will continue to do so until we can try to get some sensible rational evidence-based legislation around drug use in this country. Thank you.