Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you very much Madam Chair for the opportunity to speak on clause 4 which is the clause that is really the guts of this amendment bill which addresses the penalty for suppliers of synthetic drugs.Currently we have a mismatch in the legislation. If someone is found guilty of supplying synthetic drugs—drugs that are killing dozens of people up and down our country—the maximum sentence that they can get is two years' imprisonment. That means someone can be supplying drugs at a commercial level—these drugs at a commercial level—and the maximum sentence they can get is two years in jail. If they're supplying cannabis the maximum they can get is eight years. There is a complete mismatch in the legislation and that is one of the reasons why this legislation is so important to address that mismatch from a law and order approach to give our police and law enforcement agencies the ability to address the harm by cracking down on those people who make money from people's misery. They make money from people's addictions.I understand the arguments that have been put forward in this committee and I've addressed the arguments that have been put forward in the House in the first and second readings about the need for more support to address those who are suffering from addiction. Let me be very clear: this bill does not target people who are users—that is section 71 of the principal Act. If the Ministers and the members in the committee wanted to address those who are the users of these substances they would address section 71 of the Psychoactive Substances Act. I'm not touching section 71 of the Act. My bill is addressing section 70 of the Act.I'd like to address the point made by Mark Patterson which is that New Zealand First has put forward Supplementary Order Paper 23 in the name of Darroch Ball which is to increase the sentence to 14 years which is a further increase aligning it with class B drugs. When I first put this bill in the ballot which was earlier this year we knew that there was severe harm caused by these drugs. We could see that there were people dying from these drugs and we put it in the ballot as a class C and since then we've seen the coroner's report—45 deaths from synthetic drugs over the past 12 months and more and more happening every single week. Parliament needs to send a very clear message that if you are going to supply or distribute or—sorry Madam Chair. If people are going to supply and manufacture and distribute these substances then they will face the full force of the law and Parliament will take this issue very seriously.So we as the National Party have decided that we will support the Supplementary Order Paper because these substances are worse than marijuana. They are substantial significant problems and they need to be addressed because the seriousness is very clear and we see it every day in the community. So we will be supporting the Supplementary Order Paper which will increase it to 14 years.I think it's important to point out to the committee that this is a catch-all provision. This means that every type of synthetic drug or every concoction that synthetic drug dealers dream up or the chemical combinations that they might change it to are captured. So it doesn't mean that the Minister of Justice has to go through a year-long process to go under the Misuse of Drugs Act and classify a drug. This puts in place legislation to say that from the time this legislation comes into effect the law enforcement agencies will be able to crack down on those people who are supplying synthetic drugs and will be able to ensure that they are targeted and that they are put in prison if that is what the courts enforce as part of their sentencing.So we will be supporting the Supplementary Order Paper in the name of Darroch Ball. We do take this issue seriously. We will not stand by as more people die. We will ensure that New Zealanders know that Parliament will take this issue incredibly seriously and we will progress this bill through the House. Thank you very much.