Harawira Hone: Misuse of Drugs (Classification of BZP) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Harawira Hone: Misuse of Drugs (Classification of BZP) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 13 March 2008. Volume:645;Page:14939. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Tena koe. Kia ora Mr Deputy Speaker. I would like to congratulate the previous speaker on raising a very valid point about the role of the Minister in protecting society and pointing out his abdication of that responsibility. What has popped up its ugly little head again in this House of hypocrisy our Parliament of pretence and our very own den of double standards? Why it is none other than the Misuse of Drugs (Classification of BZP) Amendment Bill. It is known in some circles as Jim Anderton’s “I’m Dull and Boring (And If I Can’t Be Happy Then Neither Can You Be Happy) Bill” and in other circles as the “They Ain’t Killing Anyone (Let’s Ban Party Pills Because We’re Not Getting Any Money off Them But Let’s Allow Alcohol and Cigarettes to Continue to Be Legal Because Although They Are Killing Our Kids by the Thousands Every Year We Get Heaps of Money off Them Through Taxation) Bill”. 
One hundred years ago Sir Maui Pomare said: “Our effort will be in the direction of the eradication of all things which ensure the demoralisation and decay of the Maori—drunkenness smoking gambling sanitation diseases of animals—all come within the scope of the new crusade. In a word we seek the regeneration of the Maori and unless we effect that our race is doomed. We will do it we must.” That statement of intent is a crusade that the Maori Party is also dedicated to and I repeat those words: “… we seek the regeneration of the Maori and unless we effect that our race is doomed.” We too reject the way in which alcohol tobacco and gambling are killing our people. 
The research has been done and the facts are clear. Alcohol tobacco and gambling are demoralising our people and killing our families. That is the difference between an addiction to those substances and using party pills. Forests have been cut down to detail the evidence the data and the research on the death destruction and family mayhem caused by alcohol tobacco and gambling. But benzylpiperazine (BZP) and party pills? No mate—not even. Nowhere near enough evidence has been produced to justify this Draconian ban on party pills and nowhere near enough thought has been given to alternative ways of handling them. This bill aims to make it illegal to possess use sell supply import export and manufacture BZP although there is no evidence that party pills kill and maim thousands of New Zealanders every year in the way that alcohol and tobacco do—every single year; thousands upon thousands of New Zealanders. 
To get a bit more background I looked over a paper written by a whanaunga of mine Dr Lance O’Sullivan of Ngati Hau. He is currently employed at Te Hauora o Te Hiku o Te Ika the first accredited Maori health provider in the country. He talked about seeing the impact of alcohol abuse on whanau: the domestic violence the unwanted pregnancies the broken families the fatal driving accidents the young men and women with heart and liver diseases and the depression affecting the older generations. This is the day-to-day reality of a legal but lethal drug that this legislature has allowed to ravage our Maori communities for more than 100 years. Even our tupuna thought so badly of the stuff that they called it waipiro—quite literally stinking rotting water. And Dr O’Sullivan does not need to write another paper in order for us to know that tobacco is doing even more damage than alcohol does. 
The Maori Party caucus is new but we have already built up quite a good reputation in the campaigns against tobacco and P and the destructive effects of alcohol and gambling on Maori communities. We have come from and we continue to live within those very communities and we know what we are talking about when we talk about the effects of alcohol tobacco and gambling. We would laugh at the ridiculous efforts being made to ban party pills except that we are still crying at the lack of attention being given to the addictions that still kill thousands of New Zealanders Maori and Pakeha every single year. Let me be clear again. The Maori Party is opposed to harmful drugs including alcohol and tobacco. We are equally committed to stopping substance abuse. But just because it is election year that does not mean we should pander to prejudice. 
Let us drop the scaremongering and get to the facts. Following on from a 2007 risk assessment report by the scientific committee of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction on the risks of BZP last week the centre called upon member States to take measures “appropriate to the relatively low risks of the substance”. Those eight member States Belgium Denmark Estonia Greece Italy Lithuania Malta and Sweden already regulate BZP under appropriate legislation. We can contrast that with the other statistics of death. Tobacco smoking kills more than 4600 New Zealanders every year. By 2020 tobacco will kill 10 million people every year worldwide; that is one person every 8 seconds. Thirty percent of young smokers will eventually be killed by tobacco. And here is one for members: tobacco kills more people than the combined number of deaths from alcohol drugs murder suicide road crashes air crashes poisoning drowning fires falls lightning and electrocution. 
The Victoria University of Wellington Students Association members of which would be prime users of party pills supports the increased regulation and control of the manufacturers of party pills who have targeted the student body through the commercial marketing and on-campus promotion of their products as “energy supplements” with “medicinal properties” and “life-enhancing effects” or—the most bizarre claim of all—a claim that their pills are “replacement brain-fuel”. The students association says that the industry is the one that should be targeted not the users and that reasonable standards should be imposed on the manufacture distribution labelling and advertising of party pills. Yet for all the facts it would appear that National and Labour are committed to this ban on party pills. 
The facts we have gathered reinforce our view the Maori Party view expressed in the minority report in the Health Committee’s report on the bill that a strictly enforced strongly regulated regime with tighter controls tighter regulations health warning labels controlled access and quality and quantity controls is a far better first step than prohibition. The Maori Party remains staunchly opposed to this bill and passionately in support of the call to seek the regeneration of our whanau our hapu and our iwi through dedicated efforts to restore our health and well-being. Tena koe Mr Deputy Speaker.