Henare PeeniDRUG AND SUBSTANCE CHECKING LEGISLATION BILL (NO 2)First ReadingHon PEENI HENARE (Associate Minister of Health (Māori Health)) on behalf of the Minister of Health: I present a legislative statement on the Drug and Substance Checking Legislation Bill (No 2). DEPUTY SPEAKER: That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website. Hon PEENI HENARE: I move That the Drug and Substance Checking Legislation Bill (No 2) be now read a first time. I nominate the Health Committee to consider the bill and at the appropriate time I will move that the Health Committee report the bill to the House by 29 October 2021. The purpose of this bill: in December last year when we passed the Drug and Substance Checking Legislation Act we did this so that the drug-checking organisations could operate with legal certainty over the summer period. That bill was for a temporary Act which will self-repeal this coming December. At the time that last year's bill was passed we said that we would develop a permanent regulatory system for drug checking. This bill will enable that system. Under the current drug-checking Act the Director-General of Health appointed KnowYourStuffNZ to carry out drug-checking work at festivals and other locations across Aotearoa. Over the past summer KnowYourStuff found that a lot of the drugs that had been sold as MDMA were actually a dangerous synthetic cathinone called eutylone. Eutylone can result in seizures paranoia and other serious effects. During the new year period KnowYourStuff asked people who used their services whether they still intended to take a drug once they knew it was a synthetic cathinone. Three-quarters of those people said that they would not take that drug. These are people who had already purchased the drugs and had intended to consume them but once they were informed about what they actually had they chose to say no. If drug-checking services had not been available most of those people would have unwittingly consumed eutylone and it is likely that some of them would have ended up in hospital. Because KnowYourStuff was able to operate legally and openly they were able to warn people about the eutylone circulating in the community. We know of many people who chose not to take their drugs or who take extra precautions because of those particular warnings. There are strong benefits from drug checking even when a drug is as expected. If drug checking shows that a person has MDMA for example they are told about the risks of MDMA. They are told how to reduce those risks—for example by not taking other drugs at the same time. They are never told that MDMA is a safe drug. It can be difficult to get health advice to people who consume drugs. They don't always trust official advice. They can be afraid to ask for help because they are afraid of prosecution. Drug-checking services provide honest and non-judgmental advice which can reduce risk and help people avoid serious trouble. This bill will enable a licensing system for drug-checking service providers. The licensing system will make sure that anyone providing drug checking has accurate tests and is providing good sound advice. There will be oversight provisions so that we can be confident that everything is fit for purpose. If there are significant problems the licence can be suspended or cancelled if necessary. This bill is similar to the current drug-checking Act in most regards. What we have seen so far is that the current Act works reasonably well and so many elements of it will be carried over. Like the current Act the bill amends the Misuse of Drugs Act and the Psychoactive Substances Act to allow drug checking to take place with legal certainty. It also provides that it is not an offence to host a drug-checking service. The biggest difference between the current Act and this bill is the licensing system. This will provide more oversight and a mechanism to suspend or revoke a licence if the provider is not doing their job properly. Another important difference is that there are no repeal provisions in this bill because it enables a more permanent regulatory system. This bill also amends the Medicines Act. This is because people may bring in a substance which turns out to be a prescription medicine. The amendment means that it can be checked in the same way as a controlled drug or an unapproved psychoactive substance. Finally this bill contains transitional provisions to ensure that there is no gap between the current system and the new one. Organisations appointed under the current Act will be able to legally operate while they are waiting for a licence decision. The bill will ensure that these providers are not back in a legal grey area during their busiest time of the year. I commend this bill to the House. DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to.