Harawira Hone: Misuse of Drugs (Classification of BZP) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Harawira Hone: Misuse of Drugs (Classification of BZP) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:645;Page:14658] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Kia ora Madam Assistant Speaker. Kia ora tatou e te Whare. It seems to me that all of the pump and preaching the moralising the ranting the pontificating and the sermonising around this Misuse of Drugs (Classification of BZP) Amendment Bill is nothing but a wall of noise to hide the lack of information and the dearth of quality research about the use and effects of benzylpiperazine (BZP). 
When I was able finally to peel back the noise what I saw reminded me of a court case I was involved in back in 1981 where the prosecution had spent more than 2 years trying to stitch me up with what amounted to nothing more than insinuation and innuendo—minimum facts and maximum allusion. The prosecution case was so bloody flimsy that I described its efforts in my summing up to the jury with the well-worn cliché: “It seems to me that if you cannot dazzle them with brilliance then you bamboozle them with bullshit.” 
That is what this bill is all about—bamboozling people with bullshit to cover up a lack of proper research. Well I won my case back in 1983—it started in 1981 but went for 2 years. But I won it and so should all the poor kids whose health and well-being is being shamelessly trotted out as the basis for banning party pills. What this bill does do though is confirm the view that even when all the best advice says one thing if the Government is set on another course of action then the Government wins out every time. It is like the Foreshore and Seabed Bill for example which had 2171 submissions 186 presentations 10 consultation hui and some 45000 people marching on Parliament. It was an unprecedented rejection of this Government’s theft and extinguishment of Maori rights and what did the Government go and do? It ploughed ahead anyway. This bill is pretty much the same situation—80 percent of submissions opposed it and the Government is going ahead with it anyway. Go figure! 
If that is not bad enough even the opinions of the supposed jewel in the crown of youth development the much-vaunted and widely promoted Youth Parliament of 2007 have been completely ignored. The Youth Parliament received submissions on the status of benzylpiperazine (BZP) from the Ministry of Health the New Zealand Social Tonics Association the New Zealand Drug Foundation Care NZ and the University of Otago. The Youth Parliament’s report tabled in this House on 11 July 2007 stated: “The Health Committee has come to the conclusion that [BZP] should become legal with strong regulations surrounding party pills. We have decided on this because due to little research having been done there is insufficient evidence proving the long-term effects of this drug. … The Health Committee recommends to the Government that party pills should become legally available with heavy restrictions on advertising on the age that people can purchase and use these party pills and on who can sell the party pills and where.” Yet despite the majority of submissions opposing the bill and despite the strong recommendations of the Youth Parliament this bill is still before this House for approval. 
So what do we do about it? Well back in the 1980s and 1990s Nancy Reagan of the National Party proposed the “Just Say No” campaign against drug use which later shifted over to “just say no” to premarital sex and a list of other vices that America was trying to steer its young people away from. [ 
Interruption 
] Oh the Republican Party was it? I am sorry. But that campaign was a failure because it tried to oversimplify the scope and the nature of the problem and it did not deal with the realities of drug abuse. What we need to do is to start looking at more comprehensive and meaningful approaches rather than merely focusing on users. 
Let me be quite clear: the Maori Party is opposed to harmful drugs including alcohol and tobacco and we are equally committed to stopping substance abuse. But we also want the best information available to make our decisions and we have found out that over the last 5 years our society has popped some 20 million party pills with no recorded deaths. That is not to downplay any of the harmful effects of BZP—the nausea the headaches the hot and cold flushes the poor appetite the tremors and the shakes. Mind you those are the same symptoms that Parekura tells me him and his mates in the Labour Party Maori caucus have been suffering since the last  
Marae 
 DigiPoll came out. 
It is still a matter for concern that party pills have become such an entrenched part of youth culture particularly given the young age of the Maori population and the high risk of substance abuse. But prohibiting the manufacture sale supply and use of party pills will not solve the problem at all because party pills like alcohol dak and assorted other drugs are drugs that people want to keep taking. When drugs are made illegal what actually happens is that people keep taking them but the price jumps through the roof and drug use becomes unregulated unrestricted uncontrolled and unmanageable as the black market takes over. Of course everybody is thinking: “And what about cigarettes Hone?”. Well unlike all those other drugs that people like taking 80 percent of smokers actually want to stop so banning the manufacture supply and sale of tobacco products simply does not have the same effect. 
The most effective way to deal with party pills is not prohibition but a properly enforced strongly regulated harm minimisation approach and the evidence shows that when drugs are effectively regulated drug use and drug harm drops. Tighter regulation health warning labels controlled access and quality and quantity controls have proven to be way more successful than prohibition. Youthline told the select committee that banning would not change anything and other submitters also confirmed what we already know—that prohibition has no effect on the demand for drugs at all. 
In conclusion let me again say how hypocritical it is that this House can put all this energy into getting tough on BZP while alcohol and tobacco abuse continues to maim and kill Kiwis in their thousands. Members should remember what I said before: that over the last 5 years more than 20 million party pills have been popped with no recorded deaths. Can we say that about alcohol and tobacco though? Hell no; hell no! Alcohol and tobacco use and abuse have been researched to death and we know this House knows the people know and indeed the whole world knows that alcohol and tobacco are directly responsible for the deaths of thousands upon thousands of New Zealanders every single year. Yet—I will say it again because it is as important as that—alcohol and tobacco are directly responsible for the deaths of thousands upon thousands of New Zealanders every year and what do we do about it? We do nothing; nothing at all. 
Where do we get off on banning the drugs that kids like while condoning the drugs that our generation goes for? Is that what we call showing leadership? It sounds like pretty gutless and petty jealousy to me. It sounds like we do not want young people to have fun because we are too old for it. I have no issue with trying to come up with a decent answer on party pills but let us not kid ourselves that we are banning party pills for the good of our youth while turning a blind eye to the alcohol and cigarettes that are killing them in their thousands every single year. They tell me that I cannot use the word “hypocrite” to describe members in this House so I will not. But let me tell members that it would take a great dose of duplicitous deceitful and dishonest double-dealing for anyone to allow this bill to go any further in this House. The Maori Party agrees wholeheartedly with the Green Party on this. Let us kill this bill and get on with reality. Kia ora tatou.