Smith NickHon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson): The issue of synthetic drugs such as synthetic cannabis is killing about 50 New Zealanders a year and what is even more concerning for this Parliament is those that are dying are some of the young people who have the greatest prospects and future ahead of them. I am simply appalled as a member of the Justice Committee that listened to the impassioned pleas of families the likes of Lewis Jones who listened to the people on the front line in our ambulances and our accident and emergency departments that this Parliament would stick its head in the sand and pretend that this is not a problem. We had an awful tragedy earlier this year in Christchurch with the shootings at that synagogue and this Parliament came together and said that we were not going to sit idly by and watch 51 of our fellow citizens lose their life. In just three weeks we passed the laws to deal with those semi-automatic weapons. Why I ask this Parliament can we not come together on this issue of synthetics recognise its seriousness and back my colleague Simeon Brown's bill?I want to say this is not a choice of whether you have serious offending and criminal sentences for dealing in this stuff as compared with whether you have education or treatment or proper customs controls. Members on this side of the House say that you need to have all of those. But what I find insulting is this: a single dealer in synthetic cannabis has been shown to sell—one dealer—sufficient product to kill 14 people and the maximum penalty that that person can face under the law is a maximum of two years in prison.Hon Scott Simpson: How much?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: Two years. Now does any member of the House think that really is just? I do not. That's why I am backing this bill.There is a fantastic editorial in the New Zealand Listener this week and it poses this challenge to people like Mr Seymour who says that prohibition does not work: what we do know is legalisation works even worse. Why do we know that? Well in 2013 this Parliament was persuaded by Peter Dunne to try and regulate these drugs. It was a disaster. We every one of us saw in our accident and emergency departments that the moment that the Government said that something like synthetics was safe use went through the roof and what a disaster we had being confronted in our accident and emergency wards. This Parliament came together within a matter of weeks and passed law to undo that and to ensure that we had proper penalties.Now my colleague Simeon Brown has talked about the 50 deaths that occur from these synthetic drugs. In the last week I've been working with the families of the worst road accident in New Zealand in the last decade. On 27 June last year we had the tragic loss of seven lives—not included in my colleague's number. What was absolutely plain was that the driver of that vehicle on a perfectly clear morning had been stoked up on synthetic cannabis. Again I say to members—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): I apologise to the member. The time has come for me to leave the Chair for the dinner break.Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.Hon Dr NICK SMITH: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. I am strongly supporting this bill of Simeon Brown because the scourge of synthetic drugs is costing the lives of so many young New Zealanders and I am appalled by the reasons that the Government parties—Labour New Zealand First and the Greens—are giving for their opposition to this bill. It is disingenuous and it is political. They basically do not want any National Party MP to get any bill through this House. You could not find in this Parliament a more gentlemanly polite and well-intended member than my colleague Simeon Brown and if you cut to the chase of members' opposition to this bill it's that they dare not allow him to gain the credit for dealing with this very real issue. It is costing the lives of a New Zealander on average every single week and the argument that members opposite are making Oh at some point we might have a Government bill." is simply putting at risk further young lives.I also want to challenge the Government on the process this bill has been through. This isn't a bill that turned up yesterday. I remember on the issue of the awful tragedy that occurred in Christchurch we banged the law through over the loss of 51 lives in a very short period. This bill came to the House in February last year. It's been through a full select committee process it has been through a full committee process. The Government parties' opposition to this bill also reflects a broader and deeper problem: that it is fundamentally soft on the issue of drugs. If we look at the amendments to the Misuse of Drugs Act—that it is effectively going to prohibit according to both the Police Association and in terms of the New Zealand Law Society any possession for any of the range of drugs including these that we debate here is extremely concerning. The fact that they are having a referendum on the legalisation of cannabis has them sending a signal to New Zealand that this isn't really serious it isn't a problem and if we look at the 17 months that this Government has been dragging the chain on officials' recommendations for the introduction of random testing what we see with the Government parties' opposition to that bill and those other legislative measures is a Government that fundamentally is soft on drugs.Let me tell you why that matters: I am sick and tired of hearing members opposite talk about issues of wellbeing and having this complete blind spot about the issues of drugs and what they are doing in our society. I don't care whether it's the issue of domestic violence whether it's the issue of suicide particularly amongst our youth whether it's the issue of educational underachievement workplace deaths deaths on our roads. Actually so many of those are negatively impacted by the use of drugs and this Government is ignoring that problem.I also want to say there's a real naivety in the Government around this issue of drug dealers and drug users. Here's the Government line and why it is flawed: they live in this world that says "There's a bunch of drug users over here. They are innocent. They need drug treatment and they are completely separate from those that are the dealers". Actually that's not the way it is in the real world. Many of the people that are selling and profiting from the use of synthetics are also the dealers and that became very clear in the Justice Committee. So this sort of soft approach that the only response to this country's drug problems is going to be treatment is out of step with the reality. We do need to take a firm approach with customs at the border in preventing drugs coming into this country. We need to take a firm approach with the manufacturers and with the dealers. We need to have an approach in our schools of education so that young people can make better choices. But enforcement has to be part of the picture and ensuring that the penalties for those that are spinning and selling synthetics and ruining the lives of New Zealanders—there needs to be accountability there needs to be enforcement and that is what my colleague Simeon Brown is seeking with this bill.So I plead to the conscience of the Labour New Zealand First and Green MPs that are opposing this bill: they are doing New Zealand a great disservice they are doing those that work in the coalface of those—Hon Member: Our young people.Hon Dr NICK SMITH: Our young people—that are being hit by the scourge of these synthetic drugs they are doing a grave disservice and every day that we delay putting proper penalties in place and adopting this bill is putting more lives of young New Zealanders at risk. I'm pleased to stand with National colleagues. We will not have the next death from a synthetic drug on our conscience and I challenge the conscience of those members opposite who continue to turn a blind eye to this very serious issue."