Stewart Barbara: Psychoactive Substances Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeStewart Barbara: Psychoactive Substances Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 27 June 2013. Volume:691;Page:11403. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]BARBARA STEWART (NZ First):I stand on behalf of New Zealand First to support the Psychoactive Substances Bill. This bill has been a long time coming. It has taken a long time for the former Associate Minister of Health to front up to the problems caused by legal highs but we have this legislation here now and we now find that we could be world leaders in this area. I would also like to acknowledge the chair of the Health Committee Dr Paul Hutchison. He has done a wonderful job with this legislation particularly when one takes into account the views that many of us had prior to going to the select committee. Thank you too to the rest of the select committee. It was a very constructive process helped out by the committee officials.Ideally—and before we went to the select committee—New Zealand First would have liked to see these substances banned. We know they are a very high risk but during the select committee process we had our opinions changed because these products contain many ingredients that are commonly available for purchase now. Of course the former Associate Minister the Hon Peter Dunne outlined at quite some length the reasons as to why these products could not be banned. But the bottom line is that New Zealand First did not want our young people going for a trip never leaving the building never leaving the street and coming back with massive challenges as baggage.Week in week out we have seen reports of these substances leading our young people into crime and reports of the serious harm that is being created by the consumption of these untested products. The bottom line is that we still do not know what the long-term effects are of consumption of these products.We know that petty offences are taking place and of course serious crimes. The effects that these substances have on one’s well-being have been widely documented. It has been shameful that under the current legislation New Zealanders have had very limited means to actually prevent harmful substances from being sold manufactured or even imported into New Zealand. We have been putting the manufacturers of these substances ahead of the well-being of everyday New Zealanders. These companies have been able to manufacture new legal highs. They import them and distribute them as they please. The Government has been always behind the eight ball having to try to continually monitor these drugs and placing every dodgy substance on the misuse of drugs register when it became a problem. Consequently the Government was always left two steps behind running to try to catch up and that is not a good situation when the Government is actually supposed to be running the country.New Zealand First supports this bill because it actually protects the health and safety of New Zealanders which is most important. We know that legal highs are largely detrimental to our nation’s health. Unfortunately they are lucrative to the manufacturers and the sellers. Most of the time we do not know what is in these substances or the effects that they are going to have on people. We are going to have a change on this front which is very positive.Legal highs are basically being marketed blind without the purchaser knowing or even caring about what they contain and how they can encourage dangerous behaviour and without them knowing that legal highs may make people seriously ill that they should not be used in association with alcohol and that they can even endanger young lives. We constantly read pages and pages of news in various newspapers right throughout the country of how New Zealanders have put themselves at risk by taking these legal highs. We know that these substances are associated with numerous mental health issues violence—a whole range of issues. So they are not good products as they currently stand.The purchasing and the advertising restrictions are adequate for the time being. Like previous speakers we initially thought that these products should have been restricted to those who are over 20. We have got a very conservative view on the age of purchase but we have agreed that perhaps the legislation should be in line with the alcohol legislation. The ban on sales from dairies and having no advertising at point of sale is also good. We needed to have something in this way. It is not good enough when bags of sweets are given away by dairy owners who did not really want these products associated with drug dealing. It is a bad situation when we are allowing dairy owners to be the legalised drug dealers in the community. These products should not be sold alongside newspapers and chocolate and iceblocks and sweets but this bill will sort out this problem which we are very happy about.I was talking to my taxi driver and he had actually been sent into a dairy to purchase one of these products along with a can of V for the woman who required it. He was actually looking in the freezer part of the cabinet. He thought that it was perhaps some sort of iceblock or perhaps another product like V. He was shocked to find out that it was actually synthetic cannabis that he was carrying in his taxi to take back to the customer.New Zealand First supports the provisions in the bill that wish to make manufacturers prove that their products are safe. The testing should be the responsibility of the manufacturer. They make mega-money from this particular product so it is time they ensured that their products are legitimate and that the substances they contain provide only a low risk for consumers. The onus has to be on the manufacturers here.New Zealand First along with others wanted plain packaging for these particular products but throughout the select committee process we like other parties changed our mind on this particular aspect. We are very happy with the labelling requirements that are going to require all products to have their active ingredients listed a phone number for the National Poisons Centre the contact details for the product’s New Zealand manufacturer or supplier plus a warning that it should not be consumed with alcohol.The bill is a much-needed start at regulating the uses of psychoactive substances; it is something that we are very pleased to see. One of the issues that we believe should be at the forefront for all New Zealanders is the health and safety of our young people particularly when we read in the paper about the growing violence that is created by these substances. Psychoactive substances need to be heavily regulated. We have got paramedics speaking out about how these legal highs are now a much larger problem than the illicit drugs that are available.New Zealand First supports the tough new penalties that this bill will actually introduce: 8 years in prison for importing making or supplying banned substances and 2 years in prison for importing making or supplying untested substances. We believe that this bill is a very positive step forward. These drugs will be tried and tested. We will not have these drugs in dairies and we know that advertising is not going to be as widespread as it is at this point. It is for all of these reasons that New Zealand Firstsupports this bill and we look forward to its speedy passage through the House. Thank you.