Tanczos Nandor: General Debate 
Tanczos Nandor: General Debate 
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NANDOR TANCZOS (Green) 
: 
 In my second speech in this House I accused a member of being drunk in charge of the country. That was not a revelation but it was received with outrage by most members of this House who thought that such things should not be spoken. I still get a whiff of alcohol in this Chamber at times. It is not common but it happens. I am not opposed to people having a drink but I do oppose the hypocrisy that says: “Drinking alcohol on parliamentary business is OK but I’m tough on other people’s drugs.” All drugs can cause harm. Some such as methamphetamine seriously damage most users. Some such as cannabis can cause real harm— 
John Key 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I am sorry to interrupt the member’s speech but I think that it reflects badly on the 120 members of Parliament if a member comes down here to the Chamber and make accusations that there are whiffs of alcohol in this Parliament. I personally take offence at that. I think that if the member wants to name somebody under the parliamentary privilege that he has he should go ahead. If he is talking about Winston Peters the leader of New Zealand First—which clearly he was because he was talking about the time that he was Treasurer of the country—he should say so. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: I take very strong offence at the comment that Mr John Key has just made. He has used the opportunity of a point of order to make reference to the leader of the party I belong to as being the very member that Mr Tanczos was talking about when clearly there is quite a distance between those individuals. So I would ask that you ask Mr Key to withdraw that reference. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Clem Simich) 
: In fact that was the only specific reference that was made. It was not direct but I know the implication of it. I on behalf of the House did not take offence at what Mr Tanczos was saying. It was broad enough and goodness me enough references have been made to that member on a number of things. So members should not be so touchy. Let us get back to where we were. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: With all due respect I would ask you—and I know it is probably inappropriate for me to do so—to reconsider probably both parts of your ruling. Certainly I think there was a reflection on all members from the member from the Green Party but I do want to make the specific point that a suggestion that a particular member of this House is intoxicated is inappropriate. It should not be made and I think it should be withdrawn and apologised for. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Clem Simich) 
: No I have ruled on that matter and I will not take any more advice on it. I took us back to the beginning. There were two slight transgressions there and I am willing to go back to the beginning. 
NANDOR TANCZOS 
: All drugs can cause harm. Some such as methamphetamine seriously damage most users. Some such as cannabis can cause real problems when abused especially by young people. But the consensus among the professionals is that the major problem drug is alcohol. In order to genuinely reduce the harm caused by drugs in this country we need to focus on the seriousness of the harm itself and not just on the legal or illegal status of the drug that causes it. We must focus on the harm caused by all drugs and we need to get our priorities straight. All drugs can cause harm. 
Inconsistent legislation only causes more harm. We need legislation in this country that is consistent integrated and evidence based. I welcome the statement by the Hon Phil Goff this afternoon that the Government will be guided by the evidence on this matter. It is a pity that the United Future party will not make the same commitment as the Government has made. United Future consistently refuses to accept or look at the evidence and it still refuses to publicly debate the issue even though Mr Dunne and other members of the party have been invited to do so numerous times. We need legislation that can regulate all drugs integrate drug education and drug treatments into the framework and begin to take the politics out of the debate. 
The Greens have a proposal. It is the beginning of a discussion not the end of it. We believe we can develop a controlled drugs framework that sends a message that all drugs carry the risk of harm if abused and that allows each drug to be regulated according to the evidence on how to reduce harm from that particular drug. We have proposed a framework that would have a class A with a high level of restriction. The possession and sale of drugs in that class would be illegal except for therapeutic use and research purposes. For example methamphetamine would be in that schedule. We suggest a class B with a medium level of restriction. The sale of class B drugs would be illegal except for therapeutic purposes but R18 possession would be legal. As an example we would put codeine and cannabis in that class. In class C we would suggest a low level of restriction. The sale and possession of class C drugs would be permitted for general use with a range of restrictions such as an R18 restriction. The framework would address whether sales must be from licensed premises or could be from more general premises. It would ensure there were advertising restrictions and that there were warnings on the containers of all drugs on sale. In that class we would include alcohol tobacco benzylpiperazine and things like that. 
We believe that the use of illegal drugs or under-age use should be dealt with by giving honest information on the consequences of drug use. There should be a compulsory assessment and if there is evidence of a drug dependency then treatment should be provided. All members of this House know that despite the extra money put in by this Government the treatment services are still underfunded. They have been consistently underfunded for decades under previous Governments and it is time to put some real funding into that area. That approach was reiterated by Joe Walsh during his anti-P performance today in the Beehive when he made a plea for addiction to be seen as an illness rather than as a criminal matter and for treatment to be made available to people. The Greens believe we need legislation that will lead to fewer drugs in schools and fewer drugs problems and that will tackle drugs across the board—from alcohol to nicotine to cannabis and to other drugs. We believe we need a consistent an integrated and an evidence-based policy framework to deal with drugs in this country.