Chadwick Steve: Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill (No 3) — In Committee Third Reading 
Chadwick Steve: Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill (No 3) — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:626;Page:21517] 
STEVE CHADWICK (Labour—Rotorua) 
: 
 That was a rather confused speech made by the National Party spokesperson on health. Partly it shows that there have been a lot of changes to the Health Committee. 
I acknowledge at the beginning of my third reading speech the valuable contribution made by Lynda Scott. I know that this bill will probably be the last bill she is involved in. Lynda Scott was there when Wyatt Creech brought in his first amendment to the Misuse of Drugs Act and she well understood about the Order in Council and the expeditious scheduling. I think it has been a confused issue ever since. Today’s debate by Opposition members has shown me how confused those members are about the value of the Order in Council mechanism. Wyatt Creech brought it in very sensibly. We use it very moderately understanding the need for flexibility and the ability to expeditiously schedule. Yet National has argued against the use of the Order in Council mechanism. It is quite bizarre. 
This bill was a difficult one. It was very very complex actually because of the statutory framework we are working with with legislation on controlled drugs then in came the issue of licit drugs with Supplementary Order Paper 298 which was referred to us in November. It was not a knee-jerk reaction. It was referred to us in November as a result of the Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs not as a result of the Associate Minister of Health panicking and looking for answers out there to please the electorate. 
The Misuse of Drugs Act and subsequent amendments are rather out of date and do require a major overhaul. We do need to look at how we regulate both controlled and licit drugs. I believe that the Order in Council process showed it is still a robust mechanism and very useful in terms of expeditious scheduling. It does involve the House it does involve Cabinet and it does involve the select committee. I find it a rigorous process. It is not lightly used at all. It was sad to see the Opposition therefore voting against Part 3. 
There is a challenge to us about the mix of drugs and we took it very seriously. I believe that members of the Health Committee those who understood the original Misuse of Drugs Act came up with a very sensible solution in terms of where we are in the electoral cycle. They knew that there was no way that our concerns about benzylpiperazine and where it stood in our public health framework would be addressed at this time in Parliament and it was not good enough to say we would develop our own stand-alone bill. I do not think that is a sensible solution because it means yet another drug bill without our looking at the whole drug framework. 
A lot of preparatory work was done. When we look at the way tobacco regulation and tobacco control were brought in in 2003 we see that we have carried over those regulatory provisions into this bill. Members do not seem to have read this bill very closely at all. We have set up a second schedule of criteria that the Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs has to look at and take into account before the Order in Council process is put in motion. We have put in some very sensible issues about the practicalities of enforcement requirements and having the right incentives in place so that we do not push people into using another illicit drug that has come on to the market. We looked at sale and supply issues. Katherine Rich pointed out the very interesting issue that in this bill we are talking about restricting sale to 18-year-olds and not promoting these social herbal highs to under-18-year-olds yet a contradictory piece of legislation about the drinking age has been introduced. This bill allows a voluntary code restrictions on the location of where sales can be made and provisions for advertising labelling and co-packaging as well as manufacturing standards. 
I think we have done very very well with this bill given the complexity of the issues and the timing of the electoral cycle. I am proud to support this bill.