Anderton Jim: Misuse of Drugs (Classification of BZP) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Anderton Jim: Misuse of Drugs (Classification of BZP) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:645;Page:14764] 
Hon JIM ANDERTON (Associate Minister of Health) 
: 
 I can respect the motives of the Green Party members but I cannot agree with them. Originally the time given was to be 7 days. That has been extended now to 1 April to cover the issue of communications and all the rest of it. But to be fair the people in the business community who sell these products—$30 million worth a year roughly—have been under notice for about 18 months. If they had not known that this measure was coming up then they must have been on some other planet or at least in some other country. They would have known very clearly that there is very strong support in this House for the Misuse of Drugs (Classification of BZP) Amendment Bill. They would have known that. The bill’s support was almost overwhelming when it went to the Health Committee and it was clear when the select committee reported back that there was strong support for its passage. So anyone who did not know that this measure was coming in is being disingenuous when he or she says that to be honest. 
In truth many retailers have stopped selling benzylpiperazine (BZP) now. I know that. I have seen them close their shelves in various shops in Christchurch which seems to be the BZP capital of the world as far as I know and there they have stopped selling it already. The retailers know that this legislation is coming in they have stopped selling BZP and it is a no-brainer. So those people who have not stopped selling BZP have taken the risk of carrying on and there should not be any sympathy in this Committee for supporting them. 
This $30 million business dines out on offering young people primarily a substance that we now know is harmful. We did not guess that; we did not make it up on the way here. We have been told by an expert committee on drugs made up of professionals in this area that BZP is harmful. Why would we want to continue to sell it? Why would we want to continue to sell something that is harmful? We are being conscious of the young people mainly who use BZP and there is a 6-month period for them so that they do not rush into getting criminal offending going straight up. But as I said before once we make this substance illegal all the evidence is that its sale and use will slow down and eventually become virtually nil and that is the good news for the Committee. 
Members should not forget that these businesses were actually expecting to have to stop selling BZP at Christmas. That is the truth. They all knew that; I made that pretty clear. But I am afraid that the Green Party made it very clear that it would not give us approval to go into urgency if we put this bill in the urgency motion then. We knew that so we could not do it. In response to all the wailing from the National Party on this matter I say that those members should just wait until one day—not in the immediate future—when they have to manage four or five parties in the House and we shall see how they get on with that. I wish those members well; I think that the slippery sliding thing will be very obvious. Businesses have had another 3 months from last Christmas after the 18 months’ notice they were given. Christmas came and they still had 3 months so why on earth would we want to give them even more time than that? 
I cannot support the amendment. I am not suggesting that there are any ulterior motives behind it but it just does not make sense.