Little AndrewDRUG AND SUBSTANCE CHECKING LEGISLATION BILLFirst ReadingHon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Health): I present a legislative statement on the Drug and Substance Checking Legislation Bill.Legislative statement published under the authority of the House.Hon ANDREW LITTLE: I move That the Drug and Substance Checking Legislation Bill be now read a first time.This bill is fairly simple. It changes two pieces of legislation: the Misuse of Drugs Act and the Psychoactive Substances Act. It makes those changes for again a quite simple purpose and that is to allow the checking of illicit substances at festivals. The reality is with the music festival season upon us we know that some people who attend those festivals partake of recreational drugs and substances. They purchase those substances and sometimes they do not know exactly what they are getting when they purchase them and there are risks associated with that. In music festivals around the world we have seen the same thing happening: substances being sold and lives being put at risk some people getting very seriously ill and in fact some people dying. We saw it in Australia last summer exactly that happening. This is just a reality that happens when people go to music festivals; these substances are available.The measure that this bill represents is a safety measure. It means that those who wish to partake of those substances but who have doubts about the safety of it can get them tested and that those who are carrying out the testing are not therefore liable to criminal prosecution. It also means those who are organising the events or otherwise hosting them—if it's a landowner or the event organiser—are also not liable to prosecution. They would be under the Misuse of Drugs Act in section 12 of that Act if this legislation is not passed.This continues the approach that this Government has taken which is about treating drug issues—particularly possession of some drugs—not as a criminal matter but as a health matter. The truth is in this day and age in some places and in some communities some people partake of drugs and substances that are classified under the Misuse of Drugs Act and the possession of which would otherwise constitute a criminal offence. Well we can carry on criminalising people for what they're doing or we might want to better understand why it is that they're doing that—why it is that they're taking those risks. The content of this bill and what it seeks to do is about accepting the fact that what people are doing in these circumstances is not actually a criminal matter; it's a health matter.Now if I go to a music festival I don't particularly partake of a whole swag of drugs—there's probably one which is alcohol which I admit to but I don't partake of other substances. I don't have a particular interest in it. That's just me and that's my choice but others make different choices—Simeon Brown: To break the law.Hon ANDREW LITTLE: —and they have been doing that for some years. The member opposite says But they're breaking the law." But Mr Brown they've been breaking the law for many many years over many many substances. The whole head in the sand approach which is "We should just catch up with them and we should come after them with a big book and put them before the court and we should prosecute them and charge them and do all those sorts of things." Actually we've been doing that. We've been doing that for decades and it doesn't work. It's not changing. If we want to change behaviours then we've got to take a different approach.Victoria University in the next couple of weeks is going to release some research on just this issue about testing drugs at festivals. What their research shows or the interim results that I've seen show is that about two-thirds of those people who use the services change their behaviours as a result—change the way they think about the ingestion of those substances—and it is much safer for them. Having drug-testing services around with the drug-testing personnel not susceptible to prosecution means that they can actually have a conversation with those drug users provide some education provide some information and provide some advice. It is time for us to consider alternative approaches because for far too long what we've been doing year after year decade after decade has not been working.When we changed the Misuse of Drugs Act last year we took the approach that it was time to abandon this criminalise everybody approach and actually take a health approach and that's what we're doing here. What is very clear in the debate that we have only recently had on drugs and on illicit drugs is people want to know that those who use it are safe. That's what New Zealanders want.Hon Dr Nick Smith: New Zealanders said no.Hon ANDREW LITTLE: New Zealanders said no to legalising cannabis. That's all they said—that's what that referendum result said. But what New Zealanders actually want to know is that young people are kept safe. Talk to any parent of a teenager who goes to music festivals or goes to music events. Talk to any parent of a young person who goes to those activities and ask them what they want. They want to know that their child their young adult is safe. And that's what this does. The testing makes sure that those who choose to use substances that they're not sure about and are otherwise illicit can have them tested to make sure that they're safe. That's what this allows.There are outfits in the community who do this testing. KnowYourStuffNZ is one of them the New Zealand Drug Foundation is another and they are able to do the testing and now they will be able to do it knowing that those providing this service which is about safety can do so without risk of prosecution. And that is a good thing. So on that basis with this bill doing those very simple things and providing safety for New Zealand young New Zealanders over the forthcoming summer festival season will be safe.I might just foreshadow too that this is an interim step. It is my intention for us to develop a permanent response to this situation. This bill is self-repealing in 12 months but by that time we will have a permanent response to this very situation after having had a good quality consultation engagement with the community about what is needed to make sure that those who would use substances that are illicit but that might cause harm can have ways of having them tested so that their safety can be preserved. That is the next step but for tonight this bill is an interim step to provide safety for young people going to music festivals or otherwise using illicit substances in places to do so knowing that those services that do that testing can do so themselves without liability to prosecution and that will be a good measure for the safety of young New Zealanders. I commend the bill to the House.DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to."