Pubdate: Tue, 29 Apr 2014
Source: Waikato Times (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2014 Independent Newspapers Limited
Contact:  http://www.waikatotimes.co.nz/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/486

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

The Government has decided the 40 or so "legal high" substances not 
already banned under the Psychoactive Substances Act should be 
removed from shop shelves until they are proven to be low-risk. 
Legislation will be passed under urgency when Parliament next sits on 
May 8. Local body leaders around the Waikato will be delighted. 
Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne - and every MP in our region - 
should be embarrassed. Mr Dunne has been excoriated in recent weeks 
over the sales of synthetic cannabis.

Local Government New Zealand president Lawrence Yule told TV3's The 
Nation that councils wanted a blanket ban on these products.

Mr Dunne chided councils for being too slow to implement their powers 
to regulate the stores that sell legal highs. It was up to them to 
enforce where and how synthetic cannabis could be sold, he maintained.

Not exactly.

Under the Psychoactive Substances Act - hastily enacted in July last 
year - councils and their communities can decide where legal highs 
can be sold. But they can't determine who should be licensed to sell 
these products and must refer their decisions to the 
Government-appointed Psychoactive Substances Regulatory Authority. 
The authority is not required to take local council policies into 
consideration when it licenses retailers.

The legislation does require manufacturers to prove the drugs are 
low-risk before they can be sold. But a testing regime has yet to be 
set up and several relevant regulations are not yet in place.

Until then, some drugs can be sold legally.

Mr Dunne acknowledged the laws could be strengthened when he told The 
Nation a higher tax rate on legal highs was under consideration. More 
critically, he said that - in retrospect - probably all illegal highs 
should have been removed from sale at the time the legislation took effect.

He continued to insist a blanket ban would drive synthetic cannabis 
out of stores and into the black market.

Yet before the weekend was over, he was announcing a blanket ban - 
just what councils around New Zealand were seeking. While Mr Dunne 
licks his wounds, let's not forget that bills can't be rushed into 
laws without parliamentary support.

In the case of the bill that the Government is now scurrying to 
amend, not one MP from the Waikato demurred.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom