Pubdate: Sun, 11 May 2014 Source: Sunday Star-Times (New Zealand) Copyright: 2014 Sunday Star-Times Contact: http://www.sundaystartimes.co.nz Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1064 Author: Steve Kilgallon Page: A9 COMPO CALL GETS SHORT SHRIFT Synthetic-High Kingpins Are Angry at Lost Investments. SYNTHETIC-HIGH manufacturers say the Government should compensate them for now-worthless stock after last week's quickfire law change, but health minister Peter Dunne has rejected their demands. Photo: Chris Skelton Losses: Stephen Beere burns his now illegal highs. Some wholesalers were left holding stock with a street value of several million dollars, but Dunne had no sympathy and said the law change specifically excused the Government from paying compensation. "And I think that is entirely as it should be. I don't think the Government has any liability in this respect. The Government intentions were made clear a good 10 days before [the ban]." Dunne said anyone who held significant stock had " probably failed to read the signs. And I would say to them they are probably part of the problem . . . their enthusiastic supplying of the market. Had they not gone completely overboard and created demand, it would not have caused the public reaction and I suspect it would have carried on as much as they were." Dunne's words were met with amazement by Stephen Beere, whose company, Orbital, had licences to import, manufacture, wholesale and retail synthetic highs. He said stock took much longer than 10 days to order and arrive - he still has some en route from China ordered well before the ban. "If this was any other business and the Government suddenly said 'you can't sell it any more', there would be compensation. I did big deals the week before the announcement and I am stuck with it now. If the Government feel they have made a mistake and are trying to fix it, surely that's their problem, not mine?" Beere said he had also lost investments made in a planned expansion into exporting, as well as a potential sale of his chain of sex shops to Australian investors, which fell through when the law changes were announced. Shane Waaka, a director of wholesaler Risque, said he stood to lose about $500,000 in immediate stock. He had about $ 250,000 worth at hand when the law changed, with the rest owed or held by small retailers who he suspected would "close up shop and disappear". "I am angry, very angry at the way they've approached this last couple of weeks," he said. "There is no doubt they have misled this industry in terms of our investment to go forward. I guess compensation is needed. We were given a timeframe to work with and invested in the future. We can't trust them on anything now. "This was never a gold mine." Among the results of the law change could be a raft of closures of sex shops. Waaka said synthetic highs represented up to 80 per cent of turnover for some shops as sales of traditional lines had declined. Grant Bell of the industry body Star Trust said he expected one in five retailers to close. Waaka said tighter regulations had been working and many of the dangerous synthetics were gone. " We've tried to act responsibly. But it has been quite a battle." Bell said media pressure and blatant electioneering was to blame for a "moral panic". "When the journalists have more power than the scientists, the public suffers," he said. He also blamed the Government's decision to cap retail outlets at 150, causing bottlenecks. Bell said alcohol and tobacco were far more dangerous than natural or synthetic cannabis, and control of the market had now shifted from responsible retailers to gangs. " If a child wanted to try cannabis, would you rather they went to a licensed retailer with strict controls, ID checks, compliance and good advice, or a gang and get crap product and maybe be given a free sample of crystal meth?" Bell said there would be no point trying to fight ahead of the election, but said the industry was " resilient and adaptable". An unmoved Dunne said: "I can't say the industry is dead; I can't say it's alive." - --- MAP posted-by: Matt