Parliament too slow for synthetic drug market

News that ‘new’ synthetic drug products are back on sale in Auckland shops within weeks of Parliament passing ‘temporary’ laws to ban selected products is extremely disappointing.

“Our law makers have failed our young and put lives at risk,” said Michael Barnett, head of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce.

At the end of July, an Auckland Chamber survey of members overwhelmingly supported an overhaul of drug laws to require all synthetic products to have to prove their safety before they could be sold.

Parliament responded with a 12-month notice banning all 48 synthetic products on the market at the time of the ban, with provision for the Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne to respond as required to ban further products when attempts were made to change ingredients or repackage products.

The ban was an interim measure while the Government works on an overhaul of the Misuse of Drugs Act to require manufacturers to prove their products were safe before they could be sold.

“Mr Dunne’s admission that that he was not aware that a repackaged drug product had returned to the shops and was ‘urgently’ seeking a report from officials, shows up Parliament’s inability to make laws that address basic principles,” said Mr Barnett.

Most other products are covered by laws and regulations to prove they are safe before they can be sold. “It should be a simple Parliamentary process to ban these products and require them to prove they are safe before they can be sold. The country deserves an explanation as to why Parliament has allowed itself to be outwitted by the producers of these products.”