Urgent action is required to address drug problems, like the prevalence of P (methamphetamine) and the growing problems with and deaths from synthetic drugs (not cannabis as some keep describing it as).
Instead the Minister of Health, David Clark, and the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, are shamefully lame.
RNZ: Synthetic drug compounds may be reclassified as Class A
Two of the most commonly used synthetic drugs could be reclassified as Class A, bringing them in line with heroin and cocaine.
Health Minister David Clark said the aim was to give the police greater powers to stop makers and sellers of the drug.
He said he would be asking his Cabinet colleagues to support reclassification of two compounds known as AMB-Fubinaca and 5F-ABD.
A bad batch of synthetic drugs in Christchurch is suspected to be behind one death. The batch has also put 19 people in hospital over the last two weeks.
“Any death as a result of drug use is a tragedy, and my sympathies go to friends and family,” Dr Clark said.
The government was taking the synthetic drug problem seriously and was talking to service providers and drug users to identify areas of need, he said.
Urgent and drastic action is required, like right now, and Clark is talking to people and might take a tweak to Cabinet some time in the future. I don’t have a problem with enabling tougher sentences for pushing some drugs, but that is unlikely to dent the ongoing catastrophe that requires urgency.
A decision on reclassification under the Misuse of Drugs Act would be made in coming weeks.
“It’s important to acknowledge that reclassification is not a silver bullet. We need to treat drug abuse, including synthetic cannabis, as a health issue,” Dr Clark said.
It’s not cannabis. And this is hardly going to make a difference.
Drug laws need a complete overhaul, not just a tweak, says The Drug Foundation.
It said drug suppliers and users needed to be treated differently under the law, as suggested by the Law Commission in 2011.
This would stop addicts being penalised for what should be health issue, Drug Foundation chief executive Ross Bell said.
“Unless the government reforms that law then its good intentions of going after the big guys doesn’t stop police from then also choosing to criminalise people who are using these drugs.”
Funding for drug addiction services also needed to double, he said.
Drug rehabilitation service provider What Ever It Takes Trust general manager Caroline Lampp said a reclassification of two synthetic drugs would help stop supply, but more help for addicts was crucial.
“There a big gap here in Hawke’s Bay and in other places around the before and after support,” she said.
Dr Clark agreed addiction services are underfunded, but said the government was waiting for the final report from the Mental Health and Addiction Inquiry before increasing any funding.
Waiting. Waiting! While lives continue to be ruined, and people keep dying.
Last week in New York Ardern notably did not join Donald Trump’s continuation of the failed ‘war on drugs’.
Last night saw Ardern spout some absolutely vague waffle on the drug problem last night on TV and now I can’t find it, such is it’s lack of importance in the news.
TVNZ has this online: Potent new batch of synthetic drugs turning users violent in Christchurch – ‘Every person is quite unpredictable’
Two more people have died from suspected synthetic drug overdoses in Christchurch in the last fortnight as the city grapples with a dangerous batch of the drugs.
Those on the front line say patients on synthetic cannabis are becoming more aggressive and turning on the people trying to help them.
St John’s Craig Downing told 1 NEWS about one of these violent incidents.
“Last Saturday night we were called to a case that the ambulance staff responded to.
“They attended to a person and whilst in the back of the ambulance that person, without provocation or warning, violently attacked one of my staff,” Mr Downing said.
“I’m extremely worried because we don’t know from one patient to the next what’s in this substance and as such every person is quite unpredictable.”
Others dealing with Christchurch’s less fortunate have also reported the new strain of synthetic cannabis causing issues.
“The latest batches are significantly more powerful than they’ve ever been, in fact up to 400 times the strength of THC which is really significant.
“From an addictive perspective one hit can get someone hooked on it,” Christchurch City Mission’s Matthew Mark says.
A paper is set to go to cabinet in the next few weeks with a plan on how to tackle the issue, including a possible law change.
‘Next few weeks’, ‘possible law change’. Hopeless.
Ardern appears in video of that item alongside Minister of Police Stuart Nash waffling a bit about what they might do.
I think that was the news item I heard Ardern speaking but it seems to have been expunged.
Clark, Ardern and the Government have been shamefully lame in their dealing with urgent drug abuse problems.
Green MP Chloe Swarbrick is putting them to shame (see next post) but is not making much impression on Ardern or her Government.