Speaking out on synthetic cannabis

The Salvation Army is concerned at the growing availability of un-researched psychoactive drugs in New Zealand.

Some dairies have been caught selling the drug ‘Kronic’ to minors, while some secondary schools and youth agencies have started to report that they’re seeing an increase in the number of high school students using these so-called ‘legal highs’.

Although these psychoactive drugs carry an ‘R18’ classification, their glossy packaging and names like ‘Aroma’, ‘Dream,’ ‘Pineapple Express’, ‘Puff’ and ‘Purple Haze’ seem to be deliberately marketed at young people.

The Salvation Army’s Social Policy and Parliamentary is recommending that people their local MPs and ask them to support the Law Commission’s report on ‘Controlling and Regulating Drugs’. The unit also suggests that people talk to their local dairy owners and commit to supporting them if they do not sell these drugs over the counter.

The Salvation Army strongly recommends that:

• ‘Kronic’ and other psychoactive drugs are immediately removed from general public sale, and especially from sale in dairies
• Local Councils, in cooperation with the Police, Drug Treatment Services and Youth-Worker NGOs, partner to educate and monitor dairy-owners and other specialised retailers of psychoactive drugs
• The Government sponsors a national media campaign to educate the general public, especially parents and young people, on the risks of using psychoactive drugs
• The Government extends the funding available for specialised treatment services
• The Government adopts, in its entirety, the Law Commission’s Report on Controlling and Regulating Drugs—A Review of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975
• The Government, when adopting the Misuse of Drugs Act, considers placing the onus on the drug suppliers to prove a drug does no harm rather than on the public having to prove that it does harm before it can be removed from sale.

> Read the Commission’s Report
> Read The Salvation Army’s Stand on Psychoactive Drugs