Retailer faces 200 protesters

Protest organiser Di Leach reads an open letter to Puff2Go owner Lindsay Zuo. Photo / Joel Ford

A shopkeeper stocking synthetic cannabis says she has been unfairly targeted by her community.

Puff2Go owner Lindsay Zuo said she arrived at the Te Puke store yesterday to find the keyhole had been filled with glue preventing her from getting in and was confronted by 200 angry protesters in the afternoon.

Heavy rain did not prevent the crowd of protesters from voicing their concerns outside the Jellicoe St store which has applied for a licence to sell synthetic cannabis. A list released by the Ministry of Health yesterday confirmed the store had not yet been issued a licence and was still under consideration.

Organiser Di Leach led a largely respectful crowd on a short march and vowed to boycott the store and organise further protests.

"We are here today in unity to show you how strongly Te Puke feels about the opening of Puff2Go to sell legal highs," Ms Leach said.

"We acknowledge that you have opened this shop to sell legally, rather than at your Mayfair Dairy and we acknowledge the drugs you are selling are legal. But until there is a law change it is obviously up to every community to make a stand. We do not want synthetic drugs sold in our town."

But the protest, intended to be peaceful, turned slightly nasty as the depth of feeling in the town boiled up yesterday.

Threats and racial slurs against the Asian owners of the Mayfair Dairy and the newly-opened Puff2Go were clearly evident at the protest.

"I don't want to talk too much, honestly," Ms Zuo said. "Today is an upsetting day."

Ms Zuo said she got an abrasion on her finger from what she believed to be super glue and presented an invoice for $425 to repair the back door of her premises.

She said it was unfair for people to blame retailers for selling products that had been proven to be safe and placed the onus on parents to ensure their children did not use synthetic drugs.

"They keep talking about the youth. We never, ever sell to the youth. Children you have to educate. If you don't, you blame the seller.

"Even if you get it out of the Bay of Plenty, other places in New Zealand have it. And plus you can just get a ship from other part of the world. It's a worldwide phenomenon."

She called for a clamp down on businesses breaking the Psychoactive Substance Act 2013 and said it was the use of the products that was problematic, rather than the substances themselves.

Each product for sale in her store had been cleared under the new Act at a cost to the manufacturers of about $100,000 each, she said.

More than 100 customers had been buying the product daily at the cost of $20 per packet, she said. Western Bay of Plenty Mayor Ross Paterson said talks were ongoing with central government. "I'm talking to local MP Todd McClay and the Ministry of Health to make them aware that we must change this legislation."