Legal-high sales kept in single area

Napier City Councillors have approved a policy confining the sale of psychoactive substances to Dickens St and a surrounding area in the CBD.

At a meeting yesterday, councillors expressed anger that they were unable to ban sales of legal highs from the city altogether.

However, they accepted a recommendation from council staff and police that the inner-city restriction was the best option. The Hastings District Council last week adopted a similar policy.

While the majority of submissions called for a ban on the sale of psychoactive substances, under the rules of the Psychoactive Substances Act, the council is unable to enforce an outright ban.

The act, which became law this year, gives councils power to control certain aspects of the drugs' sales in their area, but it does not give them a mandate to enforce any ban.

Mayor Bill Dalton said he would like councils to have the power to prevent the product being sold anywhere.

"The police have insisted that in order to monitor sales, they need to be confined to one area but we'd like to have an outright ban," Mr Dalton said.

"That mandate lies in the hands of central government, unfortunately."

Restricting the area where the products could be sold enabled the council to keep them from being available near residential, family areas, schools and places of worship.

Mr Dalton said his council would be writing to central government to also suggest a tax be levied on the sale of psychoactive substances, trading hours be limited, limits be established around the amount a single person could buy and also that premises and managers be licensed in a similar way to alcohol outlets.