The police and hospital emergency rooms confirm the availability of these products and the number of cases of people presenting with problems associated with their use have fallen sharply. Yet still there are people up in arms.
How can this be? After all, the market has shrunk, the number of products is down over two-thirds and retail outlet numbers have fallen over 95 per cent. The present situation is far more tightly controlled than ever before, even at the time we were banning psychoactive substances. And I have already foreshadowed more regulations are coming in the next couple of months.
Sadly, one of the major reasons has been the inexplicable tardiness of local authorities in implementing their local plans to regulate the sale of psychoactive substances. And some mayors have shown an ignorance of the issues that borders on breathtaking stupidity.
The facts are these: as the Act was being developed, various local authorities and mayors pleaded with the government to give them local powers, similar to those they already have to regulate the sale of alcohol in their areas, to control the sale of psychoactive substances. Parliament listened to their pleas, and by a vote of 119 to 1 gave them the powers they were seeking.
But - and here is the rub - despite the grandstanding and tub-thumping of the mayors (just before last year's local elections, significantly) nine months later only five of 71 councils have implemented the local plans the mayors said they needed so desperately.
That delay is unacceptable. It is time for them to stop bleating, and start using the tools they implored Parliament to give them.
PETER DUNNE
Leader, UnitedFuture