Wairarapa dairies dealing with K2 trouble

Despite reports of synthetic cannabis wreaking havoc in communities around the country, from those spoken to locally, the use of such products does not appear to be widespread in Wairarapa.

However, one dairy owner has described how kids cracked his window to get the product.

Several other dairy owners said they had also experienced problems, with one business owner stating he had decided to stop selling the product as it was a "troublemaker".

Opaki Mini Market owner Kishor Maisuria sold K2 at the beginning of the year for about a month.

He said there was an incident where some kids tried to smash his shop window to get the product. The window was cracked and cost $750 to replace.

"Sometimes the kids think I've got a K2 packet and they try to break in the window," he said.

Mr Maisuria said he thought it was a good thing K2 would be banned by Thursday. Drugs like K2 and Kronic "are not good for health", he said.

Wairarapa Times-Age contacted 11 dairies around the region, all of which said they did not stock the synthetic cannabis product K2.

However, some sold other legal highs, such as Thai High, and said they had previously sold K2.

This Thursday a temporary class drug notice, banning substances found in K2, will come into effect. Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne announced the ban last week, which will bring the number of substances banned under temporary notices to 35, with more than 50 products containing those substances now off the market.

Pahiatua's Telstar Dairy owner Evan Pu said his shop had sold K2 in the past and sells Thai High.

He said he stopped selling the K2 product because it was a "troublemaker".

Mr Pu said he has been told by customers the synthetic products are better than cannabis.

"If they smoke marijuana they get into trouble but if they smoke this they don't," Mr Pu said.

He also said he did not think the products were any worse than alcohol and had tried them himself.

"Otherwise I can't sell [them], I have to know what it is," he said. "If you use it responsibly it's fine."

Mr Dunne said the ban was a victory for the authorities but he acknowledged it would be a long fight.

"This is another blow to the industry and one of many we have delivered - but I fully acknowledge it is more of the cat-and-mouse game until we can deliver the killer punch in August when the Psychoactive Substances Bill will become law," Mr Dunne said.

The bill will force manufacturers to prove legal-high products are safe and will reinforce the restriction of the products to those under 18. Submissions on the legislation are now closed and the Health Select Committee is due to report the bill back to Parliament in mid-June.

"What this ban will do in the meantime is force more of the K2 product off the shelves and that is the best outcome we can have at this point with a product that is clearly bad for people."

Area Commander Brent Register said police were aware of the use of the products but had not noticed an increase.

"Not to my knowledge have we seen a big increase in these synthetic cannabinoids. But certainly school teachers are talking about kids arriving at schools after using it."

Mr Register said police would be working with the Ministry of Health to run compulsory purchase operations and check dairies were not selling to under 18s.