Tamati Coffey: Legal highs put tinny houses in CBD

Synthetic cannabis along with other "legal highs" are creating modern day tinny houses in our Rotorua CBD.

I was on Tutanekai St early in the morning, grabbing a coffee, and watched the phenomenal amount of people flowing through the nearby legal high retailer.

The Government bungled the implementation of the Psychoactive Substances Act 2013, with little to no consultation with local government, nullifying a lot of the ideals behind this act, with many mayors across New Zealand highly critical of this rushed through legislation as all it really does is remove certain "dangerous" drugs and limit where the "legal" drugs can be sold.

Where in the Act is there an onus on the manufacturer to prove that their substances are safe and harmless? What are these kids smoking exactly? Clearly this is yet to be seen. This is also ignoring the voice of kiwi families and communities nationwide.

A Facebook group called "Ban Synthetic Cannabis NZ Wide" has more than 34,000 members across New Zealand, all backing the calls for tighter controls and safer measures than this government has put forward and it's easy to see why so many people are passionately against it.

The effect of prolonged use is unknown, but what communities across New Zealand are telling us, is that this substance is causing damage right now in homes and families as we speak. News outlets have reported cases of psychosis, depression and severe dependencies among users of synthetic cannabis, symptoms similar to those of the real stuff.

Labour believes as I do, that this is not an issue of criminality, but a health issue and we need to know more about these legal highs. What are they doing to our people and how we can support those that are suffering under the addiction? Labour will sort this mess out - and it is a real mess.