Perth death linked to NZ-made Kronic

Kronic. Photo / file

West Australian police are investigating whether a 38-year-old man had been smoking a New Zealand synthetic cannabis, Kronic Black, before his death last night.

The man was taken to Rockingham Hospital, 47km southwest of Perth, last night, suffering a suspected cardiac arrest.

He was unable to be revived and died at hospital, The West Australian newspaper reported.

Police said he might have been smoking Kronic Black.

WA recently became the first Australian state to ban Kronic and similar synthetic-cannabis products - and a similar ban on sales is due to take effect in New Zealand next week.

Earlier today in a live chat to nzherald.co.nz the Associate Minister responsible for pushing through the new ban, Peter Dunne, admitted smoking cannabis in the 1970s.

Kronic Black's New Zealand manufacturer said the substance contained a reworked chemical compound that did not fall foul of Western Australia's new laws.

WA police last week confiscated $A8000 ($NZ10,000) worth of the new formulation, which had a wholesale price 40 percent more than the original version of Kronic, which sold for $A79.95 for a 3g pack.

The Black Label formulation was developed on July 15 specifically to comply with Australian regulations banning the sale of eight synthetic cannabinoids. A letter of compliance from the product's Auckland developer Light Years Ahead Ltd, provided to retailers, was also seized by police.

The letter claimed that Kronic Black Label did not contain any of the banned substances and was therefore legal in Western Australia.

In New Zealand, a gazette notice is to be issued early next week to ban 43 products like Kronic for 12 months and retailers will have to remove them within seven days.

- NZPA