The Police Association is raising concerns over the proposed legislation changes aimed at fixing the country's synthetic cannabis crisis.
As the number of synthetic cannabis-related deaths rise, the Government is facing criticism over it's proposed legislation aimed at fixing the crisis.
The Heath Select Committee have been hearing submissions on the Government's Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill.
One of those submissions came from Police Association president Chris Cahill who told TVNZ1's Breakfast today the Bill's wording around discretion could make it difficult to prosecute users of the drug.
"Nearly all submitters were in favour of what's trying to be achieved and that is a crackdown on the manufacturers and suppliers of these drugs, and that's very positive. It's giving police more powers and the agencies more powers," he said.
"The concern of many is that we need to look after the users. These are some of the most vulnerable people in New Zealand.
"The Government's made it very clear they want police to exercise discretion in their prosecution of those users, and that's fair enough, we're just slightly concerned that the discretion, by putting it into the law, means that no prosecutions for any drug offenses will be sustained in court."
Mr Cahill said he wouldn't argue that something needed to be done on the issues and he did believed the intended Act was a good thing, but he has concerns about the wording in the legislation.
"Discretion is difficult to use fairly right across the country, and in different circumstances, and that's where individual police officers will come under criticism," he said.
"There's just a few things to work through, but no-one's actually saying that what's intended by this act isn't a good thing, it's just some of the wording could result in consequences that weren't intended."
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