Greens' new synthetic rules 'a backdown' and 'confusing' - 1 NEWS political team

December 15, 2018

This week the 1 NEWS political team look at changes to synthetic cannabis, and the shambles around NZTA and KiwiBuild.

The new rules around synthetic drugs send a "confusing message", resulting in "quite a backdown" by the Green Party, says 1 NEWS' political team. 

Yesterday, in an effort to crack down on synthetic drug dealers, the Government classified two common types of synthetics as Class A drugs.

A temporary drug class, C1, will be created which would give police search and seizure powers. 

It also specifies police can use discretion and not prosecute for possession and personal use of all illegal drugs where a therapeutic approach would be beneficial.

"Police already use their discretion," 1 NEWS reporter Benedict Collins said. "I'm not sure if anything is going to change."

"Confusing message," political editor Jessica Mutch McKay said. 

Collins said the other interesting aspect was the Green Party. "Chlöe Swarbrick, real firebrand MP, so passionate about drug law reform", who previously advocated for the drug not to be classed as A.

"To watch Chloe yesterday come out at the press conference... and saying 'no, no I fully support this, we're treating it as a health issue'."

"That's politics," said Mutch McKay. 

"It's also quite a backdown," Collins added.

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