Jim Anderton

23 June, 2005
Address at Dunedin forum on alcohol & other drugs

SPEECH NOTES 7.30 p.m.

P, alcohol & other drugs forum, Fullwood Room, Dunedin Centre, Harrop St

Apologies: Mayor Chin, Hon David Benson-Pope, Katherine Rich MP.

On the panel with me tonight are:

Simon Williamson from the New Zealand Customs Service
Detective Inspector Ross Pinkhamwho is the Southern District Crime Services Manager, (accompanied by Detective Sergean Kevin Anderson-Officer in Charge: Drug Squad Dunedin Police)
Alison Locke, Student Support Development Officer, at the Ministry of Education
Deb Fraser, Manager, MirrorYouth Counselling Service.
Paul Stanley, Community Action Youth And Drugs.

There is going to be a panel discussion shortly, and we will hear from the panellists and then answer your questions.

Every month I host a meeting like this one.

To me these forums are a symbol of hope.

They are a symbol of individual communities recognising an issue we all have to deal with.

And most importantly, they are a symbol that communities themselves are taking responsibility for their own solutions.

So to me, these events are about stronger communities.

If there is one principle I stand for, it’s giving our young people a future in their own communities.

They need our support to be all they can be.

We all have a responsibility to play our part.

The Dunedin community is well up to fulfilling its responsibilities.

A very good example of how a community can make a difference is by participating in such decisions as the issue in front of the Dunedin City Council at the moment.

I understand that the council is currently grappling with the issue of liquor licensing hours and has extended its consultation on whether or not to curtail the hours.

I believe they are looking at 11p.m. for retail outlets, and at 3 a.m. closing for bars and clubs.

This is happening elsewhere as well with Queenstown Lakes District Council reported to be looking at the issue later this year.

As more public input and evidence is amassed to show that ease of access to alcohol contributes to alcohol related problems this will be a trend at local government level throughout New Zealand.

I believe that Christchurch City Council made a big mistake when it licenced liquor outlets and bars for 24hr/7 day sales.

The pressure on police and hospital services ever since has been significant.

Both local and central government need community input to ensure the best decisions for the community are made.

Recently I clarified the legality of selling nitrous oxide for inhalation purposes and now everyone is clear that legal opinion to the government and police is that the sale and purchase of nitrous oxide other than as a prescription medicine is illegal.

Last year I introduced legislation into the House to regulate BZP or so-called "Party pills" and that legislation was passed into law last week by Parliament with the support of all parties except one, ACT.

City Councils up and down the country are also responding by looking at ways to control these substances at a local level.

But in the end it is the community, school principals, health professionals and parents raising their concerns and offering solutions that has the most impact.

In Christchurch it was the public “outrage” voiced at a local level that recently had the owner of a local Nos Bar decide to shut-up shop.

As Minister for Regional and Industry Development, the closure of Nos bars is one business growth opportunity I am not sorry to see gone!

These days the economy in Dunedin and in Otago is much better than it was, and there are more jobs around than five or six years ago.

I used to say that if we could halve the rate of unemployment, we would see a drop in the rate of crime.

Since unemployment has come down to half what it was five years ago, our crime rate has dropped to the lowest level in 21 years.

It can’t be a coincidence.

But I’m not a Pollyanna and I’m not going to tell you the problem of crime has gone away?

But when you look for answers, it is hard to go past alcohol and drug abuse as one major cause.

When more than ninety per cent of prison inmates have drug and alcohol problems, that’s a clue.

This is not a national problem from which Dunedin and Otago are isolated.

The Otago Daily Times every day seems to have a report on some drug- related crime.

The Labour-Progressive government has taken appropriately tough measures in response to this.

A proceeds of crime bill was introduced to Parliament on Tuesday. That will make it easier to strip crime gangs of their assets.

Police and customs have also been given new powers and resources to intercept criminal gangs.

The Misuse of Drugs bill that I introduced was recently enacted into law and among other things it means that:

Substances that are available at the chemist – like ephedrine and pseudo-ephedrine -- have been made ‘controlled drugs’.

These are used to make ‘P’ so we had a responsibility to toughen up on them.

The Customs Department is now able to better penalise illegal importers of these products.

Police and Customs have been afforded broader powers of search and seizure without warrant.

I accept that these laws are very tough and some have said they are draconian.

But the challenge society faces from these drugs is extreme.

P is an evil drug.

We must be very strong in our collective response to P.

We must not allow P to take root deeper into our society, to become more widespread, more acceptable and to therefore cause more destruction.

There are parts of the country where the police are worried about family homes being used as shops for drug deals.

Very young children are being found present at drug deals.

They’re growing up playing in the places where drugs are being made and where they are being used.

Not so long ago, there was a news report of a four year old ending up in hospital after swallowing the drug known as ‘fantasy.’

As we all know, community safety is not only an issue for the central government and for the police or for other authorities – though they have important roles to play.

It is also an issue for each community to take responsibility for itself.

It’s no good just hoping someone else will fix the problem; we all have our part to play.

For communities, it starts by accepting that a community-wide response is called for.

For my part I accept Ministerial leadership is required in this area in much the same way that leadership was needed in the economic development of our regions when I first entered government in late 1999.

As Minister for Regional and Industry Development, I bring local government together with central government agencies, and the community – with different iwi groupings, businesses and everyone who has a stake in the future of their community.

I am doing the same in trying to help communities rid themselves of drug and alcohol abuse.

That’s why we have police, customs, health and other agencies here tonight.

In the most severely affected communities CAYADS or Community Action Youth And Drugs programmes have been established and are the spearhead of a community approach to drug issues.

Back in the nineties, a previous government set up five CAYADs.

In Opotiki, Nelson, Hokianga, Whangaruru and Kaitaia.

They were a good idea, and they were having a positive impact.

So when I became Minister in charge of the government’s drug policy I made it a priority to set up more of them.

As a result, the Labour-Progressive Government provided $2.55 million more for fifteen new community action youth and drug programmes in its 2003 Budget.

The Dunedin CAYAD was one of these.

Last year, another CAYAD was established in the township of Murupara with funding secured from the National Drug Policy Discretionary Fund Progressive sought in Budget 2004.

In Budget 2005, the Progressive Party sought $3.23 million worth of funding for a further five CAYAD programmes to be established in at-risk communities where illicit drug use has been identified as too high.

The coalition government is tackling drug and alcohol abuse with three strategies.

Reducing supply.
Reducing demand.
Treating drug users to limit the problems.

We need to work on all fronts at the same time to get results.

This forum today is to inform you about the issues we face together and to give you an opportunity to listen and question.

I’ve talked to you about the tough laws and regulations the government has introduced to tackle drug-related offending.

So we’re working on the supply end.

We’re also reducing demand and helping victims of drugs and their communities.

We need to face the fact that drug taking is a trigger to suicide for people with mental illness.

So the government, through the Progressive party budget bids, has stepped up funding for national initiatives dealing with depression and suicide.

It’s important for you to know what we are doing to protect children from the misuse of alcohol and drugs.

Last year I sent out a School-Based Drug Education Handbook and Practical Guide.

It’s designed to help schools deal with the issue.

I got a letter back from the principal of one quite large school it’s from the Christchurch area.

Let me emphasise his letter, because it helped to convince me we’re on the right track:

“It greatly concerns me that some political parties criticise us for having Coke in our canteens, whilst at the same time wanting to legalise marijuana!

“Whilst accepting that Coke is not a healthy food it is nowhere as destructive to our people’s education as is marijuana.

“It is comforting that the huge concern amongst secondary schools is being addressed…

“Whilst my colleagues have vastly differing views on most things they have a very unified view on drugs!”

But however bad marijuana is, and I don't accept its illegal status should ever change while a significant section of the scientific community have concerns about its potential serious harm to some, vulnerable people, our number one drug problem is alcohol.

When does a weekend go by when we don’t hear something more about it?

In my view, New Zealand's binge drinking culture has been affecting younger and younger people since the alcohol purchasing age was lowered.

My Progressive Party colleague, Matt Robson, has a Bill to strengthen the rules against supplying liquor to minors, to further restrict the amount of time available for liquor advertising on television and to raise the legal minimum age for buying alcohol to twenty.

That Bill was supported by a large majority of Parliamentarians to go to the Law and Order select committee where the public can have their say.

Members of the public can make submissions and I urge you to do so. Just as I urge you to make submissions to your Council on the liquor licensing hours.

It is not just one measure that will make a difference. It will require a package of measures in order to change NZ’s drinking culture for the better.

Day after day we get reports that indicate that Parliament’s decision to lower the drinking age to eighteen, in 1999, was a mistake. The move to 24hr/7days per week licensing hours was also in my view, an equally big mistake.

There always seems to be yet another headline about yet another car smash, claiming the lives of young people.

There is no shame in the fact that Parliament got it wrong in 1999.

We've now had plenty of time to assess the impact of the law change.

We need to go back to square one.

I want to end my presentation by saying that drug and alcohol issues are at the top of my list when I sit down with our coalition partners in government.

There are many competing demands for the government to spend money or alternatively to reduce income taxation.

Drug and alcohol abuse and suicide prevention gets funding because it is a top priority for the Progressive Party.

In last year’s budget $53.6 million was secured to fight “P”, alcohol and other drug abuse.

In this year’s budget I secured another $13.5 million to continue the fight against drug abuse and suicide. That is public money. It is taxpayers' money utilized to enhance the well-being of the whole community and these are investments that wouldn't be made if the government's income tax revenue was eroded.

On the panel today, I’m very pleased to have with me a number of professionals involved in drug and alcohol issues in this community.

I’m going to start off the panel discussion by asking each member of the panel to give a brief perspective (10 minutes) on how this community is responding and can respond to the challenge of drugs and alcohol.

* Jim Anderton
* Health