A most extraordinary exchange, which apparently is not that uncommon, was witnessed outside this newspaper's offices in Hastings on Friday.
I was in a meeting with colleagues in our conference room facing on to Warren Street when we noticed two agitated teenage boys milling around outside. As we watched, they spoke to a man in his twenties and gave him what appeared to be money. The man turned on his heels and headed straight for Adult Selections on Heretaunga Street East - one of two outlets in Hastings that sell synthetic cannabis or legal highs.
Five minutes later he reappeared and handed something over to the boys - without a doubt synthetic cannabis. They moved away quickly. I went around to the front of our building in Heretaunga St East hoping to ask the man why he had given the boys the drugs, but unfortunately he was nowhere to be seen. The buying of these highs may be legal, but not if you are under age. If those were drugs he handed over, then the man committed an offence by supplying synthetic cannabis to minors.
Unfortunately this is a common occurrence outside the three retail outlets in Napier and Hastings that peddle these legal highs. All of them have a steady stream of customers going in to get their daily fix and to supply the vulnerable of our society - teenagers.
It is not something we want in our cities and we are standing together to fight against this scourge of our society.
