National, NZ First join forces for harsher drug penalties

Synthetic cannabis is said to have caused 45 deaths in the past 12 months. A bill before Parliament would push maximum jail terms for dealers to 14 years. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Up to 14 years in prison for synthetic drug-dealers looks set to become reality after the National Party decided to stand with New Zealand First for harsher drug penalties.

It is not the first time that an unlikely alliance has been formed between the Opposition and NZ First, whose stance against scrapping the three strikes law scuppered one of Labour's election campaign promises.

This week National MP Simeon Brown revealed that National was going to support an amendment to increase the maximum jail sentence for supplying psychoactive drugs from two years to 14 years.

His bill, the Psychoactive Substances Amendment Bill, initially wanted to increase the maximum penalty to eight years' jail, in line with Class C drugs, such as cannabis and codeine.

But NZ First said it would only support the bill if National agreed to change it to 14 years, in line with Class B drugs, such as opium, ecstasy and many amphetamine-type substances.

Labour and the Greens oppose the bill, saying it will do nothing to reduce harm.

Brown revealed National's support for the NZ First change on Wednesday as the committee stage of the bill was debated in the House.

"When I first put this bill in the ballot ...we could see that there were people dying from these drugs, and we put it in the ballot as a Class C," Brown told the House.

"Since then we've seen the coroner's report - 45 deaths from synthetic drugs over the past 12 months, and more and more happening every single week.

"Parliament needs to send a very clear message that if you are going supply and manufacture and distribute these substances, then they will face the full force of the law."

He said the bill would apply to every concoction that synthetic drug dealers come up with.

Justice Minister Andrew Little told the House that the bill offered no legit solution to the harm that drugs do to society.

"Simeon Brown makes a very good point, which is that he considers that his party, by passing this bill, is not standing by while people die. In fact, by passing this bill, that is exactly what this House is doing.

"Anybody with experience and expertise who has looked at this issue and looked at this bill has been very consistent in saying that threatening longer penalties isn't going to change people's behaviour."

Little said the law had the tools to properly prosecute peddlers of synthetic drugs.

"The reality is that if administering a toxic substance like this is causing death, then that, actually, is prima facie an allegation of manslaughter. We can charge people for those sorts of crimes right now, even without this legislation."

He said the Government had a broader plan involving the justice and health sectors to address the underlying causes of drug use.

"If this House is serious, and members in this House are serious about their moral duty to every New Zealander to make our communities safe and safer, we wouldn't be wasting our time on silly gestures like this."

The bill will continue to progress on the next Members' Day, which is November 28. It is likely to pass its final reading before the end of the year.