KEY POINTS:
Here is an earlier selection of Your Views:
Aaron
I have been involved with the party/drug/gang scene since I was young. I have battled with meth for over 8 years working for the gangs producing and selling the stuff along with many of the other thing such as restricted weapons etc that come along with being associated in such a culture. Party pills offered a safer alternative for the young people without them having to be involved with the darker side of our culture i.e. meth, gangs, guns, crime, and violence. However if the government goes ahead with this ban where will all these young people go to get there fix? With party pills no longer available it will be resurgence in the meth trade and the gangs will be welcoming this with open arms. Already they are in a position to provide and sell at much cheaper rates so low that now they can compete with the relatively low price of party pills. And if you follow the trend overseas like the US gangs have even started turning meth into sweet sugar like pink coloured candy for sale to school kids so god only know where this will leed but I do know it is the wrong decision and people will regret it.
Nozer Bharucha
Nice stunt, Jimbo - alas you may still not get re-elected next year. Get real, mate. I do not know where you got your information to decide that party pills were dangerous to the society. I am a retailer and I actually sell them. And guess what, Jimbo - surprise, surprise, the majority of the people who buy the energy pills (at least from my shop) are folks from the security industry, posties, labourers, nurses, mums (yes, mums)and of course normal people who want a good time out over the weekends. And if some jackass swallowed an 8-pack and polished it off with a litre of Jim Beam, the result is quite predictable. Well, it is clear you have placed more emphasis on these stray cases rather than the whole picture. Thanks to you, now folks will have to try and find your street corner drug peddler rather than the street corner shop for the pills.
Justin
This is one of the best policies the Government has introduced this term. Party pills, any drugs are for losers trying to get a cheap high. I will be glad to see these sex shops closing down, they have made millions some of them selling this. The losers and the lowlife businesses have got their just desserts. Good job.
Jimmie the fish
I thought the whole idea of allowing party drugs in the first place was to head off demand for far more problematic drugs. If (really) they have now turned into a gateway drug, isn't this more an issue of mismanagement?
Mike
To people who can't understand why others take recreational drugs, you have to understand that people have taken drugs for recreational purposes for about as long as man has been on earth. If you drink alcohol then you have no right to judge others that take recreational drugs as it's no different. In fact there is a big difference as party pills instil a pleasant feeling of wellbeing. They don't make you stagger around, generally won't make you spew on the street, don't make you bash people, and are not addictive. Like it or not people are going to take these things, and like it or not a lot of these drugs have less of an impact on society than alcohol. Cold hard facts, accept it or take a chill pill.
Bruce
Why not! Everything else is being banned from our lives; vitamins, party drugs - ah it's all the same; photos of sleeping Politicians, smacking. I could go on. It's the socially controlled nation we live in under this current administration. And for 40 per cent of us we love being controlled!
Kaz (Auckland)
I am amazed that with all the damage that alcohol does that small minded people pick on something like this - but oh, I forgot, most politicians enjoy a drink, don't they
Hibiscus Coast
No, I don't I fear more beer & spirits will be drunk by the younger drinkers 18\25 & may bring back the harder drugs ecstasy\speed and the like, so no, don't ban, regulate.
Slarty
We will never get a sensible drug policy based on harm as long as Anderton is in the chair.
www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2007/03/23/nalcohol123.xml
My heart goes out to him (he lost his daughter to drugs in effect), but having someone with such a personal connection to the issue is entirely inappropriate. If my daughter had been killed by drugs, I know I would not be able to make a rational decision.
Chris
This decision is terribly short-sighted. The reason party-pill use is higher in NZ than elsewhere is that party-drugs like ecstasy are far cheaper and more accessible overseas. Sure, if you take 20 party pills in a night you are going to experience adverse effects, the same could be said of anything. The fact is that party pills offered a chance for a safe, regulated and legal alternative (for both users and government). Now people will be forced to look to illegal substances to get high, so why not go for something stronger than a party pill?
Dave
For those who oppose the ban, get a life. I you need drugs, illegal or legal, to have fun then you are pathetic.
Scott
I believe individual's rights are important, but not at any cost. If rights exercised penalise others or society then surely this is as issue that needs looking into. Party pills are clearly causing a drain on society, not just effecting the individual who uses them, so therefore I agree with them being banned. The question will be, how do we police this and does the issue become worse if driven underground?
Barry
Brilliant!! Finally a good decision by the government. These should have been in placed long time ago.
Tim
Haha,
Party pills are banned because they ae bad for you.Hospitality Association is happy, these users will now have to switch to alcohol, a drug well known to be completely harmless, hahaha. Gangs are very happy, meth and ecstasy use will increase. Meanwhile, cigarettes seem to have survived unscathed. Jim I think you are failing miserably as well intended as this law change may be. Bring back The Bomb!
Straight Gangs
Nice one NZ. Now everyones going to move onto something like P and you'll have more cases of people shooting pizza delivery guys with a shotgun to deal with or overdosed kids on E using up valuable space at the A&E. Thats not very gangs at all. Wake up and smell the cheese!!
Cory (Wellington)
They should ban all drugs (caffeine, speed, BZP, ...) or legalise it all. Anything else is either flawed morals or targeted taxing. Could be both though :)
fee c
I Have taken many party pills over the years and me and gangs like them to eat. I once took 14 in one go and had an awesome night apart from pooing my new trousers at a disco in Papakura.Now real gangs are gonna start selling them.
Haden
I don't see them banning Alcohol/Smokes both of which have to be more harmful. I guess it's because the government don't get tax from Party Pills.
Mike
Removing party pills will not remove the desire for people to obtain drugs for recreation. In fact in doing so, people will be forced to gain access to illicit drugs such as meth (P) and ecstasy from underground sources. If you consider the fact that party pills have not impacted society adversely that much (sure there has been a few cases) then compare this to the impact of drugs such as P. Passing a law against party pills is inviting and will create an increase in the use of a drug that is poisoning this country. You think the P problem is bad now, check out what happens after the party pill law change. P is now not much more difficult to obtain than buying party pills from a dairy. Not a pretty prospect at all. I just wish that the people making these law changes could see past their noses and think outside the square a little. Mind you if they could, they wouldn't be in politics I suppose. Catch 22.
Tony
I am totally against the ban of party pills. It is now going to be driven underground like other illegal drugs. Sold by criminals who will have no scruples as to what goes in each pill and what the dose will be.Even an idiot would have seen months ago that the ban was going to be put in place and, I imagine, it would have been easy to import bulk supplies of BZP in anticipation of the ban.Congratulations Jim, you've just made the gangs even richer!
Cartman
Oh no what are we going to do now.I heard smoking crack is kinda cool!
Logical Thoughts
A lot of people are saying "banning party pills won't push people into harder drugs", but process this thought for a moment. By banning Party pills, you are pushing them out of legit companies into the underground where they will be made by gangs. In the process, when making illegal "party pills", the gangs will probably mix (small) amounts of E, meth, etc into the "party pills", which will produce an addiction, most likely without the user even realising it, cause chances are the gangs/illegal producers very likely won't tell the purchaser what is actually in the pills. It's more logical to see the pills in the legal retailers, where they can at least be regulated and kept safe, than in the underground where they can be laced with hard drugs.
Ross
This is completely ludicrous. So many people I know (including myself) take these pills in NZ as a substitute to Ecstasy because they trust the manufacturing process and know they won't get a pill loaded with something which will hurt them. These people follow the directions and always have a great night out when taking them. I see one of the reasons for the ban of these products is because "people take too many and end up in hospital" - this may be true, but this is such a small amount of users ending up in hospital. Why don't we look at how many smokers end up in hospital with smoking related illnesses? I guess party pills just are not making the government enough revenue from taxes...
Munter (Auckland)
I have been taking party pill since before they even came out and they have done nothing to me or any of my friends and over the time we have done some stupid amounts of them and never had a problem. I think people need to harden up and stop fucking out. The idea of the pill was to keep people away from the more dangerous real drugs and all the government is going to do my making party pills illegal is drive them underground and all that is going to do is make people buy real drugs because one will be just as bad as the other so why not take the real thing!
Madmaxii
Here we go again! Nanny State knows best. I am in my late 50's and have never known a time in this country where the State has intruded into our personal lives so much.This decision will only put Party Pills underground and into the hands of the gangs. It will also add to the load of our already overworked Police force - and for what gain?
Richard Jenkins
nce again nanny state controls our lives because we are incapable of thinking and acting for ourselves.
Andrew
Absolutely ridiculous! Yet again, the majority suffere because of a few idiots who misuse these products, overdose, mix with other drugs and alcohol and suffer a detrimental effect as a result. All this will do is make people use illegal drugs.
Adrian
Oh my gosh! The government is finally doing something right in this country!
SB
I do not support this ban at all. It is a step backwards for the New Zealand government. BZP trade will simply be pushed under the table and into the hands and profits in the pockets of the gangs as it has been in other countries where it is illegal. Prohibition does not work for any drug. This is simply going to clog up the court system even more and turn otherwise law-abiding citizens into criminals. I simply can not see the logic in only allowing alcohol and cigarettes as our "drugs of choice" in this country when they both individually do more harm than all of the other drugs combined.
Scott
More crazy legislation from a leftie MP on the way out. Alcohol does significantly more damage to society than party pills but we're banning party pills? Seriously? Legislating society is not the answer. Tax party pills and use the money to educate young adults. Party pills are fun for the youth, making them illegal will not stop the desire to try them. Instead it'll just mean the supply network of truly bad drugs will be opened up to a new market that may not necessarily have tried it. Once you cross the invisible legal/illegal barrier, it no longer has the same impact.
Robbie
Yay, yet more substances that will soon be marked up for huge profit by groups that operate outside the law.Tighten the restrictions of sale just like for alcohol and tobacco, and enforce those restrictions. Banning them outright is a copout and only serves to enrich the existing networks of drug dealers.
Will (Auckland)
Another useless move by Jim Anderton and his personal crusade against drugs, and another useless move in the "war on drugs". These things have been implicated in the deaths of only a couple of people (not proven, implicated), despite tens or hundreds of thousands using them every week. Alcohol, cigarettes, cars, ladders, junk food, railway crossings, horses, kitchen knives, prescription drugs and fighting all kill and hurt more people than BZP. What dose the great minister in all his wisdom think people are going to use now instead? coffee? no, methamphetamine. Not only will there also now be an increase in hard drug use, but there will also be a new trade in BZP which will see poorer product quality and involvement of gangs. Police time will be wasted, court time will be wasted, taxpayers will foot the bill, shops will lose business, the list goes on. When will these morons realise that prohibition does not work! It never has and it never will. BZP offered people a legal and much safer alternative to meth, which they now no,longer have. The gangs and meth cooks will be laughing all the way to the bank. Reefer madness strikes again.... sigh..
Brett Le Mouton
Prohibition has never worked, so why this insistence to add more drugs to the list of banned substances? NZ's drug laws are a joke.
Ramdall
If the gangs of New Zealand were listed on the stock exchange today would be good day to buy shares. They all must be salivating at the coming boom in business. It is breathtakingly naive to think that banning substances will somehow stop their use. Funnily enough humans have quite the penchant for altering their state of mind, and none more so than young adults. So by cutting off one supply they will just go to another. And is it any surprise they care little about the legality of doing so? It doesn't take a genius to see the hypocrisy in a society happy to feed kids nice taxable drugs such as ritalin, which is not to dissimilar to amphetamines, and yet in the same breath ban others that don't have large medicinal/tax value. Too much of anything, be it drugs or unhealthy food can be harmful to individuals. But by banning these drugs society just pushes those, mainly kids, to the fringes of society which is the worst place for problems to be solved.
David (Auckland)
Brilliant, this gives me loads of time to stockpile some for my "personal use". I certainly won't be asking for age ID when I onsell them, so it'll make it a bit easier for the under 18s too.
Alex
Another knee jerk reaction from the government! How can they possibly ban a substance which they have done no substantial research into? Regulation would have been a far more realistic outcome and substantially more beneficial to all. Taking away peoples options will mean many will go back to taking illegal more damaging drugs, which are not controlled or regulated. I wouldn't be surprised to see a rise in drug related deaths not a decline (since no one has died from taking BZP alone).What are the benefits to the New Zealand population from this ban?
Briar Drummond
Another case of the Government thinking banning something is the answer - prohibition didn't, isn't and will never work! People have been taking 'drugs' for thousands of years and nothing Jim Anderton can do will ever change that, now all these law abiding citizens are going to become 'criminals' just because they prefer pills that make them happy over alcohol that makes people sad, aggressive, violent etc. 45.2 per cent of people said they used party pills so they did not have to use illegal drugs, what do you think they're going to do now? Good one Jim, soon no one will ever have to think for themselves, can't wait!
Kris
I don't use drugs (personal choice) but I am sick and tired of he government legislating away my rights as a human being. If I want to take substances then that is my right as a human being, as long as I'm not hurting anyone else then who cares? Jim Anderton apparently. I can abuse alcohol all I want (again if I choose) and the government wont care despite the fact that it has killed more people in the last 6 months than party pills could ever possibly kill in 6 years. If you look at what Jim and Tariana have been saying today you could almost say that they might get a kick back from the increased profits that the gangs are going to make when this piece of legislation (second choice word, the first choice has the same letters as 'hits') is passed into law.
Dc
We should stand up and congratulate this government on their move against the party pill industry. They have single handedly increased the underground profit margins of illegal drugs in this country. Well done Mr Anderton on making the gangs some extra cash....just like that!! You certainly are a businessman! Encore - encore! Lets see if he puts up the taxes on alcohol & cigerettes....then it'll look like you really are making a difference Mr A.
bfire
Another case of the Government thinking banning something is the answer - prohibition didn't, isn't and will never work! People have been taking 'drugs' for thousands of years and nothing Jim Anderton can do will ever change that, now all these law abiding citizens are going to become 'criminals' just because they prefer pills that make them happy over alcohol that makes people sad, aggressive, violent etc. 45.2 per cent of people said they used party pills so they did not have to use illegal drugs, what do you think they're going to do now? Good one Jim, soon no one will have to think for themselves, can't wait!
Rach
By banning party pills, there will be an increase in people using Class A, Anderton is a complete idiot, and doesn't know what the hell hes talking about! Huge Mistake, we already have enough of a problem with our youth smoking P. This is just going to make it worse!!!He'll see.
tatjna, (Wellington)
I think this is one of the more foolish forms of legislation that has been passed by our nanny state in the last few years. By banning party pills, the government has made the legal risk associated with party pills similar to that of other drugs. Other drugs have more desirable effects and the only reason most people were choosing BZP was because it was legal. Now there is no reason for a person to avoid other drugs which are considered more dangerous. The government should look at regulating sale of BZP. Only allowing 400mg per person to be sold in any given shop. Making sure shops that sell party pills have a qualified drug and alcohol counsellor available. These two things in themselves would limit outlets and increase responsible use. Instead, a blanket ban on a substance that has never been causally linked to any deaths will create a sudden, large market for substances that may be less tested and more dangerous. Congratulations, Mr Anderton. You just ensured that a whole bunch of young people make criminals of themselves, and encouraged them to go buy ecstasy and speed instead of allowing them a safe alternative.Two thumbs down to our government.
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