Chester Borrows: Dairy owners need to show responsibility

I admit I wouldn't make much of a dairy owner and any dairy I owned would probably go belly-up quickly. I wouldn't sell tobacco, caffeine-based drinks, Penthouse magazines, party pills and "herbal highs".
I wonder if readers have visited their local dairy lately and seen advertisements for something called Kronic. Referred to as synthetic cannabis, it is essentially a dried herb sprayed with drugs. The inventor of the appetite suppressant JWH 018, used in the manufacture of Kronic, has said people who are using it should stop immediately. It could lead to psychological effects which we don't know are reversible.
This stuff is sold in local dairies and, in some cases, those visited by kids on the way to and from school. When I challenged one owner as to why he would sell such a substance, his response was: "It is not illegal." This is similar to youth who say: "If it wasn't safe, they wouldn't be allowed to sell it to us."
The fact is some business people will sell whatever they can as long as it is legal. We've seen this before when I challenged people in tobacco stores in Wanganui selling cannabis pipes and glass pipes for smoking P. The response was: "These pipes are for burning oil and herbal tobacco, if young people want to use them for smoking P, that is over to them." They probably need herbal assistance to sleep straight in bed.
This ridiculous argument pays no heed to the best interests of the community and shows no understanding of the responsibilities of being part of a community.
I asked the dairy owner, who had been burgled on many occasions: "Why would you give criminals another reason to rob your shop?" I could see the wheels starting to turn in a new direction. It is just a damn shame that it was only when I pointed out that his decision to sell this stuff may negatively impact on him and his family that he started having second thoughts about selling the stuff to other people's kids. It is all very well to make a profit, but only when that profit-making doesn't impact so negatively on others.
In this particular shop, the advertising material is pasted all the way down the door pillar so even a 3-year-old walking into the shop is nose-to-nose with the advertisement. The normalisation of herbal highs, party pills and other drugs is the same as telling people that you can't have a good time unless you are high or drunk and that the only way to deal with problems is to get wasted. It will exacerbate the problems of drug dependency and mental health problems in our communities and does nothing to enhance life in New Zealand, let alone our little corner of it.
We can't legislate for everything. We can't legislate for community responsibility or good behaviour. Sometimes we have to rely on community spirit and goodwill. I urge shoppers to keep an eye out for these types of products and challenge the person behind the counter selling them. They should take their business elsewhere if no notice is taken.