There's no place for synthetic cannabis

CELEBRATION: Rosalie Irwin (left) and Ayden Raerae cut the ceremonial cake at the Rutherford Intermediate reunion - one of many great weekend events. PHOTO/FILE

Labour Day means a three-day weekend for most and celebrates something many of us remember - the eight-hour work day. Many of us would love to go back to that, but I can't see it happening any time soon.

Still, the weekend just gone was great, with events around Taranaki and Whanganui. The markets in Hawera and on the riverbank at Whanganui; the replica tall ships sailing on the lake at King Edward Park; the Hoop-nation Basketball Tournament, which drew 30 teams from around the country; the motorcar advancers convention; and the Rutherford Intermediate 50th Anniversary School Reunion, with keynote (and favourite son) Lt Gen Rt Hon Sir Jerry Mateparae.

Then there is stuff that happens that doesn't fit with the desire for a safer place to live, work and raise kids. At both ends of the electorate we've had shops happily selling synthetic cannabis products to people, especially the young. I can't understand how they sleep at night. The argument that such products are legal (and some of them are) or no worse than alcohol or tobacco (and some of them are) has no truck with me.

Alcohol and tobacco are at least known evils and have some history with the public. They are also subject to greater public scrutiny, lower consumption, more careful use and greater legal restrictions than ever before.

Is it any wonder then that we are restricting the availability, sale, use and supply of psychoactive substances? While many would like to see us go all the way and ban them entirely, this unfortunately rarely works - cannabis is banned but rife in our communities. Regulating them so that distributors have to prove safety, rather than communities prove the threat, seems the best legislative way to stop supply of dangerous products.

But the single best way to stop supply of these products is for retailers to decide they won't sell them out of a sense of duty, public good, parochialism, or just plain common sense. I remember challenging a retailer selling methamphetamine pipes who said: "They are oil-burners and legitimate products. If my customers choose to use them for something else, that is not my business."

That sort of attitude has no place in a caring society no matter how compliant with the letter of the law the practice may be. You don't measure a caring community by the way it legislates, but by the way it cares for those who make up that community.

There are plenty of businesses which are lawful that we would rather not see in the towns in which we live. Plenty we would rather not see in our street, but are happy to be in somebody else's street, so how we deal with these conflicts is important. Who decides which business goes where, the hours it operates, who it sells to and what it sells? And if all the legal boxes are ticked, what right does a community have to seek a different outcome?

Sounds like a great opportunity for a restorative solution rather than in an adversarial manner.

I have had the privilege of understanding the high regard other countries have for the New Zealand restorative approach, and in New Zealand Whanganui is a leader in the field. It would be great for us to be famous in Whanganui for this world-class approach.

C'mon, let's get around the table on this one!