Pubdate: Wed, 14 May 2003 Source: Otago Daily Times (New Zealand) Copyright: Allied Press Limited, 2003 Contact: http://www2.odt.co.nz Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/925 Author: NZPA MPS VOTE TO RECLASSIFY SPEED Wellington: MPs moved yesterday to reclassify methamphetamine, or speed, as a class A drug that will see increased penalties for those caught making the drug. Importing or manufacturing the drug for supply now brings a penalty of life imprisonment - up from the current 14-year maximum sentence. Associate Health Minister Damien O'Connor told Parliament last night the reclassification of methamphetamine would give the substance "a higher priority for enforcement agencies and will send the message . . . to New Zealanders that this is a dangerous and undesirable substance". Senior cabinet minister Jim Anderton, who chairs the ministerial action group on alcohol and drugs, said once the order was approved it might take as little as two weeks to come into force. National health spokeswoman Lynda Scott backed the move, saying methamphetamine was a "highly, highly dangerous drug". "People think it's just a party drug but I tell you when they wake up in the police cells finding they have committed horrendous, violent crimes then they have to think about what they have done with their lives." Four methamphetamine "look alike" drugs were also reclassified last night, which Dr Scott said would catch the "scumbags" who produced similar drugs to methamphetamine which often had similar chemical compounds but were just slightly different so they did not get caught. The methamphetamine risk was not as well recognised as that associated with LSD, Dr Scott said. "When LSD was around in the 60s and 70s people came to know that people could have bad trips on it, end up in psychiatric hospitals with permanent psychotic episodes and flashbacks that put them into psychosis. Act New Zealand MP Heather Roy said the drug should have been reclassified much earlier. "In the last 12 months there has been a 300% increase in the number of meth labs found by the police and it is thought that this is just the tip of the iceberg." Methamphetamine was a synthetic substance often manufactured from over-the-counter cough and cold remedies containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine. Only the Greens voted against the Misuse of Drugs (Changes to Controlled Substances) Order which contained the reclassification of methamphetamine. - NZPA - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart