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
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart