Green MP Chloe Swarbrick has used the reclassification of 49 drugs - including Fentanyl - to argue New Zealand's drug laws increase harms and should be replaced.
Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook
The Misuse of Drugs (Classification and Presumption of Supply) Order 2022 was passed in Parliament tonight, changing the classification of 49 substances including prescription medicines, psychoactive substances, controlled drug analogues, and precursor substances.
These include changing fentanyl - a drug increasingly used recreationally around the world - from a prescription medicine and Class-B3 controlled drug to a Class-B1 controlled drug requiring ministerial approval to administer, prescribe or supply.
It also allows midwives to prescribe fentanyl and tramadol. Minister of Health Andrew Little said the amendment was designed "to provide protection from harm in the face of a growing presence or risk of presence of the drugs listed so that our communities and our people are kept safe from them".
The government order passed with the support of all parties - with the exception of the Greens.
In an unusual move, ACT deputy leader Brooke van Velden granted Swarbrick additional time to explain her position after Swarbrick's request for extra time was rejected by the speaker.
Swarbrick described the Misuse of Drugs Act as a "frankenstein law which biases criminal prohibition and the punishment of those who, simply and frankly, need an evidence-based approach".
"Drugs, it seems, are winning the war on drugs, and I believe that it's time that this House gave evidence a chance," she said.
The Act incentivised criminal punishment while making alternative approaches difficult to achieve, and had provisions baked in which made it much harder to reverse or lower the criminal penalties associated with particular drugs, she said.
"While the drugs classified in this Order in Council are dangerous ... the next question has to be, how do you go about reducing that harm? We know that ratcheting up criminal penalties won't reduce drug harm."
Misuse of drugs was also one of the few areas in the law where the burden of proof was reversed, she said.
"That means that instead of the State having to prove you guilty, you yourself are being presumed guilty and having to prove your innocence."