The minister who championed the psychoactive substances law, Peter Dunne, won't stand in the way of an attempt to block the sale of legal highs in Whangarei.
Legal high protestors outside the Brew Store in Whangarei. Photo: RNZ / Lois Williams
In February, the Whangarei District Council designated three streets where it plans to allow legal highs to be sold once the interim permits lapse next year.
The psychoactive substances law doesn't allow local councils to ban the sale of legal highs completely but a group of locals came up with a way to get around that provision: Buy up the permits to sell on those three streets but then simply not use them.
Mayor Sheryl Mai is throwing her support behind the idea.
"We're just getting so much feedback that our community would prefer to ban them. We weren't able to do that under the current legislation but the community has worked together and with council we definitely support what they're working to do."
Darcel Bolton was the resident who first came up with the idea. She says the permits cost $15,000 each and the money to pay for them will come from the community.
"Everyone who doesn't want it [legal highs] here, they are all going to be asked to put their hands in their pockets and help us in getting it out of here."
Associate health minister Peter Dunne championed the psychoactive substances law. He has been quoted many times saying a total ban on legal highs won't work but isn't planning on opposing the Whangarei community's attempt to stamp out the drugs.
"It's not for me to comment on whether that's desirable or otherwise. It's a commercial option that a group of people may choose to pursue and if that is what they want to do and it succeeds, good on them."
Local Government New Zealand president Lawrence Yule said Whangarei's plan follows similar efforts to restrict the sale of legal highs in Hastings and Hamilton. He said if their methods are successful it could lead to an effective ban across the entire country.
"I am interested now the minister is effectively saying that communities can choose to ban this stuff as individual communities. That does go against the advice that was given to Parliament and the decision making that was made at that time."
But the legal high lobby group, the STAR Trust, said even if Whangarei does succeed in preventing legal high shops opening it won't be able to stamp out synthetic cannabis completely because it can still be bought on the internet.
The trust said the public and media hysteria over legal highs is overblown and scientific studies have proven prohibition is ineffective.
It pointed out that while synthetic cannabis has serious side-effects when abused, it has never killed anyone - while alcohol and tobacco kill 14 people a day in New Zealand alone.