Synthetics take toll on kids
National MP calls for tougher penalties
More than 230 people, 17 of them children, have been hospitalised after being poisoned by drugs including synthetics over the last five years, according to Ministry of Health figures.
The figures, supplied to National MP Simeon Brown, show that in 2016/17, 46 people including three children aged up to 14 were hospitalised suffering poisoning from psychotropic drugs.
That figure nearly doubled in 2017/18 though, with 84, including four children, sent to hospital.
The Ministry of Health said while most of the admissions were because of “synthetic cannabis”, some may not be.
The coroner also recently updated the number of deaths from synthetic drugs over the last 12 months to as many as 50.
“Over the past two years we have seen a dramatic increase in those being admitted to hospital as a result of synthetic drug use, after an initial drop following the original implementation of the Psychoactive Substances Act,” Brown said yesterday.
The 2013 legislation banned the sale or supply of recreational psychoactive drugs.
Brown has a member’s bill that
would raise the maximum penalty for supply from two to 14 years in prison. Statistics released under the Official Information Act show that in the 2016/17 year there were roughly 40 hospitalisations from synthetic drug use, and last year there were more than 80. Hospital admissions were as low as 10 in the 2015/16 year after the Psychoactive Substances Act was introduced, Brown said.
“The correlation is clear between the large increases in hospital admissions and manufacturers of synthetic drugs continually coming up with deadlier strains. Labour and the Greens continue to ignore the seriousness of this issue, and if it wasn’t for New Zealand First’s continued support of my bill these numbers would likely rise again.”
Ross Bell, executive director of the Drug Foundation, said the Psychoactive Substances Act had created a black market and it was regulation that would cut the number of deaths and hospitalisations.
“What those numbers show is that under regulation . . . we didn’t see the problems we’re seeing today. We certainly didn’t see the deaths that we’re seeing today and the Government’s data shows quite clearly that hospitalisations were much lower under a regulated market,” Bell said.
“I don’t get the leap in logic from here is a problem and if we have tougher penalties that’s going to miraculously make this problem go away. I do not get [Brown’s] logic.”
A short-term move that would make a difference would be enabling ambulance staff and emergency department staff who treat synthetics users to connect them with social and health services, he said.
The Drug Foundation was carrying out research in which it was working with frontline agencies and interviewing users.
“The majority of them are homeless and are telling us they need a house . . . The solution in most cases would be getting people the kind of social and health support that they need. In many cases that is getting them off the street and into stable accommodation,” Bell said.
The findings of the research, in which about 60 users were interviewed, would go to the Government once it was completed, he said.
Health Minister David Clark said in a statement that the use of drugs needed to be treated as a health issue and focus on harm reduction. He said the Government was working on a considered response involving the Ministries of Health, Justice, Police, Corrections and Customs.