Green MP Chloe Swarbrick says the Misuse of Drugs Act is a broken piece of legislation and needs a complete overhaul.
The Government's introduction of its Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill will target suppliers of synthetic drugs while at the same time treating it as a health issue when it comes to users.
As the Government prepares to address the legislation the Green MP says she has advocated for “a long time” for an overhaul of the Act.
“It is 40 years old, it’s a carbon copy of broken legislation from the UK, so we need to be moving towards a model which is actually far more evidence-based,” she told Breakfast.
She says a hierarchy of police responses will ensure a therapeutic pathway through formalised police discretion.
“Police will still as a backstop have the opportunity to prosecute people if they believe that is in the public interest, or they believe that people are not going to benefit from that therapeutic pathway,” she says.
The MP says police will be confiscating substances and the introduction of data collection will be an important factor in a new formalised approach.
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