If alcohol were a new product no one had ever seen before it would never make it to bottle stores under new legislation being introduced by Associate Minister of Health Peter Dunne.

Social Worker for Sorted Drug and Alcohol Service for the Bay Of Plenty District Health Board David Gilmore says the only way to stop people from abusing substances is to remove people from the equation.

The Sorted team left to right: David Gilmour, Caleb Putt and Mark Thomas.

'People will always find substances to abuse. Not until we treat addiction as a medical problem and not a criminal offence will we make some real progress on substance abuse.

'Even in the USA the authorities are starting to realise that the war on drugs just creates more problems than it solves. Peter Dunn's stance is absolutely a good move. It is long overdue. It is a no brainer. It is an extremely good idea. But to be honest most of our referrals are for cannabis and alcohol abuse.”

The New Zealand Drug Foundation says new regulations for synthetic drugs will help move New Zealand's obsolete drug law into the 21st century.

'Unknown and untested new synthetic substances have been hitting the shelves for a decade in New Zealand. Consumers have simply never known whether these drugs are safe or not,” says New Zealand Drug Foundation executive director Ross Bell.

'It makes sense that the industry should have to jump through hoops to prove its products are safe before they go on sale,” says Ross.

'The new regulations place the burden on the industry to prove its products are low risk, are long overdue and are very welcome. The status quo has been an absolute joke.”

'We have seen time and time again that when one substance gets banned another similar substance or substances pops up in its place.”

Peter announced that approval for party pills will be similar to that of other medicines.

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction found that one new synthetic drug was coming to market every week in Europe.

Ross says shifting the onus and cost of proof onto the synthetic drug industry meant the process would be slowed down and the government no longer left to play catch up.

The announcement comes out of a review of the Misuse of Drugs Act by the Law Commission. The Drug Foundation looks forward to the Government progress on other key parts of that review.

To contact Sorted phone 07 557 5052.