Carolyn Young: Retail NZ CEO on whether it's illegal to sell drug paraphernalia in stores

Retail NZ says it's clearly illegal for retailers to sell meth pipes and bongs.

The Post reports an Auckland businessman claims an officer told him it was perfectly legal when he reported a new store selling them.

Health Minister Simeon Brown says the sales are already illegal - and he wants police to do more on enforcement.

Retail NZ Chief Executive Carolyn Young says anyone selling drug paraphernalia should remove it.

"So under the Misuse of Drugs Act, it's illegal to sell utensils that are going to be used for the consumption of illegal drugs. And clearly, a bong is a utensil." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Heather duper c L Yeah. App, there's to be some
confusion today about whether it's legal for shops to sell
drug paraphernalia like bo bongs and paid pipes. The police
have told one business min it's perfectly legal, but the
Health Minister sime And Brown says it's illegal and police
need to enforce the law, retails The NZ AND CEO
Carolyn Young joins me. Now, Hi, Carolyn, got it, how going?

(00:21):
I'm very well, thank you? Legal or not.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Illegal? So under the Misuse of Drugs Act, it's illegal
to sell, you know, utensils that are going to be
used for the consumption of illegal drugs. And clearly a
bong is a utensil or you know, I guess the
under the legislation, it's a utensial that will be used
for drugs, and so therefore it's illegal. So if someone
has that in their possession, then they can be arrested

(00:47):
for that. So therefore shop should not be selling that,
and any shops that are selling drug paraphernalia should have
them removed from their stores. And actually, you know, be
aware of what they can and cannot sell. And I
guess this kind of goes back to making sure that
our legislation is really clear that you know that the

(01:08):
New Zealand system is in such a way that where
you're dealing with regulated or illegal products, that there is
a structure that's put in place. We go back to
the nangs of a few months ago that became a
really big issue and actually the law wasn't clear. Government
passed something really quickly to say that it was illegal
to sell a nang for any other purpose than for

(01:30):
a wholesaler, and therefore, you know that's got to have
been removed from all retail stores. And so we supported
that move. We'd support encouragement around making sure that shop
owners are aware that they cannot sell these products.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Okay, so have you been into Cosmic Corner down on
what is it called now, the one around the corner
from Gusney Street Cubistry. I have not been, never been that.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
No.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
So you go in there or two dollar shops around
the country and there are bonds on display and there
are meth pipes on display. How's that happening? And it's
been going on for decades? How is this happening?

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Well, clearly they're getting them from somewhere and they're selling
them and there's no enforcement that's happening. So I would
imagine with the publicity that has been received around this
issue in the last couple of days, that there'll be
some work that the police will be doing to ensure
that their beat staff are able to get into the
stores and actually educate some of the retailers. We'll do

(02:29):
some messaging out as well to make sure that retailers
are awhere that they should not have those products in
store and they should not sell them.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
All right, Well, good luck with it, and thanks very
much for talking us through at Carolyn Young, Retail New
Zealand CEO. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen
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