New Zealand's new regulatory regime for psychoactive substances

This Regulatory Impact Statement was prepared by the Ministry of Health in New Zealand. It was found that current legislation has proved ineffective in dealing with the rapid growth in new psychoactive substances, such as party pills and other legal highs, which can be synthesised to be one step ahead of existing controls. Cabinet has agreed to new legislation to address this by prohibiting the sale of all psychoactive substances unless approved by a regulator. The new legislation will reduce risks to the public by removing untested and potentially harmful products from being sold and introducing a pre-market approval scheme with testing requirements and retail restrictions for low-risk psychoactive substances.

The Cabinet Paper provides recommendations for the policy approach for the new regime, including the new regulator, funding, importation, legislative implementation, and separate report-backs on retail restrictions, fee-setting, and offences and penalties.

The Regulatory Impact Statement considers options for the approval criteria, the establishment of a regulator to carry out assessments and make approvals, and the process for importation.

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the IDPC Monthly Alert.