Auckland’s legal high sale areas agreed

Areas where the sale of psychoactive substances, otherwise known as legal highs, will be allowed in Auckland have been agreed by Auckland Council.

The council’s Regional Strategy and Policy Committee approved the proposed Local Approved Product Policy (LAPP), which will prevent the sale of products near vulnerable communities, schools, or treatment centres for mental health issues or substance abuse.

Retail licenses to sell government approved products will be guided by the policy which was developed with stakeholders and a public consultation and hearings process. Licenses will be issued by the psychoactive substances regulatory authority, not Auckland Council.

Councillor Linda Cooper, Chair of the LAPP Hearings panel, says that the policy had to find a balance between respecting the legal right for shops to sell the products and the need to protect the most vulnerable in the community.

“From our work in consultation with Aucklanders, we quickly found that many people wanted the products banned outright,” she says.

“However as it is the Government licensing the products, we could only act within the legal parameters that were set, which meant controlling the areas where the products could be sold.

“So we have tried to find a balance between the legal rights of retailers to sell the products while keeping the most vulnerable away from easy access to them.

“I am pleased with the policy and with the committee’s decision to adopt it, and hope it will go some way to protecting those in our community who need it most.”

It is expected that the government will begin licensing the products again later this year, while the policy will be reviewed by the council in two years.

The policy specifies:

Auckland general - except for the city centre

1. For all areas of Auckland, apart from the city centre, licences to retail legal psychoactive substances will not be granted in:

a) areas of high deprivation – deprivation 10, 9 and 8

b) neighborhood centers

c) within 500m of a school teaching students year seven and above

d) within 200m of a school teaching students between years one and six inclusive

e) within 500m of a mental health or addiction treatment center

f) within 500m of an existing psychoactive substances retail licence

g) within 100m of an marae

2. For all areas of Auckland, apart from the city centre, licences to retail legal psychoactive substances will not be granted in the following special restricted areas: (areas identified as special restricted areas are shown in Appendix One)

a) Hunters corner commercial area – Papatoetoe

b) Manurewa commercial Area – Manurewa

c) Mt Wellington Highway / Waipuna road commercial area – Mt Wellington

d) Papakura Caravan Park commercial area - Papakura

e) Don Buck road / Triangle road commercial area - Henderson

f) Manukau Station road commercial area – Manukau

g) Te Hana commercial area – Rodney

h)

Auckland city centre restrictions

3. For the city centre it is proposed that licences to retail legal psychoactive substances will not be granted in:

a) areas of residential deprivation

b) within 200m of an existing psychoactive substances retail licence.

ENDS

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