Media Statement

10 September 2007

Objectors happy to receive council support in opposing party drugs

The team that led the successful challenge against the right of a liquor retailer to sell or supply party pills has welcomed support from the Manukau City Council.

Manurewa Action Team members Daniel Newman and Angela Dalton, who launched a successful campaign against party pills being sold at Roscommon Liquor, said the council has been slow to act, but the commitment to change is nevertheless important.

"The Sale of Liquor Act is not a particularly community-friendly piece of law. To be able to navigate through the rules of the Act and succeed in convincing the Liquor Licensing Authority that BZP and other related party-drugs should not be sold in a bottle shop within our community was enormously satisfying.

"The police and the Manukau District Licensing Authority endorsed our objection, but only after we initiated moves against the liquor retailer. Since the Authority issued its decision we have been lobbying for policy reforms with a view to challenging other retailers who sell these dangerous party drugs. The Commissioner of Police, Howard Broad, has been challenged to use the precedent won by the Manurewa Action Team to challenge other liquor outlets, not just in Manukau City but around the country," Daniel Newman and Angela Dalton said.

The Manurewa Action Team remains concerned at the council's continuing lack of response to the increase in the number of on-licence and off-licence liquor outlets operating in Manukau City. Since 1990 the number of liquor outlets operating in Manukau City has increased by over 300 per cent.

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