Poisons Amendment Bill 2019 (No 45)

[4.00 p.m.]

Ms ARMITAGE (Launceston) - Mr President, like the other members who have spoken, I find it very difficult to believe this paraphernalia is available for sale. The fact you can have something legally available for sale on shelves and then the minute you buy it, you can get picked up by the police for having a smoking implement - I cannot believe something like that could be for sale.

I have mentioned I am an independent person with the police and I help deal with young people who have offended. On occasions I have dealt with young offenders who are in police custody for a variety of reasons - often, as the member for Windermere was saying, for having stolen a car, which is probably the most common thing they do. When I ask them whether they work, they say no. When you ask them how they get their money, they say they sell drugs.

It is so commonplace to some of these young people. My understanding is ice is one of the cheaper drugs to buy, and it is cheaper to get you addicted. Once you are addicted, you have to have it. They make it cheap because they know if you have ice once, you are hooked because it is very addictive.

It really is a no-brainer. Ice pipes should not be for sale. It is normalising drugs. If someone sees you can buy an ice pipe, it makes it seem all right to smoke ice, because why else would you be able to buy one of these pipes in certain shops?

I do not have a lot to say. Most has been covered. I agree totally with the member for Windermere - it is a dreadful thing.

We all know people who have basically lost the life they knew because of it. It was not the one the member for Windermere was speaking about, but I saw on the court list last week a young chap who went to school with my boys at St Patrick's College. There were a variety of different crimes and I am led to believe most of them started because of ice. His mother became ill; he took ice, lost a job and all of a sudden he is on a downward spiral. With something like ice, it is very hard to get out of that spiral. I am sure it is an addiction that is really hard to get out of without a lot of help. Anything we can do to stop that spiral and to stop people thinking it is okay to try it once and, 'Gosh, you can buy the pipes so it cannot be that bad'.

This is a no-brainer. I thank the Government for bringing it forward. It should probably have been brought forward a lot earlier when it was known these things were for sale in stores but at least it is there now.

I support it the bill.