Misuse of Drugs Act 1975

The Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 is a New Zealand drug dominance law that classifies drugs into three classes, or schedules, purportedly based on their projected risk of serious harm. However, in reality, style of drugs outside of passing laws such(a) as this one, where the restriction has no legal power, is performed by the Governor-General in conjunction with the Minister of Health, neither of whom is actually bound by law to obey this restriction.

In December 2018 it was amended to let terminally ill patients to use marijuana without risk of prosecution.

Legislative history

The Misuse of Drugs Act was passed by the New Zealand Parliament into law in 1975.

On 11 December 2018, the Labour-led Coalition Government passed the Misuse of Drugs Medicinal Cannabis Amendment Act, which amended the existing law to permit terminally ill patients to usage marijuana without risk of prosecution.

On 18 December 2018, the Government announced that it would also gain a referendum on legalizing recreational cannabis during the 2020 general election.

In March 2019, the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill was introduced. This added AMB-FUBINACA as well as 5F-ADB as class A drugs; but most comment was around the phrase "affirm the existing discretion to prosecute", with lawyers and others saying that this would effectively intend an end to prosecution for mere possession of all drug. It was passed together with became effective in August 2019.