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More than 200 protesters chanted slogans and invited passing traffic to "TOOT TO BOOT IT"outside a new South Auckland synthetic cannabis store this morning.?
The protest, organised by a Christian community group "Warriors of Change", came in the wake of a 1500-strong petition calling for shops to stop selling "legal high" drugs.
Organiser Denise Tims said the new store, "High Zone?? was right in the middle of the ?Manurewa community, in full view and near a bus-stop where children gathered.?
"It?s saying to kids that it?s OK to be able to purchase these things. High school students have been purchasing these drugs in school uniform."
The protesters included Labour MP Louisa Wall and a number of Auckland Council and Manurewa Local Board representatives. The protest began at 11am and wound up half an hour later. The store was not open to customers at the time.?
Placards on show included "High Zone. High Risk. Why us!", and "Drugs Unsafe" and Tims said numerous passing cars honked their support for the protest. She said there were no negative reactions from any passers-by.
Tims, who with her husband Dave has been involved in community work for 20 years in New Zealand and Australia, said "Manurewa is renowned for drug problems, with kids particularly. Police are in the community frequently ?for the wrong reasons. We don?t want to see this type of shop fuelling the issues already happening in our community."
She said the drugs were associated with domestic violence, poor concentration among users, and potentially serious health effects such as seizures.
Tims said she understood that nearby Papatoetoe was facing similar issues with increasing availability of synthetic drugs, and she hoped the protest would encourage people in other places to ??speak up and have a voice against people bringing synthetic drugs into our communities??.?
She said ?Manurewa also had a serious problem with excessive availability of alcohol, but protesting outside liquor stores probably wasn?t the best approach to that issue. Local board members were tackling that problem separately through dialogue with liquor store owners.?
Tims said she hoped new legislation controlling the sale of legal highs would make it harder for stores such as High Zone to operate, but if necessary, she and her fellow activists would be willing to protest again.
Stuff was unable to make contact with the proprietors of High Zone.?
- ? Fairfax NZ News
Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8661730/Protest-against-legal-highs
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