All stuffed up

New Zealand requires more than a strong decongestant to clear the circuitous routes to effective change.

- Danyl McLauchlan

The nation feels gloomy. Recent polling shows a majority of New Zealanders still believe the country is on the wrong track - but there's one glimmer of light on the horizon. Better drugs are coming. Now that Act leader David Seymour's Misuse of Drugs (Pseudoephedrine) Amendment Bill has passed its third reading, we can all look forward to decent cold medication and clearer bronchial tracts. 

Pseudoephedrine was classified as a restricted medicine in 2009 as part of the Key government's war on methamphetamines.

The reclassification was a total failure: it incentivised gangs to build links with international crime syndicates and they began importing meth and selling it at a much lower price, due to larger volumes of product.

Meanwhile, drug companies began selling decongestants based on phenylephrine that many subsequent studies found to be indistinguishable from a placebo.

For Seymour, this was a fantastic example of New Zealand's "set and forget" attitude to regulation. Even though it didn't work, the ban just sat there on the law books for 15 years. In addition to undoing it, Seymour is also setting up a new Ministry for Regulation, which will undertake sector-by-sector reviews of the nation's regulatory framework. Instead of just leaving decades of legislation in place, like geological layers of rock and sediment, it will excavate and dig everything away. Seymour wants to "remove everything in he sector that we wouldn't do today".