In a new bill, Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne outlined procedures for testing "legal highs" on animals so that the products can be sold in New Zealand stores again. Legal highs, also called party pills, are psychoactive drugs intended for recreation, not for curing or preventing illness.
The bill recommends performing toxicity tests on dogs and rats over a six to 12-month period. Toxicity testing generally involves administering drugs or chemicals to animals by force feeding, inhalation, injection, or on the skin to determine immediate reactions and lethal doses. This causes great pain to the test animals, who are usually killed at the end of the testing period. New Zealand currently tests 300,000 animals per year, and the legal drug tests would add to this number for a completely unnecessary cause.
There is no reason for legal highs to be sold on the New Zealand market, as their use is purely for cheap recreation. Administering painful tests and killing animals to sell party pills is unjustifiably cruel. Please sign the petition to put an end to these unnecessary tests.
We, the undersigned, are concerned that New Zealand plans to test legal highs on animals so they can be sold on the market.
We understand that the Regulation of Psychoactive Substances Act recommends performing toxicity tests on dogs and rats over a six to 12-month period. This will cause great pain to the test animals, who are usually killed at the end of the testing period. New Zealand currently tests 300,000 animals per year, and the legal drug tests would add to this number for a completely unnecessary cause.
There is no reason for legal highs to be sold on the New Zealand market, as their use is purely for cheap recreation. We believe that administering painful tests and killing animals to sell these products is unjustifiably cruel. We respectfully urge you to put a stop to these proposed tests. Thank you for taking the time to read and consider our petition.
