ABSTRACT
Europeans were also using opium and other drugs medicinally and recreationally at this time, usually by ingestion; in fact one of the first control laws was the Distillation Act 1868 which forbade common practice of potentiating beer with substances like opium, cannabis and tobacco In 1972, members of an American commission on marijuana, the Schafer Commission, visited New Zealand and recommended a relaxation of marijuana laws. That same year, Britain passed a Misuse of Drugs Act that divided drugs into three classes according to their supposed potential for harm. In 1975, influenced by both Britain and the United States as well as by recommendations from second Board of Health Report of 1973, New Zealand passed its own Misuse of Drugs Act, using a British-style classification and reducing penalties for most drugs. Varieties of synthetic psychoactive drugs and analogues are innumerable and constantly being altered and produced by sophisticated drug designers, particularly in China. Inevitably, some of these arrive in New Zealand.
