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National Drug Policy New Zealand.

National Drug Policy New Zealand

 
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Committees

Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs (EACD)

The Misuse of Drugs Amendment Act 2000 (the Act) established the Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs (EACD) to provide expert advice to the Minister of Health regarding drug classification issues. The EACD:
  • conducts reviews of controlled drugs and other narcotic or psychotropic substances
  • recommends to the Minister of Health whether and how such substances should be classified
  • increases public awareness of its work by (for instance) releasing papers, reports and recommendations.
On this page:

Drug classification process

The Act now requires the classification of illegal drugs to be based on the risk of harm to individuals or society. The Act requires the EACD to advise the Minister of Health on a range of specific criteria for each substance (see Section 4B(2)), and each paper generally follows a consistent format containing a range of information and evidence.
More about the classification process (Appendix A)

Public input to the drug classification process

Interested parties are welcome to lodge written submissions with the Secretariat about any particular drug the EACD will be considering. The EACD Secretariat will publish on this website, as soon as practicable, the agenda to be considered by the EACD at future meetings.
More about making a written submission (Appendix A1)


Consultation Documents

Norephedrine Consultation Document (PDF, 32 KB)
The Ministry of Health seeks feedback from interested stakeholders on the proposed classification of norephedrine as a Schedule 2, Part 2 Controlled drug and a Schedule 4 Precursor substance in the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975. Submissions are due by 19 November 2010.

Tapentadol Consultation Document (PDF, 38 KB)
The Ministry of Health seeks feedback from interested stakeholders on the proposed classification of tapentadol as a Schedule 2, Part 3 Controlled drug in the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975. Submissions are due by 26 November 2010

Committee information

Papers on drugs and related substances

All papers related to illegal and other drugs are contained in the Illegal and other drugs section. These include final reports to the EACD, including its recommendations to the Minister
Browse final reports in the Illegal and Other Drugs/Resources section


Page last updated 1 November 2010



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