Editorial: Key going way of the nanny state

OPINION: Over the past three or four years, John Key and his colleagues revelled in lambasting their counterparts on the Treasury benches for creating a "nanny state".

Light bulbs, shower heads, school tuck shops, even smacking – each was a new weapon with which to attack prime minister Helen Clark and her Cabinet in the run-up to the 2008 election.

They were successful. Labour was booted from office last November and Miss Clark's successor, Phil Goff, contritely apologised last month for each of those policies and more, at the party's first post-election conference, even though he should have been proud, not sorry, at the outcome of the smacking debate.

Despite National's pooh-poohing of nanny statism, Mr Key has nonetheless decided to emulate Labour's attempts to fashion this country into a society it could approve of. Not only does Education Minister Anne Tolley want to send the parents of feral brats to parenting classes, now the prime minister has decided to determine what over-the-counter cold and flu medicine Kiwis can buy.

Persuaded by advice from his chief scientific adviser, Sir Peter Gluckman, and the father of a meth-addled daughter in the shape of broadcaster Paul Holmes, Mr Key and Health Minister Tony Ryall announced last week that, as part of the Government's fight to combat the pernicious drug P, it will ban its main ingredient, pseudoephedrine, from general sale.

Those suffering the common cold or flu will, in future, have to trudge to their doctor, pay for the consultation and pay again to buy what is, at the moment, a commonly available and often efficacious drug. Critics have attacked the plan for a variety of reasons. Some, like Dominion Post columnist Richard Long, believe that, once again, the law-abiding are being penalised for the sins of illicit drug manufacturers and their sales force. Others, particularly those who back legalising marijuana use, believe that bans don't work.

Those who believe the Government is doing the right thing agree with Sir Peter, who says no-one is going to die from a blocked nose, but those who use P baked from the ingredients of cold and flu remedies just might.

The prime minister – so far, anyway – is showing no signs of backing down. Restricting sales of pseudoephedrine-bearing cold and flu medicines, he has said, is only part of the Government's arsenal to fight the scourge of P, "a seriously addictive drug that is ruining lives".

It intends also to fund more police and Customs activities to fight gangs and organised crime, both of which are involved in the P trade; develop what Mr Key calls a "dedicated treatment pathway" for P users; and assign an extra 40 Customs officers to help break the overseas supply chain.

Mr Key acknowledges these steps will not stamp out the "P problem" for good. If more action is needed, he says, it will be considered.

The worried well who inhabit the political centre will expect the Government to do at least that. They will want something in return for their sacrifice in being left to snuffle through the discomfort of a cold or flu without their drug of choice.

- © Fairfax NZ News