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Kronic, a legal high - Source: Close Up -
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Children aged as young as 14 are using the synthetic drug Kronic, according to an ambulance officer who is calling for a blanket ban on the product.
Pat Buckley says Kronic, which claims to legally reproduce the effects of cannabis and is sold in dairies across the country, is slipping under the radar.
"In the past six months I've dealt with over half a dozen cases of young people in the back of an ambulance that have been crawling the walls, they've been absolutely manic and off the planet. Really crying out for help," Buckley told Close Up .
"I've dealt with young people at the age of 14 that have smoked his stuff."
Seventeen-year-old Tura is too young to buy tobacco, but he says he has no problem buying Kronic.
"It's an intense feeling for about 10 to 15 minutes. It's hard to explain the feeling you get when you're on Kronic - it's that intense and it's just buzzy."
He says it is getting more and more popular among teens.
"It's easy to get, you don't need an older person to purchase it for you, the younger ones can get it themselves you can just walk into a dairy and buy some Kronic."
Legally, Kronic can be sold to anyone of any age. But the company that makes Kronic says it is strictly for over eighteens. That is what it says on the label - in small print at the bottom of the packet.
But Tura says he has no problem buying it from his local dairy.
"We just went in asked for the Kronic and they just passed it over the counter to us."
The Kronic website says it gives a high comparable to its illegal counterparts, but users can "sleep safe knowing that you're not going to get busted".
Tim Harding, chair of the NZ Drug Foundation, says the New Zealand-based makers of the drug are in it to "make a buck".
"The green stuff is just a herb which the chemical is sprayed on. You're not smoking a herb which gives you a high, what you are smoking is a clear odourless man-made chemical," said Harding.
He also criticises the packaging for not saying what its potency is.
A law commission report out this week recommends restricting the sale of legal highs .
The commission said it believes substances like Kronic pose an "unacceptable level of risk to the public" and should only be sold if their manufacturers can first prove they are safe to use.
But Buckley wants the law changed now.
"In the meantime this stuff is still slipping under the radar and until legislation and regulation catches up, this stuff is being sold freely and readily available to lots of young people throughout the nation."
The government has five months to report back on the Law Commission's recommendations.
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