Psychoactive Substances Act 2013

The Psychoactive Substances Act 2013 is New Zealand’s main law for regulating psychoactive substances and psychoactive products. Its purpose is to regulate availability in New Zealand to protect health and minimise harm to individuals who use psychoactive substances.

The Act is built around a precautionary rule. A psychoactive product that has not been approved by the Authority is prohibited until it has been assessed and the Authority is satisfied it poses no more than a low risk of harm. For a business owner, that is the key starting point.

The Act also sets up the regulator and expert advisory committee, creates licensing pathways, provides for product approvals, controls approved products, creates offences, gives enforcement powers, allows recall orders, and includes regulation-making powers for more detailed operational rules.

The Act applies to the importation, manufacture, sale, supply or possession of a psychoactive substance or approved product for the primary purpose of inducing a psychoactive effect in the individual using it.

That means the Act can affect more than a retail seller. It can apply across the supply chain, including importers, manufacturers, researchers, wholesalers and retailers. It can also affect businesses that package products for sale, because the Act’s definition of manufacture includes packaging a substance or product for the purpose of sale.

The Act also reaches customer-facing conduct around approved products, including age-restricted sales, place-of-sale rules, Internet sales, advertising and retailer naming.

Businesses usually need to work through three separate questions.

First, is the substance or finished product within the Act at all? The trigger is whether the activity involves a psychoactive substance or approved product for the primary purpose of inducing a psychoactive effect.

Secondly, does the business activity need a licence? Part 2 authorises the Authority to issue licences for importation, manufacture, research and sale.

Thirdly, does the product itself need approval? A psychoactive product is a finished product packaged and ready for retail sale that is a psychoactive substance or contains 1 or more psychoactive substances. An approved product is a psychoactive product approved by the Authority.

The Act authorises the Authority to issue licences for importation, manufacture, research and sale. It also sets out the application process, grounds for granting a licence, conditions of licence, duration, refusal, suspension, cancellation and surrender.

One practical point is clear from the Act itself. A licence may not be transferred. If you are buying a business, restructuring ownership or changing the operating entity, do not assume an existing licence simply moves across.

The Act also creates offences relating to licence applications, importing a psychoactive substance without a licence, manufacturing a psychoactive substance without a licence, selling an approved product without a licence, and breaching a licence condition.

The Act separately deals with applications for approval of psychoactive products. It covers applications, requests for further information, protection of confidential supporting information, grounds for approving a product, conditions of approval, refusal, revocation and a register of products.

The Act’s principles say that a product posing no more than a low risk of harm should be approved, a product posing more than a low risk of harm should be prohibited, and a product not yet approved should be prohibited on a precautionary basis until assessed and approved.

For businesses, the practical point is simple. You should not treat this as a category where ordinary trading can begin first and compliance can be sorted out later.

Part 3 contains direct controls on approved products. These include age restrictions, place-of-sale restrictions, Internet sales rules, bans on free-of-charge distribution and rewards, sponsorship restrictions, advertising controls, restrictions on retailer names, labelling and packaging requirements, health warning requirements, signage requirements, storage and display requirements, disposal requirements and record-keeping requirements.

It is important to read these carefully. Some obligations are direct statutory rules. Other detailed requirements may be prescribed by regulations made under the Act. Businesses should avoid assuming that every operational detail is fixed in the Act alone.

The Act includes specific age restrictions. It restricts persons under 18 from buying or possessing psychoactive substances, restricts selling approved products to persons under 18, restricts supplying approved products to persons under 18 in a public place, and restricts employing persons under 18 to sell approved products.

The Act also controls how approved products are sold and promoted. It covers place-of-sale restrictions, Internet sales, free-of-charge distribution and rewards, sponsorship involving use of a trade mark or other branding of an approved product, advertising, and retailer names using words, expressions or trade marks associated with approved products.

For many businesses, the main risk is not only the product itself. It is also the way the product is sold, promoted and presented to customers.

The Act specifically defines an Internet sale of an approved product. It is not every online touchpoint. It is a sale, by retail or wholesale, under a contract entered into using the Internet between a seller offering the product for sale and a person at a distance from the seller’s place of business, where the contract provides for delivery by or on behalf of the seller to a place or person chosen by the purchaser.

If your business uses online ordering, delivery fulfilment or distance selling, review the actual contract flow and delivery model against that definition rather than relying on broad assumptions.

The Act’s advertising definition also includes matter represented in an electronic or digital medium, so website and digital promotional content should be checked carefully.

The Act directly refers to restrictions and requirements relating to labelling, packaging, health warnings, signage, storage, display, disposal and record-keeping. It also gives regulation-making powers to prescribe more detailed rules in these areas.

For example, regulations may prescribe information that labels must contain, packaging size and type requirements, inserted material rules, health warning content and format, signage requirements, quantity or dosage limits, restrictions on the form an approved product may take, storage conditions, display restrictions, disposal requirements and record retention periods for specified persons.

That means operations teams should check both the Act and any regulations before finalising packaging artwork, shelf presentation, warehouse procedures or record systems.

The Act includes extra provisions relating to manufacture. It requires the Authority to issue a code of manufacturing practice relating to psychoactive substances. It also provides for audits of manufacturing facilities, entry by an authorised person into a manufacturing facility, and compliance notices.

The Act also imposes a duty on specified persons to notify the Authority about adverse reactions. If your business is within a class of specified persons under the Act, you should have a process for identifying and escalating adverse reaction information promptly.

These parts of the Act matter most to manufacturers, researchers and others handling product safety information, but they can also affect businesses further down the supply chain if complaints or incidents are passed on to them.

The Act gives enforcement officers and constables significant powers. These include warrantless entry and search powers in some circumstances, power to enter and search retail premises, warranted search powers, powers to demand information where certain offences are suspected, and forfeiture provisions.

The Act also creates offences across the regime, including offences relating to licences, approvals, sale and supply of psychoactive substances that are not approved products, personal possession of a psychoactive substance that is not an approved product, and obstruction of an enforcement officer or constable.

The Authority may also issue recall orders. A recall can affect importers, manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, so stock identification and quarantine processes matter.

The Act expressly addresses its relationship with the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996. If a psychoactive substance is also a hazardous substance, the HSNO Act still applies. But if there is an inconsistency, the Psychoactive Substances Act prevails over the HSNO Act, and regulations under this Act prevail over HSNO regulations or EPA notices to the extent stated in the Act.

The Act also applies the Customs and Excise Act 2018, with stated exceptions, to a psychoactive substance that is not an approved product. Importers should check customs treatment as part of their compliance review.

Compliance under one regime does not automatically mean compliance under the other. Businesses should check both where the substance, product or import model overlaps.

The Act allows a territorial authority to have a local approved products policy, and it allows territorial authorities to adopt a joint local approved products policy. The Act also contains provisions about the content, adoption and review of those policies.

If your business is considering premises-based sales of approved products, check whether the relevant territorial authority has adopted a local approved products policy and whether it affects where approved products may be sold.

This is a principal Act that is in force. It received Royal assent on 17 July 2013 and came into force on the day after assent. The consolidated version currently in force is stated as current at 10 July 2026.

The Act is detailed and works together with regulations, licence conditions, approval conditions and regulator decisions. Before acting, a business should confirm the current legal position for its exact product, activity and sales model.