A synthetic cannabis retailer says some people should be banned from buying the product.
The retailer, who did not wished to be named, was in an audience of more than 40 people at a Pact synthetic cannabis seminar in Dunedin on Friday.
Medical anthropologist Dr Geoff Noller, of Dunedin, told the seminar new legislation required synthetic cannabis buyers to be 18 years old and banned sales from dairies, grocery stores, service stations and liquor outlets.
The Ministry of Health was issuing interim licences to stores to sell synthetic cannabis.
The synthetic cannabis for sale must not have been classed as ''problematic'' in the three months prior to the legislation being introduced in July, he said.
The person issued the licence had to be deemed ''fit and proper'' and had to have submitted an application for an interim licence to sell the products within 28 days of the Act having come into effect.
The synthetic cannabis retailer said people with problematic histories with synthetic cannabis should be banned from buying the product.
Pact mental health clinical leader Matthew Peppercorn said excluding some people from legal stores could create a human rights issue.
Many Pact clients smoked synthetic cannabis because they could not afford the court fines that came with smoking cannabis, he said.
Synthetic cannabis was legal for some users with mental health issues, but it could worsen their symptoms, he said. Other could use it without issue.
Dr Noller said studies had shown people with mental health issues were more susceptible to the effects of synthetic cannabis.
Further studies had shown, that although many users preferred cannabis over its synthetic counterpart, they smoked the more expensive synthetic cannabis because it was more potent, available and legal.
Dr Noller asked the retailer what the base material was for synthetic cannabis.
''I have to plead ignorance - it changes over time - sorry, I can't answer that,'' the retailer said.
If synthetic cannabis was not available, people would find other ways to get ''wasted'', he said.
Although, he did not want his name in the paper, his name was listed on the Ministry of Health website as an interim licence holder, he said.
The publication of his name had not generated any negative feedback, he said.
