Products in the Tai High range of "legal highs", believed to contain the synthetic cannabis-like substance AM-2233, are understood to have been for sale recently in two Dunedin dairies.
Dunedin police told the Otago Daily Times they were aware of it and had visited the dairies earlier this month to ask the owners to remove the product.
It was not available at the stores on Monday, although various Tai High products advertised as "legal weed" could still be ordered online last night.
Sergeant Chris McLellan, of Dunedin, said he expressed concern about the product to Public Health South and the Ministry of Health after visiting the dairies.
Asked about that by the ODT on Monday the ministry said it had not received any complaints or concerns about Tai High and would only test it if a complaint was received, but yesterday Mr Dunne announced he was banning, on advice from the ministry, the chemical AM-2233 understood to be present in Tai High.
The ministry spokesman confirmed yesterday the chemical had been tested and verified by Environmental Science Research as a synthetic cannabis-like substance in early November, after it was intercepted by Customs.
However, as there was no evidence it was being used in products for sale in New Zealand, it was not immediately banned.
Early this month, the ministry received information, including from Sgt McLellan, it was possible it was being sold in Tai High products.
The ministry now had, from its information from Customs, good reason to believe the chemical was present in Tai High products, although they had not been tested specifically, he said.
The ban on AM-2233 means 20 synthetic cannabis substances have been been placed under a 12-month temporary ban, since the Misuse of Drugs Act was amended in August 2011.
Mr Dunne said the ban on AM-2233 would come into force on December 29.
