Support to ban psychoactive substance sales in the Western Bay of Plenty is growing with a total of 4229-people signing a public petition.

This week organisers Ross and Robyn Paterson closed their petition in an effort to get council to implement a Local Psychoactive Substances Policy that bans the sale of legal highs in the district.

Ross Paterson is pleased with the 4229 signature turnout of a petition to ban psychoactive substances.

The petition, circulated from Waihi Beach to Otamarakau, gave people two options relating to synthetic cannabis sales; support the status quo, or call for licensing decisions to be made by local councils, including the right to prohibit sales altogether.

The survey gathered community wide support including 2000 signatures from Katikati alone.

All but 12 of the petitioners wanted the substances banned in the region.

'It is a clear message from the community that they are not happy with the product and they want to do something about it,” says Ross.

'This is the message they are giving the council - they need to get on and look at the bylaws and look at how we can get a handle on the locations and maybe in time the use.”

Last month Western Bay of Plenty District councillors unanimously agreed to investigate the formation of a Local Psychoactive Substances policy for the district, which can influence where premises selling legal highs can be located.

Council's intervention comes after last month's protests in both Katikati and Te Puke. In August about 100 concerned Te Puke residents rallied together in a silent protest against the R18 Puff 2 Go store in their town, which opened to sell the legal highs after the new Psychoactive Substances Bill came into effect.

Residents in Katikati also gathered to discuss their concerns about legal highs reaching young people in their township.

'Even though it is deemed to be legal, I dare say you could say it is lethal.”

Ross says the petition is an excellent example of the community voicing its concern and working together for the betterment of the district, but any creation of the bylaw and enforcement of the petition is on hold until after the local body elections on October 12.

'The final decision will be for the new council, but I will continue to do my utmost to get the stronger licensing power given over to local councils,” says the current council Mayor.

'Such decisions impact on local communities, and we now have a clear indication of what our community deems is acceptable.”