Whangarei mayor Sheryl Mai supports a strategy by local retailers to keep legal highs out of the North Island city.
Synthetic cannabis and a pipe. Photo: RNZ / Diego Opatowski
The council is planning to restrict the sale of psychoactive substances to three streets near the police station.
Ms Mai says businesspeople in those streets have suggested they buy up the licences to sell the drugs, then refuse to stock them.
She says if the Government cannot find a way to ban the products, communities will find innovative ways to bar them.
"I do hope that these substances end their life in New Zealand. They're just appalling things that are doing so much damage to young people - and older people, to be fair.
"If we can do whatever we can as a nation to reduce the harm for our people, we must do it."
