SHAKEN: Shopkeeper Iqbal Singh says he can’t wait until his shop sells out of legal highs. He was behind the counter when a man allegedly demanded he hand over all his stock.

A man on a crusade against dairies selling synthetic cannabis is accused of wielding a weapon against shop staff because they would not relinquish their supply.

Iqbal Singh, 22, was tending the dairy in Onekawa, Napier, on Monday afternoon when Shaun Wairau is alleged by police to have approached the counter and demanded the shop's supply of the legal highs, returning with a tyre iron.

Police later found 35-year-old Wairau and arrested him. He pleaded not guilty yesterday to possessing an offensive weapon and threatening with menace when he appeared in the Napier District Court.

Judge Jonathan Down warned him to follow a court order to stay away from dairies, and remanded him on bail until August.

Outside court, Wairau said he was on a personal crusade to stop shop owners selling legal highs to children.

He had seen the impact the substance had on the community. His nephew ended up in a coma after smoking K2. It had been touch and go for a while but he was doing much better now, Wairau said.

"I'm sick of it," he said of dairies that continued to sell synthetic cannabis. "They choose their business over children's lives."

Legal high K2 caused concerns last year after its use was linked to paranoia, psychosis, vomiting and a racing heart rate. The Government has since banned a substance used in K2, but other varieties are still being sold.

Mr Singh said his store had decided to stop selling synthetic cannabis after the community raised concerns that teens were becoming addicted and violent under its influence.

The dairy would not restock the legal highs once it had sold out.

The whole incident had left him and the staff shaken, he said.

He would be pleased when the stocks sold out, as the substance caused too much trouble.