New Zealand Drug Foundation executive director Sarah Helm said the scale of the increases in methamphetamine and cocaine consumption was \u201cunprecedented\u201d.<\/p>\n
Globally, cocaine is now the fastest-growing illegal drug market. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reported that production reached a record 3708 tonnes in 2023, a 34% increase on the previous year.<\/p>\n
Helm said those global trends were directly influencing New Zealand.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn an unregulated black market, we are at the mercy of these global changes that can alter our drug supply very quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis increase in supply has increased availability in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The New Zealand Drug Trends Survey 2025 found 60% of people who used drugs said substances were \u201ceasy or very easy\u201d to obtain, up from 22% in 2017-18.<\/p>\n
Lower prices were also playing a role.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs with anything people buy, lower prices usually mean increased access and consumption,\u201d Helm said.<\/p>\n
Data from the same survey show Gisborne and Hawke\u2019s Bay had some of the lowest methamphetamine prices in 2025, at about $306 a gram.<\/p>\n
Eastern district commander Superintendent Joel Lamb said officers were \u201cdisappointed\u201d by the consumption increase in Hawke\u2019s Bay.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe results show a trend in the continued emergence of methamphetamine usage and supply across the district, along with the harm the drug causes.<\/p>\n
\u201cCocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA remain the highest-used drugs in the district.\u201d<\/p>\n
While multiple factors influenced drug use, availability and pricing played a significant role, he said.<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Health has recently released a four-year Action Plan to Prevent and Reduce Substance Harm, focused on early intervention, expanding the addiction workforce, improving access to support, and strengthening harm reduction measures such as drug checking and early warning systems.<\/p>\n
Health New Zealand Hawke\u2019s Bay group director of operations, David Warrington, said drug use was already placing pressure on local services.<\/p>\n
\u201cSubstance use is closely linked with mental health distress and physical harm. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is reflected in Hawke\u2019s Bay through demand on mental health, addiction and acute services, particularly crisis services and mental health inpatient care.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite growing pressure, most people referred to services were still being seen within three weeks, Warrington said.<\/p>\n
Hawke\u2019s Bay, particularly Wairoa, had been identified as a priority area for investment, with new harm-reduction services expected to begin from July, including peer recovery support, screening and brief interventions in emergency departments and expanded treatment options.<\/p>\n
The national action plan would also be reflected through initiatives such as crisis recovery cafes and peer-led support in emergency departments.<\/p>\n
\u201cHawke\u2019s Bay has been selected as a site for these services, which aim to provide earlier, peer-led support and reduce reliance on emergency departments,\u201d Warrington said.<\/p>\n
Helm said the plan was a step forward, but more changes were needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also need a more fundamental shift in our drug laws, and in the investment into addiction treatment and harm reduction.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile these things won\u2019t remove all problems, the evidence is clear that it would reduce the worst harms and provide us with more tools to tackle the increase in harm. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf we continue doing more of the same, things will continue to get worse.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand Drug Foundation executive director Sarah Helm said the scale of the increases in methamphetamine and cocaine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2851,95,1561,20926,11085,2841,39053,5499,12506,1976,78,1868,13240,130,117,111,43,139,69,67160,697,381,26218,131,6306,102,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-365342","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-also","9":"tag-and","10":"tag-bay","11":"tag-cocaine","12":"tag-consumption","13":"tag-country","14":"tag-doubled","15":"tag-doubles","16":"tag-gisborne","17":"tag-hawkes","18":"tag-in","19":"tag-meth","20":"tag-methamphetamine","21":"tag-more","22":"tag-new","23":"tag-new-zealand","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-newzealand","26":"tag-nz","27":"tag-ranks","28":"tag-recording","29":"tag-region","30":"tag-secondhighest","31":"tag-than","32":"tag-use","33":"tag-with","34":"tag-zealand"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}