We may even know some of these people.<\/p>\n
Despite this, plenty of people are willing to roll the meth dice.<\/p>\n
Its use spiked significantly in July 2024 to 29.2kg a week \u2013 about double what it had been for several years.<\/p>\n
However, the NZ Herald this week reported <\/a>that it obtained a justice briefing which reveals estimated meth consumption increased in April this year to a record high. <\/p>\n Wastewater testing shows at least 39.6kg (1.98 million common doses) were consumed across sample sites in one week. This was 21% (or 6.8kg) above the average amount consumed in the previous 12 months.<\/p>\n It dropped back in June, but New Zealand is clearly losing the fight, despite valiant efforts to tackle the problem.<\/p>\n The Government announced a multi-agency response to methamphetamine harm<\/a> last November and its enforcement efforts are well reported<\/a>. <\/p>\n The plan includes a three-phase awareness campaign.<\/p>\n The first was a small-scale \u201ctest and learn\u201d campaign to \u201cestablish a presence quickly, raise awareness of harm, test core messaging and build audience insights\u201d.<\/p>\n This took place from December to February and included a video titled \u201cHow meth addiction works\u201d. This video reached 855,625 people across Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.<\/p>\n However, only 450 people watched the full video, with an average view time of two seconds. This first phase cost $100,000 and, based on its online performance, it is hard to describe it as a success.<\/p>\n The ministry papers acknowledge this, saying \u201cthe campaign is not generating the levels of attention or interaction typically associated with health behaviour change campaigns\u201d.<\/p>\n There were 77 comments across all platforms, \u201cmostly light-hearted jokes … \u201d<\/p>\n Meth is not a joke and this initial failure is concerning.<\/p>\n Phase two is a $1.68 million \u201cstop before you start\u201d push that runs through to June next year.<\/p>\n The third phase will be a multi-channel campaign from 2027 to 2029 through a creative agency, costing $2.48m.<\/p>\n New Zealand must try to curb meth use and doing nothing is not an option. But officials must also spend money wisely.<\/p>\n This awareness campaign has had a disappointing online start.<\/p>\n The Government needs assurance that phase two has worked well and has an acceptable return on investment before committing large sums of money to the final part.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We may even know some of these people. Despite this, plenty of people are willing to roll the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1408,1738,12631,13997,14739,1426,33450,1868,9097,111,43,139,69,90,16654,1527,6436],"class_list":["post-596324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-awareness","tag-campaign","tag-dangers","tag-editorial","tag-expensive","tag-investment","tag-known","tag-meth","tag-must","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-provide","tag-return","tag-well"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596324","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=596324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}