Willingness from across the political spectrum to explore
critical overdose prevention measures shows that cross-party
progress can be made no matter the result of the election,
the NZ Drug Foundation Te Puna Whakaiti Pāmamae Kai
Whakapiri says.
It comes as the Foundation marks
International Overdose Awareness Day by releasing political
party responses to its
(see table
below).
Sarah Helm, the Foundation’s Executive
Director, says that today the Foundation and many others in
the sector and community would be remembering the New
Zealanders whose lives have been lost to overdose.
Between
2017 and 2021, fatal overdoses rose 51% to 171 people in
2021
– almost double the number of drownings and
more than half the road toll that year. Despite this,
overdose deaths have been afforded only a fraction of the
attention and investment in prevention.
“Every one
of those 171 people represents a whānau and a community who
are suffering. We ask that their lives are not lost in
vain,” says Helm. “Those 171 people’s lives are worth
just as much as those lost to drowning or road
incidents.”
Helm says as long as drugs are treated
as a political football, preventable overdose deaths will
continue to increase at an alarming rate.
“The
parties’ responses to the overdose prevention measures in
our plan show that we can make progress. Enough common
ground exists for politicians to get around the table, put
aside the politics, and agree on ways that these tragic
deaths can be prevented,” she says.
Helm says that
the Foundation’s evidence-backed
is full of measures that are ready
to be implemented and save lives. These include new overdose
prevention services and dedicated response teams, a new
Overdose Prevention Taskforce, better data gathering,
distribution of overdose reversal medicine, and law reform
measures.
“Our plan is informed by what is working
around the world and it shows that there is so much that we
can and should be doing to prevent these
deaths.”
The Foundation asked ACT, the Green Party,
Te Pāti Māori, Labour and National to give their response
to each measure in the plan. Their responses are below. ACT
and Te Pāti Māori did not respond by the
deadline.
Note: In addition, the
Labour Party said they would commit to work on
destigmatisation, continue funding specialist and community
AoD and drug checking services, expand Te Ara Oranga and
develop a cross-government overdose harm reduction and
preparedness
plan.
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