Govt argues it already has health-based approach to meth addiction

The government says it is already working on a drug reform programme to treat use as a health issue not a criminal one.

It comes after a report commissioned by the Helen Clark and Drug foundations pushes to allow the legal purchase of a speed substitute, and to de-criminalise methamphetamine use.

Acting Minister of Health Peeni Henare said the government had no plans to legalise meth.

However, the report does not call for the legalisation of meth, but decriminalisation of possession of small quantities of any drug.

Henare said the government was already doing many of the recommendations in the report.

“The Northland based Te Ara Oranga Meth addiction programme has helped more than 3000 people and their whānau and Budget 22 funded its continuation and expansion into the Bay of Plenty in June this year,” he said.

Henare said it has allowed police health-based discretion for prosecutions.

“We’ve provided $42 million of funding over four years for more specialist alcohol and other drug services including the establishment of new managed withdrawal services and continuing care services in Lakes and Tairāwhiti districts [and] a managed withdrawal network across the South Island.

“We’ve supported new community-based alcohol and drug services in 10 locations identified as having high methamphetamine use,” Henare said.

Justice Minister Kiritapu Allen said this year’s Budget had nearly $10m for funding drug and alcohol courts in Auckland, Waitakere and Waikato.

The courts had proven successful in reducing alcohol and drug use, reoffending and imprisonment, Allen said.

Former Prime Minister Helen Clark said New Zealand’s approach to drug use had failed.

A report out this morning from her foundation, along with the Drug Foundation, said policies towards meth were causing significant harm.

The foundations want to remove criminal penalties for meth use, roll out the successful Northland treatment programme nationwide, and set up a pilot to allow the legal purchase of a speed substitute.

They say the alternative is to leave supply to the illegal market which profits from sales and will try to keep people addicted.

Clark said drug policy should be based on evidence and not tired old approaches.

The focus must be on harm minimisation instead of locking people into a cycle of addiction and incarceration, she said.

New Zealand is among countries with the highest methamphetamine use, with 1.2 percent of adults using the drug in the past year.

Philippa Yasbek, the lead author of the report, said Northland’s Te Ara Oranga harm reduction programme had been a success and should be rolled out across the country.

For every dollar spent on the programme, there were up to $7 worth of benefits gained and offending had been reduced by 34 percent, Yasbek said.

The report also recommended a stimulant substitution therapy pilot for those needing assistance.

The model had shown results in other countries, she said.

“It helps to stabilise someone’s usage, helps them disengage with the black market, not have to participate in petty crime to afford their drugs,” she said.

“Over time their usage often stabilises and they quite frequently then end up either going into more conventional treatment or switching to something else.”

New Zealand currently has a substitution treatment model for opioids like heroin.

A drug policy expert also supported calls to de-criminalise methamphetamine use, saying it would give young people caught with the drug far better outcomes.

Massey University associate professor Chris Wilkins said the country needed to switch from a law and order approach to a health approach to drug use.

“We assess a person and we connect them with help and harm reduction approaches and that seems to make sense to me,” he said.

Massey University researcher Marta Rychert said that for the methamphetamine problem to be tackled long-term, environmental issues had to be addressed.

“I’m talking about things like inaffordability of housing, lack of career prospects, lack of education, poverty,” she said.

“So these are really issues that we need to address and create communities with hope for the future.”

The pilot Te Ara Oranga programme in Northland, which involves the community, should be expanded, Rychet said.