Know Your Stuff has called on the Government to repeal and replace the Misuse of Drugs Act as drug-related hospital admissions increase. Photo / Know Your Stuff NZ
Drug testers at music festivals are on alert this year as a new wave of substances – from cocaine to ketamine – makes its presence felt in New Zealand.
A huge increase in methamphetamine use grabbed headlines last year, but cocaine use has also increased, along with lower-profile ketamine, which is now showing up in hospital admissions.
As hundreds of thousands of people attend festivals throughout New Zealand this summer, Know Your Stuff will be at 20-30 festivals to help those taking substances fully understand what they are consuming.
“People will bring their drugs to our service and we will test them on our spectrometers and other scientific equipment that we have, to determine what they have,” general manager Casey Spearin said.
“At that point we sit them down and we give them the results of their test, and we have a harm reduction conversation.”
Spearin said Know Your Stuff and similar organisations had seen an increase in the number of people who used their services during the past few years.
“Across the board is that we are seeing a bit more drug use in general,” she said, “and that’s something that’s happened globally.
“Certainly, we’re seeing an increase in cocaine coming through and that seems to be due to an increase in supply, as well as the price dropping a little bit.
“Increase in ketamine has been going on for a while, and then there’s been a lot of headlines recently about this increase in methamphetamine across 2024.”
This is a trend supported by data obtained by the Herald from Health New Zealand in an Official Information Act request.
Hospital admissions linked to ketamine have increased more than sevenfold from a low base between 2014-15 and 2023-24.
Hospital admissions during the same period linked to cocaine and methamphetamine have also increased, while those linked to MDMA have slightly declined since 2020-21, after a dramatic rise.
The Health Ministry told the Herald it was conscious of changing trends in drug use and it was important New Zealand’s health system was prepared to respond to present and future trends.
“The ministry is currently developing a strategic action plan to prevent and reduce substance-related harm. This is expected to be released in early 2026,” a Health Ministry spokesperson said.
However, Spearin told the Herald she believes data on drug-related hospital admissions are poor in general and point to a wider issue with the system.
“There can be a lot of variation with how [hospitalisations] are recorded at the clinical stage, if someone actually does disclose what they’ve taken, if the practitioner decides to record it or not record it, that can cause a lot of long-term problems for people if they’re labelled as a drug seeker.
“It is harder to get medication in the future. We’ve heard of people that have been honest with their doctors about their drug use, and then they’re banned from getting life insurance for the next seven years.”
Spearin said allowing for greater anonymity in reporting drug use could encourage those who used them to be more open about it and start to access the help they needed.
Spearing praised the Government’s funding towards mental health services, noting more money was going to those services, especially in rural areas, than before.
However, she argued the bulk of government money was still going towards trying to stop the supply of drugs, such as stopping drugs at the border.
“I think that was probably a reasonably good tactic maybe 20 years ago, but we just know that the drug landscape is so different now.”
She mentioned a recent report from the Drug Foundation, titled Safer Drug Laws for Aotearoa New Zealand, that criticised the Misuse of Drugs Act as it reached its 50th anniversary this year.
“The evidence shows that our drug laws have exacerbated addiction, overdose, deaths and criminalisation,” Drug Foundation executive director Sarah Helm said when commenting on the report.
“Our drug laws are unsafe and the status quo is untenable – things are only going to get worse if we fail to act. We do not want to end up with the kinds of drug issues being seen in North America."
Recent data from the National Drugs in Wastewater Testing Programme conducted by police shows methamphetamine, MDMA and cocaine consumption declined in the second quarter of 2025 throughout New Zealand, while no data was given for ketamine.
“We would like to see the Misuse of Drugs Act repealed and replaced,” Spearin said, “with something that is treating drug use as a health issue rather than a criminal issue.”
An increase in investment in harm reduction services, decriminalising personal use and providing greater legal protection for those who call an ambulance in the event of an overdose are some of the key things Spearin believes could improve the way the Government handles its policies on substance abuse.
The Health Ministry said people experiencing substance-related harm or addiction had a range of mental health and addiction support services available, including services being rolled out nationally through the Access and Choice programme, community treatment services, plus live-in services that provide more intensive support.
A Health Ministry spokesperson said the Government had previously confirmed there were no plans to make changes to the Misuse of Drugs Act.