The Elephant is a new online video series that tackles the conversations New Zealanders often avoid. It dives into big, uncomfortable questions, looking beyond the echo chambers in search of a fearless and honest debate. This week in episode six, hosts Miriama Kamo and Mark Crysell talk about drugs.
New Zealand’s drug laws are coming under heavy fire, with record methamphetamine use, increasingly dangerous street drugs and rising overdose deaths fueling calls to dismantle the 50-year-old Misuse of Drugs Act.
“We’re losing three New Zealanders every week to completely preventable overdoses,” Sarah Helm, executive director of the Drug Foundation, told The Elephant, a web series presented by Miriama Kamo and Mark Crysell.
The 1975 act still treats personal possession of Class A substances, including methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine and psilocybin mushrooms, as a criminal offence.
“Harm has greatly increased under these laws,” Helm said, “Our supply is increasingly toxic, and if nothing changes, things will only get worse.”
The Drug Foundation wants drug use decriminalised and the law rewritten to focus on health.
A survey produced this week by the Helen Clark Foundation, conducted by University of Otago researcher Rose Crossin, found that half of New Zealanders support shifting investment from policing to health. “Right now, two-thirds of what we spend on drugs goes to law enforcement. People would prefer that money to go into prevention, treatment and harm reduction,” Crossin told The Elephant.
The report shows that just 1.4% of the annual drug budget is for harm reduction, rising to just over 30% when combined with treatment and prevention.
Advocates point to Portugal, which decriminalised personal drug use in 2001, referring offenders to treatment or counselling rather than court. A similar approach has been seen in the Australian Capital Territory, where police report no increase in overdoses or crime following small-scale decriminalisation.
For people on the frontline, the law’s impact is deeply personal. Tricia Walsh (Ngāti Porou) battled meth addiction for years and was repeatedly jailed. “What I needed was support to deal with the trauma, not prison,” she said. “Being criminalised left me stigmatised, made it harder to get work or housing, and passed that shame on to my children. The law doesn’t just hurt users, it hurts whānau.”
Another New Zealander, Michaela Cotogni, said psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, helped pull her back from mental illness when nothing else worked. “I don’t think it’s fair that I could be treated as a criminal for trying to save my own life,” she said.
Not everyone supports reform. Former policeman and National MP Mike Sabin, whose nephew died after taking MDMA, warned decriminalisation risks sending the wrong message. “Drugs destroy lives. The best solution is prevention – stopping people from starting in the first place,” he said, adding that demand fuels gang activity. “If you turn the tap off on demand, suppliers lose their customers. That’s the real issue.”
Crossin suggested regulation could vary by substance. “Cannabis might be sold through licensed dispensaries, as in Canada. Methamphetamine would need far stricter controls, perhaps even prescription supply. The point is to make use safer and to take power away from the black market.”
Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick also raised the issue on Wednesday, launching an online platform which asked for public suggestions on better drug regulation - in particular cannabis - as a step towards legalisation.
All sides agree that New Zealand’s laws are outdated. Walsh put it bluntly on The Elephant: “The Misuse of Drugs Act is older than me. It’s not fit for purpose. Don’t penalise our people any more. Don’t create more harm with laws that already fail us.”
Watch, listen, and join the conversation – new episodes drop every Thursday across digital, social, and broadcast platforms. The Elephant is made with the support of NZ On Air.