The Front Page podcast: Why we're losing the fight against meth

Fighting the Demon is a New Zealand Herald project digging deep into meth's importation, influence and impact on the nation. Photo / Mike Scott

Each week The Front Page takes you behind the scenes of the biggest story from the New Zealand Herald and Newstalk ZB. Today it's the second wave of meth swamping New Zealand communities. Hosted by Frances Cook.

Audio from this video podcast is available on podcast apps, one week after its release on Herald Premium. You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple podcasts here, iHeartRadio here, and Spotify here.

New Zealand has been fighting meth for 20 years, and yet it's now more available than ever.

A new documentary from the NZ Herald talks to drug users, drug dealers, police and rehabilitation specialists, to get to the bottom of what is going wrong.

The result is a gripping insight into the lives of those struggling with addiction, and the frustration of those fighting a losing battle against the second wave of meth.

For this week's Front Page podcast, I talked to investigative journalist Kirsty Johnston and visual journalist Mike Scott, about how they gained the trust of vulnerable people, and what it was like to work intensively on such a difficult topic for six months.

For the interview, watch the podcast video.

To watch the documentary, click here.

If you have questions about Herald investigations, or want to stay up to date on social media, you can find host Frances Cook on Facebook here, Instagram here and Twitter here.