Chris Wilkins: SHORE and Whariki Research Centre Professor on the concern social media is exposing young people to drug use

Fears social media is exposing more young people to drug use. 

The latest Drug Trends Survey reveals apps like Facebook and Snapchat are used to arrange sales, and drugs are also marketed on gaming apps. 

It finds there's been an overall rise in the use of social media purchasing for all drug types, particularly cannabis and MDMA.  

SHORE and Whariki Research Centre Professor Chris Wilkins told Mike Hosking the market's moved online.  

He says there's an algorithm phishing for engagement, which means there's a cross section of young people who are exposed. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
More insight into our drug habits. The latest New Zealand
Drug Trends survey shows the increasing use of social media
to purchase MDMA. This is so depressing, up from thirteen
to twenty four percent of the last four years via
the web. Most popular apps for purchasing your MDMA and
all your other drug Snapchat or the Facebook Messenger. Now.

(00:22):
Chris Wilkins is a drug researcher at Massi Universities. Well,
it's Chris, very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Make is this any different to me purchasing anything using
an app? I mean, in other words, drugs is just
like a fridge.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Is like a car, That's right. So this is a
general implication of the revolution and social media and digital
online selling and shopping. But I think we need to
be aware. It's just unfortunate some of these apps are
particularly conducive to drug buying and selling, and that they

(00:54):
have encryption, natural networking, and self de eating messages. But
I just think we need need to be aware of
how that market has really changed, just like a lot
of other things, and it has implications for how young
people are engaged and become aware of drug use.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
So, in other words, you would never as a sixteen, eighteen,
nineteen year old wander around the corner to find the
gang member to flick you a bit or whatever. But
you might stumble upon this online and then doing that,
you have down a slippery slope.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah that's right. So I mean for older generations we
think about drug markets, is that the bad kid in
the class and getting to know them and you know,
behind the pub and stuff like that. So this is
much more insidious. And we've got an algorithm that's working
fishing for likes for people engagement, and that means a
broader cross section of young people, some young people that

(01:48):
wouldn't really expect to be exposed to drug use. Art
and through even things of like gaming apps are now
used for these kinds of deals.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
How do you know who you're dealing with and what
sort of risky you're taking?

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah, that's right. So and there's a whole new bunch
of risks. So even though you might buy drugs online
through social media, often you need to physically go and
pick up drugs or you need the drugs to be delivered.
And then suddenly you're moving away from that safe, digital,
anonymous environment to something that can be quite real and

(02:23):
there has been situations where people turn up to buy
drugs and they find a gang member instead of who
they were expecting.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Exactly are we outlies on this? Do you have any
sort of international flavor for whether we're a bunch of
drug addital losers or the whole world's into this?

Speaker 2 (02:38):
I know the whole world is into this, and I
think this is something we already got to get a
handle in terms of drug supply and how drug markets
are changing, becoming digitalized, becoming global, and that really there
is some opportunities now to engage online, which is a
good thing to take, but really this is really ramping
up the level of drug market and the difficulty in

(03:02):
doing something about it.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Good stuff, Chris, Always enjoy your company, Chris Wilkins, who's
the Messy University drug researcher.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
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