Chris Wilkins: Massey University Drug Researcher on the increasing use of synthetic drugs in New Zealand

A researcher believes international drug smugglers are flooding the New Zealand market, bringing prices down and availability up. 

The New Zealand Drugs Trends Survey found cocaine use is increasing, with 48% of respondents reporting they've used it at some point in their life. 

It finds meth's also dropping in price, with a gram becoming 36% cheaper over the past six years. 

Massey University drug researcher Chris Wilkins says the majority of Australia's meth comes from Mexican cartels. 

He says there's now an overlap for smugglers, importing meth and cocaine together. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So where are we at with our drug use? The
annual Mass University Trend Survey out this morning method is
getting cheaper access to cocaine easier, its users increasing too.
We've also got to change in the use of tobacco,
cannabis and psychedelics. Messy University drug researcher Chris Wilkins with
US Morning, Good morning. Are we a drug eduled nation?

Speaker 2 (00:18):
I think we're part of a global drug system that's
changed quite a bit in the last few years. So
now we've got increasingly more synthetic drugs and so we've
got digital markets, so that's social media, encrypted apps and darknet.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Wow, the stuff that you produce, the detail you produce,
how accurate is it?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Well, what we do is we it's a convenience survey,
but we talked to ten thousand current drug users in
New Zealand and basically we also look at our results
and compare them to other researchers going on other data
that's going on, so like west Uder testing, police seizures
and police operations, and we often find very consistent resorts

(01:07):
results compared to those data sources.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
How much is driven by price.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Prices? Well, drugs are just like any other commodity, so
prices of course key, and that's part of one of
the indicators that we collect with the survey, and what
we've found is a declining price over the last since
twenty seventeen. So one of the key findings this year
was that the price of methamphetamin's actually declined thirty five

(01:34):
percent since twenty seventeen. And of course we're all going
through a cost of living crisis where we ice just
go up, but it seems in the legal economy the
cost of drugs just get cheaper.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Well at least it's not inflationary. I suppose that's encouraging.
Do you get depressed by this when you see this
sort of stuff?

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Well, as I said, well, it's really interesting for us
in as kind of academic way because you know, as
we've had this cross the looms that we're expecting prices
to go up. But this is really some really global
drives about drug use. As I said, synthetic drugs versus
plant paid drugs, which additionally used to and also if
you're from my generation, you kind of think about place

(02:16):
baked drug markets where you meet someone in person, you
exchange the drugs. You know, you only know the people
you know, but increasingly young people have a digital drug
market where they're open to all types of office for
drugs and different prices and markets, and a lot of
those apps are encrypted, so it's just a different world
in terms of how the drug market operates.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
You mentioned the word global. How much of our drug
use is global as and supplied globally versus a bit
of cannabis which has grown up the road.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Most of it comes from overseas. So one of the
interesting things this year that you might have kind of
heard about in recently of Mexican cartels, which is something
you haven't probably heard about previously. So it's a global market.
So a lot of them method and famine we have
traditionally used has come from Southeast Asia, but Australian police

(03:06):
are saying that seventy percent of the myth they now
see is actually from North America, South America maasically Mexican cartels,
and they're essentially just like in the other market, they're
seener market opportunity and they're selling at a cut price.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
So what's happening with there seems to be a tremendous
amount of cocaine about.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
The place that's right. So that was another really surprising
finding was that the level of cocaine use lever of
cocaine availability obviously in Auckland, but also in northern and
may have plenty, but really all over New Zealand. And
this may well be some overlap with that Mexican cartel
and of course they're in the cocaine trade, and if

(03:49):
they're selling myths to New Zealand and to Australia, then
cocaine is also another thing that's obviously got access to.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Can you tell how many New Zealanders don't smoke, don't vape,
don't do drugs? Is there anyone left not?

Speaker 2 (04:04):
With this survey? So we purposely target current drug users
because we want to know about what's happening in the
drug market. So it's not a representative national survey. But
if you go to the Ministry of Health Health Survey,
you'll see you can find out that stack.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
Appreciate your time. That is Chris Wilkins Out of Masses.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
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