Chris Wilkins: Massey University expert issues warning amid Government bid to re-categorise fentanyl

A drug researcher is warning more fentanyl will arrive in New Zealand. 

The Government's working to tighten controls on 23 substances - helping to allow a police and Customs crackdown.

Health Minister Simeon Brown want to categorise three drugs similar to fentanyl as Class A substances, with harsher penalties for manufacture.

Massey University's Chris Wilkins says fentanyl is a cheaper alternative for many drugs.

"They've been replacing heroin with fentanyl - but now, increasingly, a whole lot of other drugs. And given that economic incentive, it's hard to see that New Zealand is going to avoid this problem."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fentanyl is set to join the likes of meth, cocaine
and heroin becoming a Class A drug in New Zealand.
Ventanyl not big issue here yet, but in the US
it is. Other countries are starting to struggle with it.
Massive university drug researcher Chris Wilkins is with me Hi
Chris good innen, it's not a big problem here yet,
but do you think it will be?

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Well, this is the thing. I think this is a
really important and good preemptive move to reclassify fentanyl analogs
as Class A just because I mean, we don't have
to look very far to see some really terrible levels
of opiod overdose largely related to fentanyl. Fentanyl put into

(00:45):
other opioids. So in the US there's been of one
hundred thousand drug overdose guests per year since twenty twenty one,
So that's a real catastrophe and the same thing as
in Canada. And now I think it's just sensible to
start preparing and expecting the worst. Preparing for the worst.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Is it people buying it and having it knowing what
they're taking, or is it just being slipped into something else.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yeah, Well, this is the real insidious thing about fentanyl.
So initially fentanyl was substituted for heroin because it was
an opioid, but increasingly fentanyl is now being used a
doctor to adulterate a whole lot of drugs like methan,
fetamine and cocaine as well. So they called us the
fourth wave of the opioid epidemic in the US. And

(01:36):
really this has been driven largely by drug producers and
traffickers because tunel is so much more cheaper to produce,
so you can produce twenty times more fentanyl from kilogram
of ventanyl than heroin, so it's incredibly cheaper. So basically
the drug traffickers are being driven here by profit and

(01:59):
they've been replaced in heroin, the fentanyl, but now increasingly
a whole lot of other drugs. And given that economic incentive,
it's hard to see that New Zealand is going to
avoid this problem.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah, well, the idea of making this a class at a
drug and I'm not saying that you know, our police
are doing anything wrong necessarily, but I mean, if you
look at cocaine, if you look at matthews, we've never
had more of it and it's never been cheaper and
they are all class as, So what hope do we
have of actually stopping it.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, that's a really good point, so that this is
not the end of the story and it shouldn't be
the only response we do. And of course it's an
imperfect response, but if we're going to have a modor
where we have different classifications of drugs, that seems to
me fentanel is the posed a child for the top
of the pyramid in terms of penalties. But yes, we've

(02:48):
got to do a lot more different things, so joining
out our system in terms of drug detection, drug checking,
more border control evening and things like fentany or testing
patches where you can test the drugs you think it's
meth and fettermine you will think it's ecstasy, but you
can detect whether it's vent or in there. But there's

(03:10):
all types of overdose prevention and measures we could use
as well.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
All right, Chris, thank you very much for that. Chris Wilkins,
Massive University Drug researcher with us. For more from Heather
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