Sarah Helm: New Zealand Drug Foundation Executive Director on preventable overdoses in New Zealand

Almost three New Zealanders die from preventable drug overdoses every week. 

That is twice the number of people that die from drowning. 

New Zealand Drug Foundation Executive Director Sarah Helm said that the number of overdoses highlights New Zealand's shortcomings on tackling substance abuse.

'We're losing so many New Zealanders to preventable overdose, and we have very little little in place to prevent overdoses'

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks EDB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
So almost three New Zealanders die from preventable drug overdoses
every week the context, that is twice the number of
people that die from drowning. These figures have been released
in a New Zealand Drug Foundation report this morning, and
the report shows concerning increases and overdoses from the likes
of mes and cocaine. Joining me now is New Zealand
Rug Foundation Executive Director Sarah Holme. Thanks for your time

(00:34):
this morning, Sarah, Good morning.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
What kind of increases are we seeing?

Speaker 3 (00:40):
Yeah, really a concerning increase among those stimulant fatalities, as
you've just said, so we've seen essentially a doublung and
the number of stimulant related fatalities in the last couple
of years. That lines up, unfortunately, with the increase in
consumption we've had of drugs like meth and fetter meal

(01:02):
and cocaine, and yeah, really troubling.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Why we're consuming more drugs.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
Well, that's it's a long story, I think, but essentially
we have no control over what comes into the country,
aside from policing and border seizures. The prices come down
over the last five years offmphetamine in particular, perhaps the
more sophisticated sales technic techniques in the illicit crime market,

(01:32):
compounded by some social and economic struggles for people.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Were you surprised to buy the figures and that there's
an increase in harm or an overdose or were you
expecting that?

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Yeah, in a way, no, completely expected, But in another way,
of course, it is alarming and surprising because we just
don't want to see it. So it's a very concerning
overall picture that we're losing so many New Zealanders to
preventable overdose, and we have very little, little place to

(02:07):
prevent overdose in New Zealand, so we can to ramp
up some measures.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
I mentioned in the introduction the comparison to drowning, because
we hear a lot about drowning, Sarah, but we don't
seem to hear a lot about overdoses. That's a large figure.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
Yeah, I know. I was taking a local walk actually
and admiring our new surf club that's being built. And
I'm very proud of our local surf club and all
of the interventions, but there is so little put in
place for overdose prevention, and these people's lives really matter
as well. You know, we know people who have lost

(02:44):
their kids to prevent below overdose, and to see so
little put into preventing their deaths just is really not
how I think New Zealanders want to be. I don't
think we want to end up like America, like North America,
where there have been you know, hundreds of thousands of

(03:07):
overdose fatalities. We really need to put some measures in place.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
So what do we need to do, Sarah.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
Yeah, so we're calling for I mean, we don't really
even have an overdose plan in New Zealand at all.
There has been some work under way on one, but
we would really like to see a comprehensive overdose prevention plan.
We've actually drafted one, we're really happy for the government
to borrow from it. We also need to see one
of the reasons that people you can imagine you might

(03:35):
get criminalized so you delay calling or you don't call
it all for help. Imagine that's your kids and their
friends aren't for help. We want to see a good
samarit and provision put in place that would prevent criminalization
for things like use or possession so that people call.

(03:59):
And we do think there have been some positive impacts
of measures that have been put in place recently, because
we've seen it small decline and opuoid fatalities, the increased
availabilability of the lozone, even though we need more of that,
an increased awareness we think may have made a positive
impact so it is possible to prevent these deaths.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
Sarah, You know, I think we've all heard of coke
and meath and things, but there's also a note about
the report also highlights deaths from some other novel substances
which I'm not familiar with. Can you tell us a
little bit about those?

Speaker 3 (04:37):
Yeah, we have. You know, I think in a sense
people might have got the impression from reports on drug
checking and new substances that are causing fatilities or of concern.
We have had a really alarming increase in the last
five years or so of new psychoactive substances globally. This

(05:00):
is true. Domestically, this is true, and one of the
very concerning substances that have shown up for the first
time in this report is a group of opioids called nitazines.
They're more potent and ventanyl. We have known that these
were in the community and that we'd experienced debts, but
this is the first time that we've been able to

(05:21):
confirm it in this report.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
Where are they coming from?

Speaker 3 (05:26):
Do we know largely from the Americas? But yeah, these
new psychoactive substances, so knitazines in particular might be coming
from the Americas, but new psychoactive substances are coming from
all of our traditional drug supply roots.

Speaker 2 (05:44):
Overdosing, What is causing it? Is it too much of
a drug or is it more mixing drugs? Is it
mixing drugs with alcohol? Do we have much information on that?

Speaker 3 (05:53):
Yeah, really really good question. It is caused by both,
really so very commonly an overdose the person has more
than one thing in their body. The other things in
their body could be medication, could be alcohol, could just
be multiple things that somebody has been offered in a night,

(06:14):
for example, the more things you have putting pressure on
your body, the more likely it is to start to
shut down, particularly two depressants, and remembering that alcohol medications
like benzodazepenes day as a PAM, etcetera. Depressants.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
Sir Helm, thanks so much for talking us through that
this morning. Very much appreciated.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to news talks there'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio