Northland sees spike in cocaine availability, raising drug harm concerns

All districts recorded above average cocaine use in New Zealand this year.

Northland’s isolated coastline could be contributing to increased cocaine use and availability, researchers say.

Cocaine availability has increased in the region, alongside Auckland, Waikato, Taranaki and the Bay of Plenty.

Professor Chris Wilkins, from Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University’s SHORE and Whāriki Research Centre, believed Northland’s cocaine use could be down to its ideal smuggling environment.

“You might recall a number of cases of very large seizures of meth, the ones on the beach, and that seems to be largely because Northland’s got a very large coastline.”

He said a common technique was to use a freighter that drops drugs off at sea, to be recovered by smaller and faster crafts.

Last week a search was launched for a small boat off the Northland coast believed to be involved with a transnational organised crime group facilitating the importation of 700kg of methamphetamine.

Wilkins said a potential for more cocaine availability would depend on how many cartels are involved in meth trafficking too.

But he said cocaine wouldn’t fully take hold unless there was a regular supply and demand.

A couple of kilos would not sustain the market.

Wilkins said the increase in cocaine availability also came down to an abundance of coca production overseas.

While the rise doesn’t signal an epidemic seen in Northland’s regularly high methamphetamine levels, the foundation remains concerned.

New Zealand Drug Foundation executive director Sarah Helm (Pākehā, Ngāti Tahu) said cocaine sits at the higher end of drug harm.

“It wears off quickly and you want to re-dose, and the re-dosing can take over and turn into addiction.”

She said it was evident there had been a rapid growth of cocaine’s presence and use which could present new problems.

One harm associated with cocaine is that as people form addictions, they change how they take the drug such as injecting it.

That increased the risk of disease, she said.

This is why it was important to ensure clean needles are readily available.

Northland wastewater tests show that cocaine has gone from just under 10mg per day per 1000 people in 2022, to 44mg per day per 1000 people as of June this year.

According to the Wastewater Drug Testing in New Zealand for the second quarter - released in October - all districts countrywide recorded above-average cocaine use when compared with average consumption rates over the previous four quarters.

The wastewater testing programme had undergone expansion in 2023 and particularly impacted Northland’s data.

This was because the number of sites tested in the region increased from one to three.

Cocaine use across all sample sites equates to an estimated weekly social harm cost of $1.5 million.

“I think the main thing as a country is we need to ready ourselves for this, not just sit by and watch it unfold,” Helm said.

New Zealand Drug Foundation executive director Sarah Helm.

She said rhetoric that cocaine could become an even bigger problem was missing the point.

“I’m worried we’re actually seeing it becoming a bigger problem in New Zealand [now].”

“We can’t just keep thinking it might happen - I think it is happening.”

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime had warned smaller countries of increased international cocaine supply years prior, she said.

“Cocaine is a substance that New Zealand has not had a lot of experience with.”

Wilkins was interested to see whether demand increased over the next year especially if people had grown tired of meth and turned to cocaine.

Coastal areas in the United States were more likely to be dominated by cocaine - as seen in the latest study in New Zealand, he said.

Methamphetamine use and availability increase as you move further inland.

“Meth you can produce locally, out of your garden shed,” Wilkins said.

Brodie Stone is an education and general news reporter at the Advocate. Brodie has spent most of her life in Whangārei and is passionate about delving into issues that matter to Northlanders and beyond.