However, a man, 68, has been charged with possessing cocaine for supply and possession of methamphetamine. He will appear in the Masterton District Court on February 13.
National Drug Intelligence Bureau intelligence fusion manager Julia Smith told the Herald indicators monitored by the agency suggest fentanyl misuse in New Zealand continues to be low.
Smith said there had been just three seizures of fentanyl since 2021, and two detections of the drug above the reporting threshold since January that year, which may be attributed to legitimate prescriptions.
Four deaths were reported as a result of drug overdose where fentanyl was recorded as contributing to or the cause of death in 2021.
“Overseas, high levels of prescribing, or the overprescribing of fentanyl, has been a gateway to opioid misuse, consequently increasing demand in the illicit market,” Smith said. “Medsafe ensures New Zealand maintains best practice prescribing for fentanyl. This is vital to minimise diversion and the risk of expanding illicit demand through prescription drug abuse.”
Wellington Free Ambulance was approached for comment about the Masterton overdoses, however a spokesperson said the organisation was unable to provide specific details to protect patient privacy.
Last year the agency’s medical director Andy Swain told Today FM it all started with a standard callout for a patient who had collapsed, but on arrival another person who was standing there also fell over.
“It’s the type of situation that you might encounter, for example, in exposure to a noxious substance or chemical, where people are overcome by that particular chemical, and then one by one they collapse,” he told the station.
Wairarapa hospital and specialist services interim director Kieran McCann said unlike other opiates, fentanyl works almost immediately, so the user has no time to “rescue” themselves if they overdose.
“If this occurs, they will become unconscious, stop breathing and, unless rescue breathing or CPR is started within four minutes, die.
“While the effects can be reversed by a drug called Naloxone, it must be administered quickly and because recreational users often take large doses of Fentanyl, large doses of Naloxone are needed to counter the effects, which may be more than what an ambulance carries.”
New Zealand, he said, does not have a very large opiate user group, and demand is not high – as stimulant drugs like cocaine are preferred here.
McCann warned drug users should also be aware of “scams” and question the likelihood of “cocaine being available in Carterton”.
Data in a report from the NZ Drug Foundation released last year showed 171 people died from an overdose in 2021, up from 111 in 2017.
Overdoses over the five-year period rose 54 per cent across New Zealand - an increase not accounted for by a 6 per cent increase in population in that time.
The report had opioid overdoses as clearly the top killer at 333 deaths since 2017.
Last year a New Zealand Customs manager confirmed to the Herald two batches of synthetic opioids discovered in “more than” fatal concentrations a few months apart had crossed the border in unlinked drug smuggling efforts.
At the time Customs manager of intelligence Bruce Berry told the Herald he believed the drug responsible for the Wairarapa overdoses was imported and had already been cut somewhere in the supply chain.
“Whether that was in Europe, whether that was in the Americas, whether that was central southern America, we don’t know. We have not been able to trace that particular consignment to any particular individual or instance.”
Berry said Customs set up an immediate screening of illicit drug compounds being identified at the border after the incident.
