Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of social harm was prevented by 2021's seizures. Photo / Mike Scott
Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of social harm was prevented by 2021's seizures. Photo / Mike Scott
About $900 million of personal and social harm from drugs was prevented in 2021 thanks to police and customs confiscations.
Thousands of kilograms, litres and tablets of illicit substances were seized by the two agencies in the calendar year, according to figures released under the Official Information Act.
The data, confined to the top five drugs - methamphetamine, cannabis, MDMA, fantasy-type substances and cocaine - shows about $340m worth of drugs were kept off the streets.
Director of the National Organised Crime Group, Detective Superintendent Greg Williams, said the Drug Harm Index showed meth caused by far the most harm to individuals and the community.
“A lot of those people we find are using it are actually our most vulnerable,” Williams said.
“The gangs have worked out they can addict those people.
“A lot of people don’t understand that actually what meth gives the gangs is power and control over those communities through addiction ... it’s quite frightening when you go into those small communities, to see what’s happening there.”
The index calculates the harm from meth as being about $1.1m per kilogram - or $848m for the 771kg of meth seized in 2021.
“We use that Drug Harm Index for that, it takes into account personal harm and social harm ... including death. It also takes a whole raft of enforcements, imprisonments, health costs, that all come into that.”
Police also assessed wastewater data to find out how much of each type of drug was actually being consumed in the community.
“Our view is that the wastewater [data is] reasonably accurate,” Williams said.
It showed in 2020 the consumption of meth increased during the first Covid lockdown.
“People rushed out and got their meth, thinking the world was ending.”
There was another spike in meth use during the Auckland lockdown, he said.
A large part of the social harm of meth related to how it drove crime. A recent police study showed a cohort of 28,000 people with at least one meth conviction committd 5.4 times more criminal offences than a comparison group with no meth convictions.
The meth group members were also 1.7 times more likely to be a victim, and were observed to commit more crime for a longer period.
Williams also noted hospital emergency departments had about 16 per cent of their patients coming in drunk, and 1-2 per cent coming in high on meth, but found the meth patients created more issues for staff and were harder to manage.
MDMA was also a commonly used drug in New Zealand, though the amounts being seized were decreasing, with 628,268 tablet equivalents in 2021 compared to 2,316,107 in 2019. The figure was still an increase though on 2017, when 139,371 were seized.
Detective Superintendent Greg Williams, of the National Organised Crime Group, said the Drug Harm Index helped police assess the damage drugs do personally and in the community. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Williams said police had seen a drop in MDMA usage which could be put down to supply chain disruptions, labs pivoting to meth consumption, or simply the fact people weren’t actually consuming MDMA even though they thought they were.
Massey University drug researcher Chris Wilkins said even though there was a dip in 2021 for MDMA seizures, it had still risen 350 per cent compared to 2017.
He said the increase could be influenced by the dark web or social media.
Wilkins said the increase in seizures of fantasy-type substances, from 153 litres in 2017 to 1006 litres in 2021, was “concerning”.
“That’s a particularly kind of concerning drug because it’s often associated with sexual assault and incapacitating people.”
Meth seizures had also increased over the past five years.
“Meth has been a problem for a number of decades. It particularly affects regional areas, small towns, rural areas.
“Because it’s such a potent stimulant it tends to get people outdoors, driving.”
It also generated more gang conflicts, he said.
He and Williams both noted not all of the drugs seized were destined for New Zealand, with Auckland being treated as a “transit” location to move drugs on to Australia where the market was bigger.
Williams said the seized drugs were evidentially sampled and sent to secure destruction facilities where they were burned and destroyed.
