New unknowns prompt Minister’s drug-checking plea to festival-goers this summer

The risk of drugs relatively unknown to New Zealand shores is prompting a ministerial plea for Kiwis to get their recreational drugs checked before consumption this summer.

Health Minister Andrew Little is aiming his message at the thousands who will flock to music festivals in the coming weeks and hopes they will utilise drug-checking services that have been doubled in the past 12 months.

“We saw last summer, one in five samples that were given, had contents in it that the person who provided it didn’t know about,” Little told the Herald.

“We also know from intelligence throughout this year that there are some new elements emerging, some synthetic cannabinoids that we haven’t seen before, so if you just don’t know the person you’re buying from or what you’ve got, get it checked out - it could save you a lot of harm.”

Little’s statistics were pulled from community organisation KnowYourStuffNZ, which found 20 per cent of the substances people submitted for testing last summer contained material that was not consistent with what people thought they had.

KnowYourStuffNZ was now one of four licensed organisations that could perform drug-checking services, in addition to the New Zealand Drug Foundation (NZDF), Needle Exchange Services Trust, and the Institute of Environmental Science and Research.

The Government boosted funding for those services to $4 million across three years, up from $800,000 last year.

According to the NZDF, synthetic cannabinoids were “manufactured chemical substances most often sprayed on to smokable plant material”.

“There are hundreds of different types, making them unpredictable and dangerous.”

In November, Drug Information and Alerts Aotearoa New Zealand reported a “particularly dangerous batch” of synthetic cannabinoids (also known as synthetics or synnies) was likely linked to at least two serious hospitalisations in Christchurch within a 24-hour period.

Health Minister Andrew Little. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Little said he had been informed of three newly-found synthetics that could pose a risk this summer, indicating the value of the drug-checking services.

“What the authorities are always trying to keep track of is what’s circulating in the market because there’s new stuff arriving all the time and some of it’s not particularly good or healthy for you.

“That’s why the importance of drug-checking services, I think, is going to grow because [of] the multitude of different elements that are out there now.”

In June, a police investigation was initiated after 12 people were hospitalised in Wairarapa over 48 hours following powdered fentanyl being sold as methamphetamine or cocaine - the first time the drug was discovered in New Zealand.

Little said it was an optimistic sign fentanyl hadn’t been identified on the street or through wastewater testing since the Wairarapa incident.

“It tells us that obviously, fentanyl has been around somewhere but the indication is that it’s not being pushed on the streets in a way that people have been fearful of.

“It’s not to say that that couldn’t happen or wouldn’t happen but it hasn’t been alerted to me as a problem at this point.”

Little acknowledged the approach differed from more strict messages regarding drug use in the past, but he felt it was necessary.

“Young people experiment with recreational drugs, that’s just a fact of life.

“The next best thing we can do is to do the best we can to keep people safe.”