Kiwis are forking out big bucks for illicit drugs - cocaine, MDMA and LSD

Wednesday, 15 May 2019

Synthetic drugs use is contributing to significant mental health problems, crime and even death across New Zealand. (Video first published in November 2018)

Kiwis are still forking out top dollar for illegal drugs - paying the most out of any country in the world.

New Zealand was ranked as the most expensive country to buy cocaine, MDMA and LSD in the 2019 Global Drug Survey.

Kiwis are paying a whopping €220 (NZ$375) for a single gram of cocaine - almost four times the amount Americans pay, the survey found.

The annual survey results, which highlight drug habits around the world, were released on Thursday. Stuff is the GDS media partner in New Zealand.

Kiwis are still paying through the roof for cocaine. (File photo)

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The GDS authors said that people spend more per gram on cocaine than any other drug. In the United States, the median price paid per gram is €56.20. The global average is €80 per gram.

However, compared to other countries New Zealanders don't seem keen to use less of the drug. New Zealand and Finland were ranked as the bottom two countries where people said they wanted to use less cocaine - 22 per cent and 20.4 per cent.

Nearly half the Kiwis who took part in the 2019 GDS said they used MDMA before. (File photo)

Italians and Canadians reported were the top two groups who said they wanted to used less cocaine - 64.6 per cent and 60.6 per cent.

The survey found that Kiwis also paid the most for MDMA - €189 per gram and for LSD - €38 per gram tab.

It's not the first time New Zealanders have been found to be paying top dollar for illicit drugs. The 2018 GDS showed similar results.

However, in the past year, Kiwis have gone from paying the fourth-highest to the highest price to LSD.

The GDS found that the price of LSD had doubled in past 12 months. The global mean price per tab was €8.14.

Of the Kiwis who took part in the 2019 GDS survey, 37.6 per cent said they had used LSD before. Just over 28 per cent of people said they'd used cocaine, and 45.5 per cent of Kiwis said they used MDMA.

While nearly 32 per cent of Kiwis also said they'd used magic mushrooms before.

New Zealand Drug Foundation executive director Ross Bell said that one of the main reasons drugs were expensive here was because New Zealand was so far away, he said.

'There's a good thing about the fact that our drugs are expensive because that high price helps mitigate a whole lot of people using it, particularly young people using it.'

However a consequence of drugs being so expensive here has led to people making their own 'homebake', or move towards cheaper, more easily accessible synthetic drugs, Bell said.

In the past couple of years 'we've been really challenged by some of the synthetic cannabinoid products' in New Zealand, that have resulted in deaths.

However recent customs data showed that they're seizing less of those compounds, and DHBs were also beginning to report a reduction in problems from those drugs 'so that's a good thing', Bell said.

But he said the environment in which people take synthetic drugs had not changed. In the past, homeless people had reported using synthetic drugs to 'help them forget the fact that they're really cold' in winter, he said.

As winter approached Bell said it could well be that these problems could surface again. 'So I'm still really nervous,' he said.

WHERE TO GET HELP FOR ALCOHOL PROBLEMS

Alcohol Drug Helpline - 0800 787 797

Alcoholics Anonymous - 0800 229 6757

Alcohol Anonymous family group - 0508 425 2666

Gambling Helpline - 0800 654 655 or text 8006.

If it is an emergency or you, or someone you know, is at risk call 111.