Non-medical and illicit use of psychoactive drugs

Wilkins, Chris, Prasad, Jitesh, Parker, Karl, Rychert, Marta, Barnes, Helen Moewaka, Chris Wilkins, Jitesh Prasad, Karl Parker, Marta Rychert, Helen Moewaka Barnes

New Zealand has unusual patterns of recreational substance use by international standards including low levels of cocaine and heroin use, and high methamphetamine use. This paper examines recent trends in alcohol and other drug use among police detainees in New Zealand over the past six years. The paper utilises data from the New Zealand Arrestee Drug Use Monitoring (NZ-ADUM) study. NZ-ADUM interviewed approximately 800 police detainees each year at four central city police watch houses (i.e. Whangarei, Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch) from 2010 to 2015. The proportion of police detainees who had used methamphetamine in the previous year increased from 28% in 2012 to 36% in 2015. Drinking prior to arrest declined from 41% in 2013 to 28% in 2015. The use of cannabis in the past year declined slightly from 76% in 2011 to 69% in 2015. The proportion using ecstasy in the previous year steadily declined from 28% in 2011 to 19% in 2015. Only small minorities had recently used cocaine or an opioid. Use of methamphetamine and ecstasy increased in Christchurch. Growing methamphetamine use is consistent with record seizures of methamphetamine over the past 2-3 years. Increasing drug use in Christchurch may reflect factors related to the devastating earthquakes in 2011 and the subsequent city rebuild, including an influx of construction workers, more organised trafficking groups and earthquake-related stress. The decline in cannabis use may be related to the emergence of 'legal' synthetic cannabinoids. The decline in ecstasy use may be the result of recent domestic enforcement operations and the overall global shortage of MDMA. The decline in alcohol drinking may be due to the introduction of pre-charge formal warnings for minor alcohol and disorder offences, and new restrictions on alcohol premise opening hours. Acknowledgements: The New Zealand Drug Use Monitoring (NZ-ADUM) research study is funded by the New Zealand Police and is conducted by SHORE and Whariki Research Centre, College of Health at Massey University, Auckland. We would like to thank New Zealand Police staff at Whangarei, Auckland Central, Wellington Central and Christchurch Central police watch houses for their assistance and cooperation with this research. We would also like to thank all the interviewers who worked with us on NZ-ADUM and all the police detainees who agreed to be interviewed for the study. The views expressed in this paper are entirely our own and do not necessarily reflect those of New Zealand Police.