The police believe gangs are now making twice as much money from dealing methamphetamine as they were a year ago amid what they’re calling a “bizarre” increase in use of the illicit drug.
Recently released data from Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR)’s wastewater testing programme revealed New Zealand’s meth consumption rose from 732kg in 2023 to 1434kg in 2024.
ESR’s senior scientist Andrew Chappell told 1News there was a large spike in the amount of meth being consumed in July and August last year – and the level has remained high ever since.
New Zealand went from consuming between 15 and 20kg of methamphetamine a week to between 30 to 40kgs.
“It was quite alarming, and we were a little bit concerned at first that we might have made some mistakes,” Chappell said, “and so we went through and had a look at all of the lab processes and calculations and everything and made sure that everything we did was fine, but everything checked out.”
Chappell said they hadn’t “changed anything” in the way they carry out their testing.
“The way we measure and extract the samples is exactly the same – we do external quality control checks so we can compare our data with other labs testing the same samples so we can be sure we’re getting the right numbers.”
ESR monitors wastewater at 62 sites across the country and Chappell said the amount of meth being detected rose at nearly all of them.
“So, some sites might have been increasing triple while some were only a 50% increase but generally, across the board, most sites were increasing similarly at the same time.”
Detective Superintendent Greg Williams told 1News that meth consumption doubling in a single month “is just bizarre”.
“You would expect to see them (meth users) in the hospitals, and you would expect to see a whole lot of additional harm and we’re not hearing that,” Williams said.
‘Double the money and double the meth’
But Professor Chris Wilkins, who leads Massey University’s drug research team at the SHORE & Whariki Research Centre, suspects there’s a lag time.
“We’ve yet to see the flow-on social harm that is going to come from this level of consumption like family harm, violence, crime, and drug driving,” Wilkins said.
“So the real bad outcomes from this level of consumption of drugs, we’re yet to see it, but we will see it over the next few months.”
Williams said the police are now trying to understand what’s behind the increase.
“That could be one big shipment of a tonne to two tonnes of meth that’s got into the country, that’s currently being supplied across the country, that’s of pretty average quality. That could explain it – we don’t know,” he said.
“The fact is right now, the gangs are making double the money and double the meth is in the community.”
Williams estimates gangs are making millions every week distributing P.
“Somewhere in the vicinity of $11-$13 million a week in cash. Most of it is cash at the gate coming into them and the big chunk of that is actually in Auckland.”
Seeking solutions
This week, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon set up what he is calling a “sprint team” of three Ministers – Police, Justice and Mental Health – to look for solutions.
On Friday, he told media part of the problem is New Zealand is such a lucrative market for transnational crime groups.
“Drugs in New Zealand are 15 times more expensive than they are in North America so we are now seeing international drug cartels come into the Pacific – including Australia and New Zealand – because the pricing is very attractive,” Luxon said.
“And as a result, that requires us to work really tightly with other countries – particularly through the Pacific – on strengthening our defences and our Customs.”
Luxon said disrupting domestic gangs and providing more support for addicts are also key.
Williams said it’s crucial the Government invests in programmes that build resilience in communities and combat demand for the drug, such as Northland’s methamphetamine harm reduction programme Te Ara Oranga.
“We want to collapse that market, we want to drive demand down and that’s really hard because meth is addictive, but we need a health-based initiative component for those communities as well.”
