[ad_1]
Thought Catalog/Unsplash
The cost of living has touched essentially every product possible – so why are cannabis and meth the execeptions?
Newsable is brought to you by BNZ.
A new report from Massey University has found the price of both cannabis and methamphetamine has dropped over the last five years.
According to the 2022/23 Drug Trends Survey, the average price for an ounce of cannabis is down $30 from 2017/18, to $336.
A gram of meth is now $406 – down from $563.
The online survey was completed by more than 13,000 New Zealanders around the country, between August last year and February 2023.
The research team’s leader, Chris Wilkins, speaks with Newsable this morning about the findings.
Below is an edited transcript of the interview, which you can listen to in full here.
What is behind the price drop? Is there increased supply and demand at play, or simply fewer people trying to get their hands on meth or cannabis?
In the case of cannabis, probably not a lot has changed in terms of levels of cultivation and how much has been cultivated, but our hypothesis for the slight decline in price is there’s slightly less enforcement pressure.
We’ve got a medicinal cannabis scheme [and] people in possession of small amounts [of cannabis] don’t ordinarily get arrested. That has reduced, essentially, the risk of growing and selling cannabis slightly. For illegal drugs, including meth, the main component of price is the risk of being caught and imprisoned.
With meth [pricing], it’s a slightly different story. There’s been this massive increase in synthetic amphetamines production all through the Asian region but also in the Americas and the Middle East as well. And there’s been an oversupply of meth and New Zealand’s been swamped by that, and that is why the price has been declining.
Did your research reveal anything about levels of drug use?
There’s a lot of evidence from our survey that was consistent with wastewater testing.
[For example] with ecstasy, we found the market’s been disrupted a little bit – wastewater testing found lower levels of ecstasy.
And the same with cocaine – we found greater use and availability in the urban centres and [wastewater testing] also found spikes in cocaine use.
What should we be doing more of in the meth space? You mentioned we’ve got a massive supply of it and that prices are going down – it doesn’t feel like we’ve got a handle on it?
What I think has been neglected is [the] demand side. Demand side change is the best outcome – not supply side. If you limit supply the price goes up, you get crime, you get more competition, and more incentive to bring in supply, right?
[But] demand side is actually the best outcome. [If] you manage to convince people not to use the drug, or people with addiction get treatment, then there’s no demand.
It means treatment on demand, having really low intensity treatment where people can access it in an easy way in all locations – including rural and small towns. It’s also drug prevention, and a little bit of drug education.
Imogen Wells and Emile Donovan will cover what’s worth talking about in the Newsable podcast, out at 6am each weekday morning.
Newsable is Stuff’s daily news podcast, wrapping up what’s worth talking about in a short package every weekday morning. You can find new episodes and more detail on our stories here or in our newsletter. Make sure to like and follow us wherever you get your podcasts and across Instagram and TikTok.
[ad_2]