From 2000 to 2007, the party drug BZP was legal to buy and available from your local dairy. What happened? ‘This is what movies say drugs are like,” says Jim*, remembering how he felt when he took six party pills in one night. He was a musician, student, and regular drug taker – he’d munted … Read more
Anecdotally, it’s difficult to access MDMA in New Zealand at the moment. Statistically, that’s probably because a lot of you are buying it. It’s almost New Year’s, which means it’s almost festival season. Despite Covid-19 creating the absolute year from hell, thousands of holidaymakers will soon be converging on muddy fields from the far north … Read more
Pill testing at New Zealand’s festivals will be legal this summer as the Labour government prepares to rush legislation through parliament. And, as Justin Giovannetti writes, the new law could signal more significant changes next year for the country’s drugs. Most of parliament is supporting Labour’s move to make pill testing legal, taking it out … Read more
LSD was criminalised across the world in the late 1960s, following a moral panic about the effect recreational use was having on young people. After a 40 year hiatus on medical use, LSD is being studied once more. Helen Glenny explains. Mel Elwin, 36, swallowed five large pills and washed them down with water. She … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Auckland drought leads to fears of severe water restrictions, exclusive new poll results on government’s Covid-19 response, and is a resolution coming at Ihumātao? The Auckland water crisis isn’t getting any better, and the city’s leaders are getting extremely nervous about the coming months. That is … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Mixed views on freshwater rules, pay equity settlement for teacher aides, and concerns raised about new internet filtering proposal. The final form of a major package of freshwater reforms was announced yesterday, and it was notable how little anger came from certain quarters. Throughout this process, … Read more
As casual dealers retreat but both demand and prices surge, one surprising consequence of the lockdown could be the hastened professionalisation of the underground cannabis industry. When New Zealand moved to alert level four, most people had no choice about whether to comply with the lockdown. But for New Zealand’s cannabis dealers, who were watching … Read more
Misinformation about adrenochrome and its supposed links to Covid-19 has gone into overdrive. But what is it? We separate the substance’s literary history from its real-world functions. Read more about the bizarre life of the ‘truth about adrenochrome’ story here If you’ve spent much time online lately, like everyone else in lockdown, you’ve probably fallen … Read more
With the 2020 cannabis referendum fast approaching, New Zealanders have a unique opportunity to let the government know what they want from drug reform. It will then be up to our policy makers to decide whether drug reform will focus on changing outcomes for those struggling under historically racist policy. By the time Tricia Walsh … Read more
From unequal conviction rates to a glimmer of light on synthetics, here’s what the Drug Foundation’s State of the Nation report tells us. Reports of raids, drug busts and arrests appear in headlines every day. The next biggest methamphetamine seizure is guaranteed to grab attention. But with all the hype, it’s hard to make out … Read more
Five experts, all from countries with varying levels of cannabis legality, came to Auckland funded by Massey University to speak on the benefits and costs of the drug before New Zealand’s cannabis referendum in 2020. Alice Webb-Liddall reports. While New Zealanders wait for the cannabis referendum in 2020, the government is working hard to draft … Read more
Four festival-goers were admitted to hospital with drug-related issues after Friday’s event at Mt Smart Stadium. A fellow partier shares her experience of the night. As told to Madeleine Chapman. I was hyping up for Schoolboy Q. Figured he’d play some old school tunes, some bangers. Honestly, I didn’t really care much for who was … Read more
Judgement prevents understanding, which in itself is a barrier to preventing unsafe behaviour. Are different approaches to harm reduction in the Rainbow community needed? Sex. Drugs. Carly Rae Jepsen. This is the iconography that tends to be massaged into mainstream conceptions of gay culture. Depictions in TV/film see us railing lines of MDMA and sniffing … Read more
Laura Southgate’s debut novel is a dive back into flatting and uni and that particular weariness that comes from never having enough money or self-esteem. Also featuring a couple of emotionally absent parents and a gross, abusive boyfriend, the book feels grimy and creepy and hungover a lot of the time – but most of … Read more
RNZ’s Guyon Espiner investigates New Zealand’s central drug buyer Pharmac – how it works and whether its model is costing lives. In part one, he reveals how lung cancer patients are buying cut-price drugs from India, as other New Zealanders fundraise, petition and apply for clinical trials to access medications Pharmac won’t fund. Baden Ngan Kee … Read more
The NZ Herald today launched a new, wide-scope documentary into the effect methamphetamine has on small town New Zealand. Alex Braae talks to one of the journalists involved, Jared Savage, about the process of getting it made, and how his views on the meth trade have changed over his decade reporting on it. Perceptions of … Read more
MDMA pills can kill. But most fatalities are a result of a combination of factors, not just the drug itself. Nicole Lee explains MDMA (Methylenedioxymethamphetamine), commonly referred to as ecstasy, was manufactured as a potential pharmaceutical early last century. It had some limited use in the 1970s as a therapeutic aid in trauma treatment and … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: National gets year underway with reshuffle and red meat, judge rules union is allowed to be rude during negotiations, and investigation into CHCH crypto hack. With a reshuffle and a few whiffs of red meat, National has set out a few points where they intend to … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Government pushes in two different directions with drug reforms, nitrogen runoff tool has serious flaws, and finance minister outlines ‘wellbeing’ budget. The government has launched a range of drug reforms, which somehow manage to pull in two completely different directions. In general terms, the differences in law … Read more
The Spinoff partnered with UMR to survey the attitudes of our readers, and the nation as a whole. Today, what do we reckon about drug reform? And what lessons can politicians take from the answers? If you’re reading this right now, there’s a reasonable chance you’re either high, or reckon people should be able to … Read more
Thousands of views were taken in, meetings were held up and down the country, experts were questioned, and it all fed into a massive report on the state of our mental health system. So what does the report say we need to do? Read more about the mental health inquiry with our edited extract from … Read more
With no new classes of antibiotics for decades and resistance to all antimicrobial drugs on the rise, an urgent search is under way to develop innovative new biological alternatives, explains Craig Billington of ESR The growing concern around the world about the emergence of bacterial strains showing resistance to all classes of antibiotics, highlights the … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Health minister plans crackdown on synthetic drugs, new research and development tax credits announced, and Taxpayers Union rumbled for using fake names. Health minister David Clark has announced that he will push for synthetic drugs to be reclassified as Class A, reports Newshub. That would put them on … Read more
The results of more than 400 drug tests from across the festival season are in. Who is eating what? Our essential explainer. What’s all this then? Volunteer drug testing agency KnowYourStuff’s annual results are in, cataloguing 445 substances tested with FTIR spectroscopy and reagents across seven festivals this summer. What’s the skinny? There’s more MDMA … Read more
Serena Benson was the grand winner of the 2017 Surrey Hotel writers residency award in association with the Spinoff. Here she writes about the project she worked on at the Surrey – a chronicle of her drug addiction nightmare. After seven years in recovery, I’ve mustered up the courage to chronicle my journey into addiction … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: US President attacks national drug buying agencies, Iain Lees–Galloway embraces his critics, and Greenpeace under fire for sweary voicemail. New Zealand could end up paying more for medicine after a proposal from US President Donald Trump. This story on Stuff (joint winner website of the year) has … Read more
Earlier this week, a concerned parent shared photos of an NZ Drug Foundation pamphlet that was being used in a high school health class. Controversy, of course, ensued. But what exactly was the pamphlet? And what were the kids doing with it? So, I’ve been hearing about this drug pamphlet telling kids how to do … Read more
Within five years, science will likely have answered a controversial question: can the drug commonly called ecstasy treat psychiatric disorders? Gillinder Bedi from the University of Melbourne writes After some studies showing a positive effect, MDMA-assisted psychotherapy is entering final clinical trials as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). If these trials show positive … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Former health minister Jonathan Coleman quits politics, a hospital is riddled with rot and mould, and letting fees could be banned. National’s Northcote MP and Health spokesman Jonathan Coleman is leaving politics. He’s off to be the CEO of Acurity Health Group, an owner and operator of private … Read more