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
The drug-testing organisation KnowYourStuffNZ has issued an advisory around potent MDMA pills in circulation this summer. High-dose ecstasy is in circulation ahead of New Year’s Eve, according to KnowYourStuffNZ. Their testing operations have identified the MDMA pills already this season, and says they’re “likely to be found around the country over the holiday period”. According … Read more
The resistance to drug testing from the NZ First spokesperson for law and order could have severe consequences, writes the team at KnowYourStuffNZ. For five years KnowYourStuffNZ has been carrying out drug checking at festivals. In that time, we have helped thousands of festival-goers to make safer and more informed decisions. We help people avoid … Read more
A new ‘bath salt’ mimicking MDMA has been found circulating at the University of Otago re-orientation week. Drug testing by the New Zealand Drug Foundation has revealed a batch of the previously unidentified substance eutylone is currently circulating at the University of Otago’s re-orientation week. Eutylone, first detected by KnowYourStuffNZ in December 2018 (known then … Read more
Drug-testing group Know Your Stuff has warned that tests at five events in New Zealand this summer have found MDMA pills laced with bath salts or N-ethylpentylone, a substance linked to deaths overseas and hospitalisations in New Zealand. This follows Police Minister Stuart Nash this week saying, in the wake of stories around toxic drugs found … 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
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
A freakishly potent opioid has been discovered at a music festival in New Zealand. What is it, and what does its presence in this country mean? What’s all this then? Fentanyl, a drug responsible for thousands upon thousands of overdose deaths in the US and Europe, has been discovered at a festival in New Zealand. … Read more
A surprisingly strong batch of MDMA has arrived on our fair shores. We know people are going to take it, so Wendy Allison, founder of pill testing organisation KnowYourStuffNZ, says we need to make harm reduction easier. Historically, when people have taken “ecstasy” in New Zealand it has not usually been MDMA. It is by … Read more