The new plan from the government seems to double down on the old ways of attempting to suppress drugs in our communities and ignores the health-led approach from NZ Drug Foundation’s recent evidence-based report.
RNZ recently did a story about the report: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/575403/decriminalising-drug-use-best-way-to-combat-rising-addiction-report-finds
Oh yay, their idea of mental health and addiction support is to take money already allocated to this purpose and spend it in the communities that would benefit the most. Ok but where was this money going before? And why does this government have a habit of announcing spending where the money was already ringfenced to spending on that thing?
Reallocating $30M does seem like weasel piss.
The report doesn’t offer a specific dollar number but if we look at what’s successful overseas and take into account the number of people needing help, NZ would probably need more like $100M/yr to be on par.
It will be an even bigger cost if we wait for it to grow more entrenched in society. New black markets for stolen goods grow and become systemic parts of the problem. When someone knows they can get a hit for a stolen bicycle, it becomes much harder to prevent bike thefts.
I wonder if there is a tracker somewhere for the number of thefts per region over time?
PR and damage control.
Alternatively it’s the government equivalent of Briscoes advertising a sale.