Ecstasy market expands according to drug report
Ecstasy market expands according to drug report
The use and availability of ecstasy in New Zealand
continues to increase, though the spread of the drug is more
ethnically diverse according to a report compiled by
researchers examining recent trends in illegal drug use over
the past five years.
The 2010 Illicit Drug Monitoring
System (IDMS) report, prepared by researchers at the SHORE
and Whariki Research Centre which is part of Massey
University’s School of Public Health, also showed some
evidence of a drop in methamphetamine use as well as a
continued decline in BZP (formerly the active ingredient in
party pills) since its ban in 2008.
Lead researcher Dr
Chris Wilkins says 411 frequent illegal drug users from
Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch were asked late last
year about recent trends in the use, availability, price and
potency of a number of key illegal drug types and about any
new drugs they had come across in the previous six
months.
He identified a drop in the number of European
New Zealanders using ecstasy, with the proportion of this
ethnic group using the illegal drug falling from 96 per cent
in 1996 to 78 per cent last year. The drug’s price per
pill was also down falling in the 12 months to last December
from $55 to $47. Its easier availability in Auckland was
reflected in a price fall from $50 to $41 over the same
period while its price held at $55 in the other two main
centres.
Dr Wilkins also detected a fall in the use of
crystal methamphetamine (also known as ice) by frequent
users speculating that its decline in usage from 64 per cent
in 2007 to 23 per cent last year may be attributable to
increased border security impacting on supply.
This
trend was also reflected in a decline in methamphetamine use
by ecstasy users from 23 per cent in 2007 to 8 per cent last
year.
“The decrease in methamphetamine use among
frequent ecstasy users may reflect the decline in the
reputation of methamphetamine as an acceptable recreational
drug among this group due to methamphetamine’s strong
association with drug addiction, mental illness and high
levels of drug related harm.”
Dr Wilkins says there
appeared to have been little improvement in the levels of
users driving under the influence of drugs other than
alcohol, with 88 per cent of methamphetamine users, 86 per
cent of those frequently injecting themselves with drugs and
53 per cent of frequent ecstasy users admitting to such
driving behaviour.
The synthetic cannabis Kronic,
which was banned last month after an amendment to the Misuse
of Drugs Act, was among the newer drugs most commonly used
by respondents to the
report.
ends