Better safe than sorry

Last year, the Global Commission on Drug Policy reported that the international ‘‘war’’ on drugs has been a complete failure. The evidence from around the world is clear – hard-line drug policies don’t reduce the demand or supply of illegal drugs.

Instead, these policies put people taking drugs completely in the dark. Their MDMA (ecstasy) might have five doses in one pill or it might have been padded out with cheaper, more dangerous drugs.

It’s all well and good shrugging our shoulders and saying people shouldn’t do drugs if they don’t want to risk overdosing or being poisoned, but moralising doesn’t change people’s behaviour or keep them safe.

I agree with the commission that we need to move away from prohibition and punishment and reduce the risk of drug users coming to harm. KnowYourStuffNZ is a not-for-profit social enterprise that works in partnership with the NZ Drug Foundation to set up drug-checking tents at festivals and events.

Funded entirely by donations, the KnowYourStuffNZ volunteers use spectrometers to let people check what’s in their drugs before deciding whether to take them. Importantly, after testing, the volunteers talk to people about the risks of taking whatever it is they’ve identified.

They also let event medical staff know what drugs they’ve come across so they have a better chance of dealing with any medical issues that may arise.

This is vital, as KnowYourStuffNZ has found more than 70 types of substances being sold as the main three or four illegal drugs types. According to its latest data, almost two-thirds of people choose not to take their drugs if it turns out they weren’t what they thought they were.

Right now, it’s unclear whether festival organisers could be prosecuted for ‘‘knowingly’’ providing drug-checking at their events. Or they could lose their event insurance – for keeping people safer.

That’s why the Green Party is calling on Parliament to amend the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 so that drug-checking can be made more widely available. With the weather warming up and our summer festival season approaching, I hope Parliament gets behind this initiative and drugchecking becomes the norm.

Almost twothirds of people choose not to take their drugs if it turns out they weren’t what they thought they were.