Fall in meth price trapping users who turn to dealing

The prices of some of the country’s illegal drugs have remained stable, seemingly unaffected by the rising inflation that is forcing up food and fuel costs.

And a couple of drugs measured by police, such as methamphetamine sold by the gram, have actually decreased in price over the past six months.

New drug-price data released by the National Drug Intelligence

Bureau (NDIB) compared the prices of seven illegal drugs between November 2021 and July this year and showed that most stayed relatively stable.

Prices for illegal drugs are generally higher in the South Island and lowest in Auckland.

Cocaine, cannabis, ephedrine, and GHB/GBL all saw stable prices from the beginning to the end of the period.

Police collect the national average data which is reliant on informants and police officers reporting back the information – making the data only as reliable as its sources, giving some drugs a range of prices.

Cocaine, for example, is priced in November 2021 as $400 per gram, while the price for this month is $400-$500 a gram.

Inspector Blair Macdonald, NDIB manager, said that most drug pricing was legacy-based, meaning the $20 tinnie of cannabis, $400 bag of cocaine, or $40 cap of MDMA would always remain a similar price. ‘‘It doesn’t seem to fluctuate regardless of the cost of an aeroplane ticket from the Netherlands

to New Zealand ... the margins are so significant with these drugs that whether you’re making 800% profit or 700% profit it doesn’t seem to move that bottom line.’’

Macdonald said a lower price or higher overheads would likely not mean the drug would be less pure or less available, but he did think there was price movement at the wholesale level.

Methamphetamine sold by the gram, an enterprise which has caused billions of dollars of social harm in New Zealand, has seen a

30% drop from $500/g to $350/g in the past seven months.

Other quantities of meth haven’t changed in price over the period, but a gram, what a user would buy, had the most competition, Macdonald said.

‘‘If I was to pick one drug that was to move around in price the most it would be methamphetamine because of the quantities sold.’’

Macdonald said organised crime has evolved with Covid restrictions and prices were returning to normal. ‘‘The drug prices are steady but they have just been on that gradual decline, but where we are today is very reflective of the market as to where we were back prior to March 2020.’’

Brendon Warne, founder of the Anti-P Ministry, said he was seeing the price of methamphetamine even lower, at $200 a gram in Auckland and Northland. However, the dollar bag, a $100 bag of meth, wasn’t changing in price.

This, he said, was making it easier for users to get caught in the cycle of turning to selling the drug to pay for their addiction.

‘‘That’s the thing at the moment, people are just desperate for clients, there’s so much meth here it’s an epidemic. Next thing they’re getting caught for supplying methamphetamine,’’ he said.

People at ‘‘rock bottom’’ were coming to him for help and he was seeing the violence caused by the drug percolating through society.

Associate professor Chris Wilkins said the ‘‘overwhelming component’’ in drug pricing was risk to the criminal organisations.

‘‘The only reason they are expensive is they’re illegal,’’ Wilkins, the head of Massey University’s drug research team, said.

‘‘. . . people are just desperate for clients, there’s so much meth here it’s an epidemic.’’ Brendon Warne founder of the Anti-P Ministry