Whakawātea te Huarahi - A model drug law to 2020 and beyond

Our model drug law is based on evidence and research from New Zealand and around the world about the best way to reduce the harms caused by both drugs and our current drug laws.

We think New Zealand is ready to have this discussion. It’s time to move the conversation past the question ‘Should we reform?’ to ‘How should we reform?

We know that 64% of us now think the law on cannabis prohibition should be changed, for example. And calls are getting louder by the day for a new approach to methamphetamine in our communities.

New Zealand has some excellent and world-leading harm-reduction approaches in place already, such as our needle exchange programme and Police diversion schemes. We want to build on that. We can also build on our National Drug Policy 2015–2020, which rightly sees drug use as a health issue.

So let’s start making the changes we all want to see. Let’s aim for better health, less crime and better outcomes for rangatahi.

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