The change in Aotearoa's drug enforcement strategy could be behind the decline in the price of cannabis and new research shows it's not the only drug that's becoming cheaper.
The New Zealand Drug Trends Survey has revealed methamphetamine and cannabis are among the illicit drugs that have become more cheaper and readily available over the past four years.
The survey's key findings show the price of cannabis dropped by $35 an ounce, going from $368 in 2017 to $336 this year. While the price for a gram of methamphetamine dropped by $157, from $563 per gram to $406 per gram over the past four years.
The survey also found Kiwis are finding it harder to source ecstasy, while cocaine use had increased in urban centres.
Ecstasy has climbed in price between 2020 and 2023, and become more difficult to source.
Drugs research team leader and Massey University Associate Professor Chris Wilkins told AM the COVID-19 lockdowns "significantly affected" the production, size and supply of the drug to New Zealand.
The "sea change" in drug enforcement strategy could be behind the decline in the price of cannabis, Prof Wilkins said.
"They're (police) no longer focusing on cultivation, particularly small-scale cultivation. And of course, we've had the change in the Misuse of Drugs Act, so they're not arresting small-scale possession charges."
Prof Wilkins said the survey saw a "stark increase" in the availability of cannabis, which could be because of medicinal cannabis.
He said while the survey asked a separate question surrounding legal cannabis, there would be some overlap in the legal and illegal market of cannabis in the results.
"There's been a little bit of an attitude change, and I think cannabis is slightly more socially acceptable given the referendum and the referendum debate and the implementation of the medicinal cannabis."
Prof Wilkins believes it's "actually quite a good thing" that police have shifted their focus from cannabis to methamphetamine because the problem they face is the massive of production of meth overseas.
"Throughout the whole Asian global region, there's methamphetamine manufacture and it's really now on a really industrial scale," Prof Wilkins said.
"I've seen photos of actual factories producing methamphetamine in some regions in Asia. So that is really swamping the police and enforcement effort in New Zealand and that price is declining."
Prof Wilkins said while police continue to make "significant seizures" of methamphetamine, they are still being "swamped by the sheer amount of methamphetamine that's coming out of Asia".
He said while officials are doing "a lot" to disrupt the supply of methamphetamine, there are other areas we need to be focusing on too.
"Like demand reduction, prevention, treatment, better access to treatment and getting communities involved in terms of low-intensity treatments, so they can easily get into treatment."
Prof Wilkins told AM's Ryan Bridge that demand reduction has been "ignored" and "underfunded for a long time" and believes there is more we could do.
"We could get a lot more out of our money by putting it into that area."
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