New Zealand has the highest rate of crystal meth use in the world
Here’s something you won’t see mentioned in any international lifestyle survey used to promote New Zealand as an excellent place to live and work in.
We’ve all seen those surveys. You know the ones, used by immigration/migrant services organisations, keen to attract you and your dollars to New Zealand. The surveys that Kiwis with easily-managed egos hold up as evidence of how great (and therefore by association so are they) their country is.
You’ve also probably hear the phrase “100% pure NZ” without realising that it applies to the quality of its crystal meth. Kiwis pride themselves on their innovation and home cooking skills. Sadly, this enthusiasm rarely makes it into to the workplace (or into schools – see the further down this page to see why).
Prime Minister of New Zealand says the government is still hearing from employers struggling to find workers because too many New Zealanders are failing drug tests, and this is the reason why inward migration is needed in real middle earth
Last year the prime minister at the time, John Key, said he continually heard from employers frustrated with New Zealanders’ work ethic and drug problems.
Mr English said he heard the same thing about two to three times a week. “One of the hurdles these days is just passing the drug test … Under workplace safety, you can’t have people on your premises under the influence of drugs and a lot of our younger people can’t pass that test.”
“People telling me they open for applications, they get people turning up and it’s hard to get someone to be able to pass the test – it’s just one example.
“So look if you get around the stories, you’ll hear lots of stories – some good, some not so good – about Kiwis’ willingness and ability to do the jobs that are available.”
Mr English said the government could not do much to address this particular problem.
“Particularly if these are younger people who are in every other respect capable of finding a job.” read the full report here at RadioNZ
Last September John Key said immigrant workers were needed due to New Zealanders’ poor work ethic and drug use:
Speaking on Morning Report today, Mr Key admitted high immigration was putting a strain on the country’s infrastructure, but the government would continue to bring in large numbers to fill jobs.
He said this was partly because many employers could not get New Zealanders to work due to problems with drugs or work ethic.
“We bring in people to pick fruit under the RSE (Recognised Seasonal Employer) scheme, and they come from the islands, and they do a fabulous job. And the government has been saying ‘well, OK, there are some unemployed people who live in the Hawke’s Bay, and so why can’t we get them to pick fruit’, and we have been trialling a domestic RSE scheme.
“But go and ask the employers, and they will say some of these people won’t pass a drug test, some of these people won’t turn up for work, some of these people will claim they have health issues later on. So it’s not to say there aren’t great people who transition from Work and Income to work, they do, but it’s equally true that they’re also living in the wrong place, or they just can’t muster what is required to actually work.” source
Sound like a great place to raise a family, what sort of future would you be exposing your children to in New Zealand where the drug use is so high?
What pressure will you be under to perform, when so many of your workmates can’t (or won’t) work productively, yet somehow manage to get promoted over you?
What risks are you taking as a tourist when so many adventure tourism fatalities involve drug use among the operators?
“Making meth: how New Zealand’s knack for ‘P’ turned into a homebaked disaster“
“Geographic isolation helped shield New Zealand from hard drug trafficking for years – but a strong DIY culture and the advent of easily hidden, highly mobile methamphetamine labs are having serious consequences” says a report in The Guardian.
A record hall of methampetamine in the village of Ahipara (worth half a billion dollars on the street) seized in June 2016,
“made headlines and focused the country’s attention on its insidious problem with a drug that is easy to make at home and cheaper than marijuana to buy. Methamphetamine – often referred to as “the poor man’s cocaine” – has become the class A drug of choice for Kiwis.
Local Peter Furze told reporters
“P is a huge problem here. There are so many desolate places you can cook it, so many places to hide away.”
The ‘Kiwi ingenuity’ and work ethic that is missing from the workplace seems to have been directed in a more profitable, and destructive, direction:
New Zealand’s DIY drug culture
New Zealand is 10,000km (6,000 miles) from Bangkok, 18,000km from Amsterdam and surrounded by sea. Hard drugs rarely make it into the country – and when they do prices are high and quality is low.
But the advent of pop-up, easily transportable labs (some that fit inside a suitcase) have made P a booming nationwide business. From holiday homes in Wanaka, to milking sheds in the Waikato, many Kiwis have turned their hand to DIY meth manufacture.
“I think because Kiwis are so innovative in so many good ways, that can lead to us being innovative in bad ways as well,” says Anita Meyer, a former P cook from Auckland.
“We definitely punch above our weight in what we manage to do in a fairly restricted drug scene.”
Ross Bell, executive director of the New Zealand Drug Foundation, believes New Zealanders have proven themselves to be skilled drug manufacturers over many decades – a talent born out of distance and necessity, and honed through years of trial and error.
“We are very good at covertly growing cannabis, we are very good at cooking P … this all links back to New Zealand’s do-it-yourself drug culture,” says Bell.
“Labs blow up, labs get busted, but they always re-emerge. The rise of recreational drug use in New Zealand is quite unique and deeply founded in our geographic isolation.” read on
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Isn’t it interesting to see how New Zealand rates on indexes that aren’t complied from official government data.
Read this Stuff article about substance abuse in New Zealand’s middle classes, it doesn’t fit well with New Zealand recently topping the Social Progress Index despite never being ranked in it before. It raises questions as to why the country’s more comfortable classes feel the need to self medicate to such an extent…read on
E2NZ.org 
I don’t think that the claim John Key made about Kiwis not having a good work ethic/ addiction to drugs is true at all. Bad generalisation. Jobs are not easy to come by, and when there are jobs advertised, there are many people who apply for each job. At the moment, new immigrants are not necessary to fill jobs when many people in the country are unemployed. Yes, high immigration IS putting a strain on the country’s infrastructure.
And next week Bill English will raise the elegibility age for retirement to 67 years old ,this is what they do.
Awesome. Let’s also not forget in an insecure, socially awkward/backwards country such as this one where people are too afraid or find to it hard to have any sort of personality, people here are then almost automatically forced to turn to drugs and alcohol as it’s only way they know how to open up and be themselves. Just go to any party in New Zealand and I guarantee you that guy there that’s most affable, most friendly, most fun is guy who’s on most drugs or has drunk most alcohol. It shouldn’t be like that, people shouldn’t feel they need to be on something to be able socialise with someone but they are. That’s what they’re really like here. I have known so many people who can’t go a day without being on something, who need to do drugs just get through stress of work, who can’t even go on something as simple as a date without being drunk off their face first because just the thought of having talk to someone of opposite sex or someone that you like is just too much for them. Emotions are problem for them because they’re usually too poorly educated or taught to understand them or know how to deal with them. These are sick people but it’s a sick country so being high on E or P here, it’s just part of the culture. It’s what you do here to get yourself through it. How else do you expect people who are totally empty to act ? Drugs and alcohol are only two things they have left to go on … :-S
There has never been a country in known memory who gives their people so little stability ,they change the laws and rules on a sneeze ,you may have to be 70 years old before receiving a superannuation,or let’s say pension fund which you paid into all your life after receiving a %100 % guarantee that the age would never change from John Key ,his new henchman blinglish I think his name may be Bill English anyway he’s about to fuck over every N.Zer who has paid into this fund for their entire lives believing their retirement was ensiured hahaha well he’s going to fuck over the retired people or soon to be because that’s the N.Z way,that must feel very nice for the people who trusted the corrupt government to pay them what they were due,I got an Idea for you folks ,get together and find some people to import drugs and cigarettes ,that’s what everyone else is doing to survive
The boring and unenlightened nature of life here surely contributes to drug use. In his 1960 seminal work ‘The Fern and the Tiki’ – David P. Ausubel of the University of Illinois put kiwis’ excessive drinking down to ‘boredom’. Now it appears in the 21th century we have just moved onto a more convenient and powerful substitute – methamphetamine.
If you have shunned education, despise work, have never heard of the words ‘career’ and ‘personal betterment’, and have grown tired of the rain, wind, and overrated scenery then what other options do you really have in China’s Dairyland?
In all seriousness – there is a problem here – a real problem which NEEDS addressed.
The whole NZ obsession with cannabis especially is frightening and tiresome. Read Stuff today about the proven genetic damage caused by cannabis to unborn children. The comments by Bill English are anecdotal but the information from federated Farmers and horticulture employers backs this up. Cannabis is touted as some wonder ‘medicinal’ compound and it is not. Search Cochrane Collaboration and you will find the supporting evidence for cannabis medically is sketchy at best.
Does cannabis have a place in health? Very definitely as statistically cannabis is 15 times more potent than tobacco in causing circulatory disease such as strokes and heart attacks and that is over and above the 10 times higher risk of lung cancer compared to tobacco. It sure does affect cancer – it causes it.
Mental health issues with cannabis use are well documented.
Cannabis adversely affects ability to judge distances and has a large part to play in NZ’s internationally disgraceful road crash and fatality rates.
Drug testing – it is needed and it is needed somewhere it does not happen.
MPs and senior government officials make decisions affecting our lives, our safety, our security and our finances. Random testing of MPs and staff as well as senior officials should be compulsory and a positive random test [where the abuser has not pre-declared a problem and having treatment] should lead to immediate dismissal and loss of all MP perks including taxpayer funded super. Alcohol should be included and all alcohol sales in parliament should cease, as should free booze. This is a place of work, not a club.
Most methamphetamine use in N.Z is by people 16 to 33 years old ,National government has been in power for 9 years ,these users were kids when John Key took over ,he has allowed the problem to go unaddressed ,for him to throw his hands in the air and shake his head is ridiculous ,his administration need to own this problem .
Some of our drug problems possibly stem from the historic government intervention in N.Z citizens lives or put another way ,the nanny state.there is a real lack of personal accountability in N.Z,many people seem to see themselves as victims of the system .The system is failing and the governments privatisation of everything and user pays for everything has left very few pathways out of poverty for our people.The reluctance to provide any kind of state funded education ends up costing the taxpayers millions if not billions in crime and unemployment related issues and their solution is to import more migrants who will struggle to find affordable housing and rewarding employment.
I know this is irrelevant, but I thought this interview may be of interest to your readers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4BLCu9xvRA – The author of In the jaws of the dragon: How China is taking over NZ by Ron Asher. In the interview, he outlines treason of NZ politicians who have sold out NZ to the Chinese.
I’m sure there is a lot of truth in this although it was interesting that he hardly mentioned Judith Collins a vermin who would sell her own family into slavery.
Yesterday someone came on my semi rural property while I was at work,they stole an old copper water tank which had been used as a planter for flowers,somewhat tacky some may say,lol,anyway rather than call the police I went to one of the two local metal scrap yards in town,I didn’t even finish describing the tank before the guy took me to the back and showed me the crushed remains of my copper tank.Apparently anyone who sells scrap metal has their ID copied and reg taken ,the guy who ran the scrap yard said he was suspicious of the deal as he suspected the seller was a P user.Fair enough ,I then went to the police station and the officer I dealt with was as good as they get and a normal nice man,so I’ll post further developments on this great mineral heist if anyone is interested,basically I have single handedly solved the crime in about 30 minutes because the thief is a lazy dumb moron
I agree that NZ has a drug problem but lets not let that cloud the real issue here.
This is just a convenient message spouted by the business elites/government to ensure Migration is kept at high levels. High migration maintains labour tension and ensurses the low wage economy is maintained for all.
The drug problem stems from the un-affordability of housing and basic commodities. The youth are becoming dis-enfranchised and losing hope. It’s going to end very badly for the common person and violence is becoming more evident.
Without a doubt you are 100% correct,that’s the story,I would add that N.Z can’t be assed providing any kind of education or vocational training for our youth,thanks for speaking the truth
In both instances (drugs and alcohol) NZ has the highest use per capita. Add to that poverty, teenage pregnancies, abortions and various other socio economic conditions now prevalent in NZ, I fail to understand where the lifestyle is that we so readily sell abroad.
Not really sure what can be done about the drug issue problem. Would you want to follow in Duterte’s footsteps and become like him? He has a very hard line approach to drugs in the Philippines. I would like to put these drug addicts on an island somewhere and let them run their own society. I can’t imagine it turning out well. Big problem in NZ is P. I have seen the effects of it, and it is incredible detrimental to families and communities.
Why does it matter that a large number of people use drugs like P and cannabis?
Here’s why!
The drug use isn’t just about individual rights to use these drugs. It affects the rest of us. Here are a few situations where I have wondered about drug use resulting in poor decision making.
A psychologist withholds information about a clear threat to kill someone who is later attacked by the client making the threat. A doozy this one! Psychologist never censured.
Two neighbours fighting because one has forgotten that she actually did lend a piece of machinery to the other (I was the independent witness for this one).
A man slaughters his partner in front of his children whilst high on cannabis.
A botched car repair by a reputable company that could have been fatal. The person said they “couldn’t be bothered” smelt of dope.
A baby is born with severe disabilities that will require many surgeries till teenage years (mum smoked cannabis during pregnancy).
Calving cow with hooves sticking from back end for 24hours owner doped out of head just smokes more dope laughs says “it’s just nature, man”.
A lawyer gives crazy advice that is so out of the ball-park you have to wonder about drugs.
I could go on.
How would legalizing cannabis help? Which of the above would have not happened if cannabis was legalized? Would people stop using P if cannabis was legalized?
Drug use is so much the norm here that drug free means “outcast” for some. I’m seen as weird for not using.
I read a report this week that P is now the 2nd most used drug behind alcohol in NZ. A few years ago there were all those legal high shops which always had a pretty weird collection of people outside on the street. In the USA it looks a bit more sophisticated from what I have seen on TV, but I feel certain that if cannabis is legalised here with retail outlets we will see the same groups of zombie like people blocking footpaths.