this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2024
174 points (93.9% liked)

Aotearoa / New Zealand

1658 readers
16 users here now

Kia ora and welcome to !newzealand, a place to share and discuss anything about Aotearoa in general

Rules:

FAQ ~ NZ Community List ~ Join Matrix chatroom

 

Banner image by Bernard Spragg

Got an idea for next month's banner?

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Dave
RaoulDuke
174
Alcohol causing 20 times the harm of meth, police float tighter regulation (www.newshub.co.nz)
submitted 5 months ago by deadbeef79000 to c/newzealand
58 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

TL;DR:

  • Alcohol $7.8b
  • All illicits: $1.8b
  • Meth: $0.365b

I wanted a figure for cannabis and found this from 2020:

PDF https://www.health.govt.nz/system/files/documents/publications/the-nz-illicit-drug-harm-index-2020-10-feb.pdf

  • All illicits: $1.9b
  • Meth: $0.824b
  • Cannabis: $0.911

I notice that the per kilograms measure for harm is also useful to account for volume of usage, but think that per 'dose' would be better.

  • Meth: $1.1m per kg with 743kg consumption
  • Cannabis: $0.35m per kg with 58000kg consumption

These figures include 'associative crime' as harm. So it apparent counts the cost of buying it as harm, it also counts the tax loss of that expenditure, so IMHO it skews unfavourabley to higher expenditure. But put that aside.

These figures show that all illicit drugs combined are less harmful to society than alcohol, and tautologically the harm is inflated by illegality.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] deadbeef79000 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Decriminalisation is the start, the first step.

Once use of drugs is no longer a legal problem and solely a heath problem then it's safer for everyone.

One cannot just sell booze or tabacco out the boot of ones car either, neither should any other drug dealer. There's already precedent for how to manage legal drugs.