Let’s play a little bit of would-you-rather. 

Would you rather the country faced a bill of $1 billion per year for the harm caused by drug use? Or $8 billion per year for the harm caused by alcohol? 

I know what your answer is. I’m picking it’s the same as mine. I’d rather we had neither. 

But that’s the comparison in front of us with these new stats out today in relation to what drug use is costing the country in terms of harm. And I tell you what - nothing’s going to change, in fact it will get worse, if we keep on treating drug users as criminals. 

These people need help. They don’t need the big stick.  

The big ticket item in these numbers out today - if you can call it that - is the harm that comes from methamphetamine. And the dollar value that’s being attached to that: $19.4 million a week. That’s according to the the National Drug Intelligence Bureau. 

MDMA costs the country $857,000 in harm each week. Cocaine, $990,000 per week. But it’s meth that’s doing the real damage. 

And what we’re talking about here is the cost of things like people ending up in hospital, dying - all the social harm. Marijuana doesn’t seem to be included in these numbers. But I would argue that we can’t turn a blind eye to the damage that does.  

I know the pro-cannabis crowd find it uncomfortable when you talk about the psychotic effect marijuana use can have on people. But it’s real. But that isn't included in these stats.  

These numbers also don’t include things like Ketamine, which is that horse tranquiliser that people are getting off on these days. And that can make them pretty unwell. 

So, what we’re talking about here is the harm caused by meth, MDMA and coke. 

Add that all up to an annual figure and it comes to about $1.1 billion per year. Versus $8 billion for the harm caused by alcohol. 

The big difference, of course, is that alcohol is legal. Which, I think we can assume, means there are going to be more people using alcohol than illegal drugs. And so the dollar value of the harm from alcohol is going to be higher, naturally. And the alcohol horse has well-and-truly bolted.  

But, is it too late when it comes to the drugs the police are talking about today? In particular, methamphetamine.  

In some respects it is too late. But in another respect, it’s not.  

It's been about 25 years since methamphetamine really took off in New Zealand. And it’s a great market for the suppliers.  

The police have said someone can bring-in 600 kilos of the stuff to New Zealand for a couple of million dollars, sell it and make a profit of around $120 million. 

That’s according to Detective Superintendent Greg Williams, who runs the National Organised Crime Group. And he says it’s been the infiltration of gangs from overseas that has really done the damage.  

Because, originally, it was the local gangs selling all the meth. Then, with the 501 deportees from Australia bringing their Rebels and Comancheros gang patches with them, that saw things really take off.  

Because they had the sophisticated operations and international connections to take it next-level from what it used to be. 

And that is not going to change much, is it? Yes, the Police and Customs do amazing work trying to shut down these operations. But I think, as we’ve seen over the years, any so-called “war on drugs” is like a game of whack-a-mole. You shut down one operation here and another operation pops up over there.  

So I think, like alcohol, there is an aspect of this that we can’t realistically do much about. And that’s the supply side of meth. 

Where I think there is hope, is doing something to deal with the demand for this appalling drug. And that is going to require us to be a bit more open to treating meth use as a health issue - instead of a criminal issue. 

I’m saying punish the suppliers and support the buyers. The users. Crack down, as much as we can, on the creeps bringing this stuff into the country and creeps selling it. 

But, at the same time, put more effort into helping people stop using it and prevent others from starting. Which would require us talking about it more. Teaching kids in schools about meth. Spending more on treatment programmes for meth users. 

And not treating drug users as criminals. 

Would you be up for that?  

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.