Drug use cost New Zealand society $1.3 billion
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 at 4:40 pm | By: Radical Russ
Drug use cost NZ society $1.3 bn, index shows – 24 Jun 2008 – NZ Herald: New Zealand National news
The Drug Harm Index, released yesterday, will help police determine the socio-economic costs from drug seizures and track the value of the drug trade in New Zealand.It found that 373,310 people used cannabis, but only 17 per cent of these were frequent users.
There were 38,390 cocaine users, of which 88 per cent were frequent users.
Nearly 23,000 people used crystal methamphetamine (36 per cent of them often) and 81,890 took Ecstasy (24 per cent often).
So 83% of New Zealanders who use cannabis use it infrequently and responsibly, and the 63,462 who use cannabis often are almost as numerous as those who use coke, meth, and X (61,717). Plus, we can’t say how many of the frequent users use more than one drug.
Male cannabis users took about 8 per cent more sick days than the average male worker and opioid users took 40 per cent more days.
I’m curious about how many more sick days were taken by alcohol users? No matter – I can’t speak for New Zealand, but in America, the average number of paid sick leave days for first year employees is eight. So if cannabis smokers took 8% more, that works out to an extra five hours off for sick leave.
But I also doubt the reality of those numbers. How do male cannabis users track across the various fields of endeavor? For example, you’re going to find more cannabis smokers working in a restaurant than in a boardroom. Drug testing restricts the fields where cannabis smokers can work. Are there more overall sick days taken in those fields than others?
While stimulants contributed 41 per cent of the total costs, figures showed that in 2006, police and Customs seized 33,480kg of cannabis compared with only 155kg of stimulants.
And police dealing with drug offences spent 55.8 per cent of their time addressing cannabis, against 43 per cent of their hours dealing with stimulant-related issues.
Sounds like a lot of time and effort spent by the New Zealand authorities to fight cannabis, a relatively-safe, socially-benign drug that 83% of users are using infrequently, to the detriment of fighting meth, a very dangerous, socially-devastating drug that 36% of users are abusing. Kinda like here, huh?
