Northland’s Te Ara Oranga methamphetamine harm reduction programme started in 2017. For every dollar spent, $3-$7 in benefits are gained. So where are the plans to roll it out nationally, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in The Bulletin.
“The war on drugs has failed”
So says former prime minister Helen Clark. Clark’s foundation released a report yesterday calling for a complete rethink in the way we deal with methamphetamine in New Zealand and a proper pivot to a health-based approach. It follows calls from MP Chlöe Swarbrick to do the same and correlates with a June survey that found 68% of New Zealanders support replacing the country’s Misuse of Drugs Act with a health-based approach. The report recommends a pilot programme to give methamphetamine users a substitute stimulant – or the drug itself. It also calls, once again, for the national rollout of the highly successful Te Ara Oranga programme, a collaboration between police, health agencies and the community in Northland that’s been described as “game-changing” and has proven to reduce reoffending by 34%.
Minister committed to rolling programme out nationwide in 2021
Health minister Andrew Little committed to rolling the Te Ara Oranga programme out nationwide in November 2021. Since then, we’ve seen it rolled out in the eastern Bay of Plenty (BOP) with services now available in Murupara. Budget 2022 provided $3.5m for further expansion in the area. National party health spokesperson Shane Reti has been a supporter of the programme for a while and said in February that a future National government would expand Te Ara Oranga across the country. Andrew Little told The Detail in March the government is committed to rolling the programme out by the end of this parliamentary term. I’m not entirely sure if that’s a definitive statement on the rollout being national or whether the BOP rollout is the sum total of it.
The programme is comparatively low cost
The Herald’s Jared Savage was seeking answers on the progress of the rollout in February (paywalled). “Significant funding will need to be secured for a full roll-out of the programme,” said a spokesperson. That significant funding was later clarified as being $38m. An evaluation of Te Ara Oranga in 2021 put the cost of a national rollout at $40-45m while estimating that for every dollar spent, $3-$7 was gained in benefit. The 2020 Drug Harm Index (DHI) estimated methamphetamine causes $823.5m in social harm. The foundation’s report notes the DHI isn’t a perfect exercise in estimating the cost of drug harm, but no one is arguing that from a relatively small methamphetamine user base (an estimated 9000 people using monthly or more), a disproportionate amount of harm is caused. It’s also likely that the criminal approach we take to methamphetamine use masks the true numbers and impact.
Increase in methamphetamine detected in wastewater
Responding to the release of yesterday’s report, acting minister of health Peeni Henare (Little is out of the country in his capacity as GCSB minister) said the government is already working on a drug reform programme to treat use as a health issue not a criminal one. Henare pointed to the rollout of Te Ara Oranga in the eastern Bay of Plenty. It is worth noting that the programme does require a real mindset shift, specialist training for those involved and buy-in from the community. That all takes time but an interim evaluation of the programme gave it the big tick back in 2018. ESR’s Andrew Chappell told 1News that there’s been a rise in methamphetamine detected in wastewater based on pre-Covid level so the problem also isn’t getting any smaller as time goes by.