Drug trends
Cannabis is the most widely used illegal drug in New Zealand.
According to the latest Drug Use in New Zealand Survey 2007/2008 published in 2010:
- almost half (46.4 percent) of New Zealanders aged 16 to 64 had used cannabis at some time
- one in seven (14.6 percent) adults aged 16 to 64 had used cannabis in the previous 12 months. That equates to 385,000 people using cannabis a year
- males are more likely to use cannabis than females. Cannabis use is most prevalent for males aged 18 to 24, while 16 to 17 and 18- to 24-year-old females are most likely to use cannabis. Cannabis use decreases with age for both males and females
- Māori men and women were over 50 percent more likely to have used cannabis in the previous year than men and women in the general population
- one in seven users in the past year were daily cannabis users and half used it at least monthly.
Cannabis is often sold in relatively small amounts. An ounce of marijuana tends to cost around $300. A ‘tinny’, a foil-wrapped amount containing enough cannabis for about three cigarettes or joints, is around $20. Other amounts are often sold for $50 or $100.
Research from The Drug Foundation’s 2009 New Zealand Drug Driving Survey indicated that alcohol and cannabis were the most commonly ‘driven on’ substances, with 67.1 percent of cannabis users reporting driving under the influence of cannabis in the past year.
