Cannabis in New Zealand
Cannabis in New Zealand
A friend of mine once told me that a lot a New Zealanders smoke cannabis as recreational drug, so I did some research and got to some interesting information about cannabis use in NZ, which I’d like to share with you.
In the governmental health survey concerning cannabis the number of adult cannabis users among New Zealanders is 11% — that’s 1 out of 10 persons. 8% of all adult women and 15% of all adult men use it. At this point I can already agree with my buddy’s statement. In Germany the use is only common among 4.5% of adults. By the way, 42% adults in NZ reported that they used cannabis at least once. About 1/3 of the cannabis users in NZ report that they use the drug weekly. In general there is a trend concerning ethnicity which implies that cannabis consumption is higher among Maori users. Also the use of cannabis in deprived areas is higher, which is a hint pointing towards a correlation between cannabis use and social status. Nevertheless, most of the users do not consume weekly. Cannabis is mostly used among the younger generation in New Zealand while 79% of the adults aged at least 55 report that they have never tried cannabis.
As I said, many people use cannabis in New Zealand. Along with this huge number of user come a lot of problems. A well-known problem is driving stoned. As the health reports shows, 1 out of 3 drivers consuming cannabis reported that he or she drove at least once under the influence of cannabis in the past 12 months. That’s a lot. I found a Facebook-page from the year 2014 with a campaign against driving stoned. The site claims (and also provides research) that cannabis impaired drivers are at least two times more likely to be involved in a car crash. Furthermore, cannabis is the second most commonly detected substance in car crashes after alcohol.
Cannabis is illegal in New Zealand, which makes it even more unexpected that it is used so widely among New Zealanders. The police webpage about cannabis says that possession penalties start at a fine of 500$ and rise up to a 14 year jail term for supply or manufacture. Cultivation is also forbidden as well as the actual use. As cannabis seems to be such a big deal in NZ there are a lot of interesting pages that provide help in case of addictions. The police also offers a help page which is provided by the NZ drug foundation and seems to offer a lot of important information.
Nevertheless, there is some information for those of you who don’t mind addiction and laws. Vocabulary for your NZ trip including cannabis use should include the tinny — it’s a small bag which should contain at least one gram and costs around 20$ — and the 50 bags which is a bag for 50$ and should contain 3 to 4 grams. Nevertheless, cannabis is also sold in larger amounts in NZ -in ounces, whereas one ounce costs between 250$ and 350$. In comparison to Germany the price seems to be a bit higher. This goes hand in hand with the general costs of life in NZ, which I’ve read about in another post here. In the end, I’ll give leave you some links as well as my sources so you can get your own idea about the cannabis topic in NZ. The article concerning NZ’s “Suffering from a Severe Weed Shortage” should give you a first impression of how big a thing weed is in New Zealand.
Some interesting pages:
And another funny article.. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/newzealand/9159536/Cannabis-vending-machine-opens-in-New-Zealand.html
Sources:
http://www.police.govt.nz/advice/drugs-and-alcohol/cannabis-and-law
