During Uni orientation, the NZ Drug Foundation and Know Your Stuff NZ offered information and advice about drugs and confidential drug-checking services at campuses across the country. The cheeky orange shirts might have been what caught students’ attention. But while there weren’t any party pills on offer, they stayed for a judgement-free conversation about what drugs they may be using during O-Week festivities.
Since the passing of the Drug and Substance Checking Legislation Bill last year, Aotearoa has been the first country to make drug checking explicitly free, legal and confidential. Ben from the NZ Drug Foundation told Craccum that this law change supports a health-based approach to drugs. “It recognises that we can’t just sit back and say ‘don’t do drugs’ and offer nothing until people are experiencing extreme harm.”
He says that clinics like the one outside UoA’s campus provide people with the opportunity to have conversations about harm reduction earlier, and to know what’s in the substances they think they’re taking. “It also gives us a good picture of what is out there. Otherwise, we only see what shows up in emergency departments.”
Ben says he expected to see more “party style drugs at the O-Week clinics. Stimulants that might give people more energy, things like MDMA.”
But they don’t take people’s substances away, although there is the option to dispose of them on-site. Instead, Ben says the focus is on giving people information to reduce the chances of harm. “What people choose to do with the information we give them is their responsibility and their choice. But If the dosage rate is higher than they think, it gives them the choice—if they still want to take it—to take much less.”
UoA Wellbeing Ambassadors Shivani and Emily volunteered at the event, which was promoted to both UoA and AUT students. Shivani told Craccum that being students themselves, they understand the hesitancy around drug checking. “Our role is to provide support, so they don’t feel like they’re doing something wrong, but that they’re doing something for their health and wellbeing. It feels illegal, but it’s not!”
For information about clinics happening near you and “straight-up info and advice about different drugs without the moral judgement you might find elsewhere,” Ben told Craccum readers to check out The Level:
https://thelevel.org.nz/drug-checking-clinics
