This morning Health Minister Dr David Clark and Police Minister Stuart Nash announced a range of measures to tackle the synthetics crisis which has seen appalling harm across our communities, with a particularly serious impact on Māori.
Today Hāpai Te Hauora supported the launch of a petition urging the Prime Minister to double the investment for drug-related treatment and harm reduction initiatives in Budget 2019. This would see $150 million extra allocated for the under-resourced drug harm reduction sector.
Risk of death from synthetic drug use can be significantly reduced if the system gets it right, the head of a Maori public health provider says.
As of August 1 this year, 10 people are believed to have died as a result of using illegal synthetic drugs within the space of one month.
And without a law reform these "tragic" numbers may become worse, Hapai Te Hauora Tapui chief executive Lance Norman said.