The latest wastewater drug test shows methamphetamine use is up 15% since last quarter, with a weekly social harm cost of almost $40 million.
Cocaine use has decreased since last quarter’s spike, but remains above average across the country. Meanwhile, MDMA use increased 21 percent between January and March.
The Science Media Centre asked experts to comment. Feel free to use these comments in your reporting or follow up with the contact details provided.
Professor Chris Wilkins, Associate Professor Marta Rychert & Dr Robin van der Sanden, SHORE & Whariki Drug Research Team, comment:
“The new wastewater testing release shows declines in national cocaine consumption in Q1 2026, while consumption of methamphetamine and MDMA both increased. MDMA use does have a seasonal component, with increases during the summer music festival period from January to March.
“New Zealand Drug Trends (NZDTS) data shows that cocaine use remains fairly infrequent. This may suggest that high cocaine use detected in Q4 2025 reflects more people using it, rather than increased frequency of use among established users, which also accounts for increased consumption across regions.
“It is yet to be seen whether cocaine supply to NZ can be developed to sustain the kind of deep cocaine markets found in the US and Europe. Wastewater testing results for MDMA show a greater level of stability in consumption since early 2023.
“NZDTS data suggests the market for MDMA continues to recover since the COVID-19 disruptions in international trade, which may influence more recent stable consumption patterns.
“NZDTS has found increasing purchasing of drugs from digital drug markets (darknets, social media) including for MDMA (from 13% in 2020 to 21% in 2025) and cocaine (4% to 14%). These market types may be broadening supply sources.
“Concerningly, methamphetamine use continues to break records with a weekly national consumption of 36.6kg reported during Q1 2026. Large increases in methamphetamine consumption have also been recorded in Australia since 2023, with annual national total consumption increasing from 9,018kg in 2021/2022 to 15,791kg in 2024/2025 (+ 75%).
“NZDTS data shows that methamphetamine users have increased the amount of the drug they consume, with weekly or more frequent methamphetamine use increasing from 27% in 2018/19 to 57% in 2025.
“There have also been significant price declines for methamphetamine in NZ, with a gram of meth declining from $563 in 2017/18 to $334 in 2025 (-41%, inflation adjusted decline of -55%).”
Conflict of interest statement: “The Drug research team reports has no conflicts of interest to report.”
Associate Professor Fiona Hutton, Institute of Criminology, Victoria University of Wellington, comments:
“Wastewater testing provides an interesting snapshot of the use of some drugs in Aotearoa, New Zealand (AoNZ). The latest figures represent a snapshot in time. Knee-jerk and moral panic type responses should therefore be avoided.
“As the period of testing covers the summer/festival period it is perhaps to be expected that higher levels of drugs like MDMA were detected, and that cocaine use, although it has decreased, remains higher than previous quarters.
“The decrease in cocaine use is a positive trend, and it will be useful to note in the coming months to see if this trend continues. The stable figures for methamphetamine use are also a positive trend and again it will be interesting to see if this trend continues.
“It is expected that drug consumption will fluctuate as different drugs fall in and out of favour with consumer groups. MDMA use, for example, has increased in some districts, but not in others, while cocaine use has risen in some districts and not in others.
“Local contexts are important to bear in mind when interpreting large data sets like wastewater testing. Wastewater testing can only tell us so much – it cannot tell us what kind of drug use it is measuring, e.g., addiction, problematic use, or occasional recreational use.
“It is also important to note that prevalence of cocaine use in AoNZ is low overall – in 2022/23, 1.3% of the adult population was estimated to use this particular drug at least once in the past year, rising from 0.6% in 2017/18 (New Zealand Drug Foundation, 2023).
“More recent figures from the 2025 New Zealand Drug Trends Survey (NZDTS) note that 23% of participants reported using cocaine in the past 6 months, compared to 11% for methamphetamine, 81% for alcohol and 69% for cannabis.
“In monitoring drug trends such as these the focus should be on how to reduce harm from substances like cocaine and methamphetamine, and any media reporting should be accompanied by links to good, balanced information e.g. The Level Drug Information on cocaine, methamphetamine, as well as information on where people can get their drugs checked, e.g. Know Your Stuff.
“‘Crackdowns’ and other harmful responses should be strenuously avoided.”
Conflict of interest statement: “I am on the board of knowyourstuffNZ (KYSNZ)”