Police Minister to 'get advice' on legal protections for people in drug overdoses

Police Minister Mark Mitchell says people should simply "stay away" from drugs, following a spate of suspected overdoses in Wellington.

The New Zealand Drug Foundation is calling for greater legal protections for people experiencing a drug overdose.

It comes after one person died and five others were hospitalised following a string of suspected overdoses of the fantasy drug GHB in Wellington in recent days.

A woman died at Woofingtons, a castle-like mansion in Wellington after drinking GHB from a bottle, her friend earlier told RNZ.

Parliament's health select committee is considering submissions on a 'Good Samaritan' bill which would provide legal protections for people experiencing a drug overdose, those who call 111, and others who remain at the scene to help.

Minister of Police Mark Mitchell said he had not yet had an official brief on the matter, only "initial information", but police were investigating as part of broader investigation into illegal drugs.

Pressed on whether he was open to enacting a 'Good Samaritan' law, Mitchell said he needed more advice on the issue.

"I need to get advice on that. You don't want to set up perverse outcomes in terms of providing a defence of people that are dealing with and peddling harm in communities, so we wouldn't allow that to happen.

"If a bill is going through the house, then there will be some advice provided but who is the person putting in the 111 call? Is it a drug dealer that's peddling misery in the communities?"

Mitchell said New Zealand had some of the best health support and "safety nets" in the world.

"At the end of the day, my message would be don't use drugs, stay away from this. People are making very poor decisions that are impacting very negatively on their own health."

"The state can do as much as it can to try and stop drug dealers and clamp down on gangs and deal with transnational crime and disrupt supply chains. At the end of the day, a big part of this is personal responsibility, and people are choosing to use harmful drugs, and they should choose not to," he said.

New Zealand Drug Foundation executive director Sarah Helm told Morning Report there are a group of three "G-type" substances - GHB, GBL and 14BD.

She said they give the user a bit of a "euphoric effect" similar to alcohol. It can make a user a "bit groggy and sexualised".

The substances are relatively potent, Helm said. 14BD commonly had a slow onset, she said, leading people to think the drug hadn't worked and they typically took more.

It was "vital" that users called for help if they needed it after taking the drug and they should be able to alert authorities without fear of facing legal charges.

"It's really great that we have a law that protects people from going to drug checking without being prosecuted. We need a similar protection around calling for help."

Currently, Helm said users were too scared to call for help, worried that police would arrive instead of an ambulance, and it was "costing people's lives".

Helm told Morning Report overdoses of these substances weren't uncommon.

People were just hearing more about this cluster because the police were speaking out on it.

"We have three people die every single week from New Zealand from accidental overdose."

Helm said while there was a small percentage of people in New Zealand who used G-type drugs, they were "quite potent" and carried more harm that other substances.

She said she was attending a select committee on Wednesday with two mothers who had lost their children to drug overdoses.

They would be talking about a bill that was before Parliament that would protect people calling for help.

"They believe this sort of legislation would make all the difference."

She encouraged people to visit drug checking services to make sure they knew what they were taking.

Detective Inspector Anna Grant said police continue to investigate the matter as a priority given the risk to the public.

The work included working to identify if all cases were connected and where the supply came from.

"Police strongly urge the public to take extreme caution around drugs of this type.

"While it's safest not to use drugs at all, New Zealand's drug early warning system High Alert recommends at the very least getting substances checked before taking them," Grant said.

Luxon and Hipkins open to banning sale of meth pipes

Both Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Labour leader Chris Hipkins say they are open to banning the sale of meth pipes.

Twenty-five-year-old Jodie Rameka is on a campaign to rid her community of glass methamphetamine pipes being sold in many $2 shops, vape stores and dairies around Whangārei.

Luxon said banning the sale of glass pipes was "may be something" his government would look at, but he was focussed on expanding drug crackdowns across the Pacific.

"That's why you're seeing us work really closely with Australia, Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa, because we have a Pacific problem around the importation of meth.

"I spoke just a couple of weeks ago with Prime Minister Rambuka about that issue, and we'll continue to make effort that way," he said.

However, the prime minister said he did not "see value" in legislating a ban.

Meanwhile, Labour leader Chris Hipkins said it was concerning that people could purchase "something that's effectively being sold as a meth pipe" so cheaply.

"That's really concerning, and we do need to do a lot more about that, so if there's a law change required, I'm very open to considering it."

The former police minister said he was surprised to learn the sale of pipe was not already illegal.

Asked if he thought there should be more focus on cracking down on drug supply chains across the Pacific rather than support services, Hipkins said both needed to be done.

"Customs services search around one percent of the shipping containers that come into the country. There is going to be no foolproof way of ever stopping methamphetamine getting into the country.

"The intelligence gathering that we use has resulted in some very impressive drug busts, but they need to keep doing more," Hipkins said.