early thoughts: drug law reform 2024-2026.

As I've said several times, moving onto party drugs is probably the way of moving that drug checking thinking into the mainstream. I mean, it's great that everyone is able to test their drugs at festivals, but ultimately that's a small proportion of the drug users in Aotearoa. - I mean, MDMA is really prominent in the modern landscape: as I said recently, it's like the 1990's on steroids. Methamphetamine is more prominent, but that's an entirely different type of junkie. https://www.police.govt.nz/about-us/publication/national-drugs-wastewater-testing-programme-quarter-1-2023#:~:text=National%20Drugs%20in%20Wastewater%20Testing%20Programme%20%2D%20Quarter%201%2C%202023,-Date%20Published%3A&text=Results%20are%20now%20available%20for,cocaine%2C%20fentanyl%2C%20and%20heroin. - There's interesting clinical trials going on around LSD and MDMA across the world, and in New Zealand. MDMA's traditional defense goes like this: 'effective for treatment-resistant depression', 'effective for therapy (and originated in psychological therapies)' LSD and Psilocybin are interesting, but most of their clinical effectiveness is based on terminal illnesses, as that's what people were initially keen on using for clinical tests. - From my perspective, Kiwis are a bit behind on the 'set, setting and drug' argument that has really transformed drug policy over the last few decades. https://aeon.co/essays/new-psychedelics-research-is-on-a-knife-edge-of-meaning