Current stage of the review:

The issues paper “Controlling and regulating drugs” was published on our website in February 2010.  Public submissions on the paper closed in May. The Commission will release a short report on its Review of the Alcoholism and Drug Addiction Act 1966 (which has been undertaken as part of its broader review) in September this year. The Commission’s final report on the rest of the project will be released in February 2011.

The Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 was formed following the "hippie" counterculture of the 1970s as the dominant piece of legislation to regulate the recreational use of illegal psychoactive substances. Since that time a great amount of research has been undertaken into the effects of different drugs and we now know substantially more about the harms of drug use as well as the harms drug prohibition creates.

While cannabis use has remained the illegal drug of choice, we now have harder drugs such as methamphetamine at the forefront of New Zealand's drug scene, resulting in a vastly different drug landscape from that which the Act contemplated in 1975. A first principles review of the Act is well overdue.

The Law Commission's Issues Paper on the Misuse of Drugs Act reviews the current approach to drug regulation and makes some preliminary proposals for how New Zealand's drug laws can be updated

Download the Issues Paper: 'Controlling and Regulating Drugs' (3.7 MG)

Contact us to order document on CD ($10) or a hardcopy of the summary document (no charge)

Download Summary Document  (6 KB)

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