Table of Contents
Summarised by Centrist
A New Zealand Herald headline claiming most drug and alcohol users experience no negative effects is misleading, according to a critique by media critic Peter Bassett.
Bassett says the article, written by Derek Cheng, relies on a self-selected online survey, downplaying major methodological limits.
The Herald story centres on a Massey University survey led by Chris Wilkins, which found 63 percent of respondents reported no negative effects from drug or alcohol use in the previous six months.
The survey excluded by design those who were hospitalised, incarcerated, dead, or otherwise disconnected from “polite survey populations”.
Bassett claims the sample would not meet professional polling standards. Large numbers, he argues, do not correct biased sampling, and self-reporting is generally poor at capturing harms.
Substances such as LSD, cocaine, MDMA, and psilocybin are described as low harm, while methamphetamine-related violence is framed as rare or underreported, despite wider evidence from emergency departments, coronial data, and criminal justice records.
Respondents reporting harm involving more than one substance were excluded from the harm index to “avoid confusion”. Bassett argues this removes the most realistic cases, since poly-drug use is common and often where risk multiplies.
From there, he says, the article pivots smoothly into a critique of the Misuse of Drugs Act and praise for decriminalisation models. That framing, Bassett argues, mirrors long-standing arguments advanced by Green co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick.
Statements from the NZ Drug Foundation describing some drugs as “pleasant” and low harm are quoted without challenge.
