Christchurch Still Suffering From Deadly Synthetics Scourge

In the last week, 12 more synthetic drug users have been admitted to Christchurch Hospital, bringing the total number of people hospitalised from smoking the drug to 31 since September 20.

There have been no more fatal overdoses since St John confirmed last week that two people had died from a “bad batch” of synthetics circulating in Christchurch. However, two of the first three people admitted remain in intensive care, the Canterbury District Health Board confirmed to Newshub.

Last month, emergency department doctors said AMB-FUBINACA had been found in patients' toxicology levels. This same substance has been linked to numerous deaths over the past year in Northland, according to Christchurch Hospital.

The NZ Drug Foundation is calling the harm caused a “synthetics crisis” and has released this toolkit to inform individuals and communities about the danger of this drug. The section also includes information on who is most at risk and how to get involved in reforming drug laws.

A map put together from NZ Police data shows that the synthetic cannabinoids available vary widely depending on where in the country you are—AMB-FUBINACA is more prevalent in the north while samples from the lower North Island contained mostly 5F-ADB. Results from Christchurch and the South Island show a bag of synnies is likely to contain of a variety of different chemicals.

The NZ Drug Foundation is working closely with organisations and Government agencies to establish a drug-checking service. Drug demand reduction programmes manager Nathan Brown said "drugs like this will keep coming, so New Zealand has to get prepared".

"The most vulnerable need a lot of support, like one-to-one assistance to get people's life on track, access to treatment. We also need to get accurate information out there so people can make informed choices."

A Coroner's report in June linked synthetic drugs to 45 deaths in the past year, compared to two deaths over the previous five.