There are calls to stop treating drug users like criminals and start treating them like addicts.
Former Prime Minister Helen Clark told a conference earlier this week that she wants an evidence-based system for treatment, social services and safe spaces to be introduced globally.
CEO of Te Tuinga Whanau Tommy Wilson, a Tauranga-based social services group, told Chris Lynch that locking up addicts splits up families and doesn't help anyone.
"The key here is reconnecting people. That's what we've learnt in the six years I've been doing this is once you reconnect people, they don't go back to the old disconnected ways."
He said the method is not working and is only making the problem worse.
"We're breaking up families, putting 40 per cent of people are in jail that shouldn't be in jail. There's 20,000 kids in Aotearoa who are disconnected from their families because their parents in jail."
Drug Policy
— Chatham House (@ChathamHouse) January 11, 2018
There's a narrative that says if you are using drugs you are a bad person because you are breaking the law, when actually use of drugs requires a health and safety approach - we can learn a lot from Portugal, says former Prime Minister of New Zealand @HelenClarkNZ pic.twitter.com/ZupdEU1Qs7
LISTEN TO TOMMY WILSON TALK WITH CHRIS LYNCH ABOVE
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