Abstract
Methamphetamine was recently ranked New Zealand’s second-most harmful drug behind alcohol, and is the country’s most injected drug. Injecting drugs is associated with additional risks such as vein and soft tissue damage, bacterial infection and blood-borne virus transmission. Many of these harms have been reduced by the work of the national Needle Exchange Programme, which provides sterile equipment and education to those who need it. Safer smoking kits – including high quality glass pipes, pipe tips and lip balm – would be a useful addition to extend the programme’s harm-reduction efforts to people who smoke methamphetamine. But when it comes to assisting people who smoke methamphetamine, New Zealand offers very little.