NEW ZEALAND
NATIONAL DRUG INTELLIGENCE BUREAU
JOINT OPERATION OF CUSTOMS, HEALTH & POLICE
23 November 2020
Subject: OIA – Drug Pricing
REF: IR-01-20-35069
Attention: Liam Silverwood
Dear Liam,
Thank you for your Official Information Act request transferred to the National Drug Intelligence Bureau
(NDIB) on 19 November 2020.
Specifically you requested the following:
“1. The NZ police's estimates of drug 'street prices,' for all drugs for which the police maintain
estimates.
2. Any police documentation on the process used to arrive at these estimates.”
In response to your request please find attached the national drug pricing data from August 2020.
No specific document exists which explains the process used to arrive at these estimates, however I have
outlined the NDIB methodology below.
The August pricing data contains a table of New Zealand illicit drug prices and common units of sale. The
data used is from the following sources:
• New Zealand Police Drug Search and Seizure (DSS) forms;
• Police Human Source Management Units (HSMU);
• New Zealand Customs Service;
• Communication from Police officers and other intelligence holders with drug knowledge.
Drug pricing is based on the information reported to the NDIB; the greater quantity of information reported
means a more accurate analysis of drug price data.
The attached document is not a comprehensive list of every price ever received by NDIB, but is a list of the
most recent prices/price range available for each commodity. If no price data is available, fields are left
blank.
The August pricing data is dated from 1 April 2020 – 30 June 2020. Information pre-dating this (and only
going back as far as May 2013) is provided only where more recent prices are not available. When a new
price report becomes available it replaces the previous price, even if the new price is based on fewer
information sources (and therefore in some cases may be less reliable).
180 Molesworth Street, Wellington, New Zealand
P.O. Box 3017, Phone: 64 4 4749499, Fax: 64 4 4987409
NEW ZEALAND
NATIONAL DRUG INTELLIGENCE BUREAU
JOINT OPERATION OF CUSTOMS, HEALTH & POLICE
Lower & Upper Limit $: The lower limit is the lowest price in the price range reported to the NDIB for a
specific drug, while the upper limit is the highest price reported in a price range. Each price range reflects
one time period only.
Typical Price $: This describes the price that is cited the greatest number of times in the information
available to the NDIB and is NOT the average price. If there is a wide variation in typical price, with no one
price having a majority of citations, no typical price will be provided in the table. In cases where only a
single price is provided to the NDIB, this is listed in the 'typical price' column.
Information Sources: This column indicates how many information sources have been used to provide the
data for each drug price. The lower the numbers in this column, the less certain the NDIB can be about the
reliability of the information provided.
If you are not satisfied with my response to your request, you have the right under section 28(3) of the
Official Information Act 1982 to ask the Office of the Ombudsman to review my decision.
Yours sincerely
Detective Inspector Blair Macdonald
Manager
| National Drug Intelligence Bureau
Police National Headquarters, 180 Molesworth Street, PO Box 3017, Wellington 6011
Joint Operation of Customs, Health & Police
180 Molesworth Street, Wellington, New Zealand
P.O. Box 3017, Phone: 64 4 4749499, Fax: 64 4 4987409
