The New Zealand Drug Foundation’s 2023 report on drug use found people in the Southern police district were paying more for marijuana and MDMA than any other region in the country.
Southern residents were found to pay on average $365 per ounce of marijuana and $241 per gram of MDMA, which were the most expensive cost of each drug in New Zealand.
The Tasman region, which included the West Coast, had the cheapest prices at $310 for an ounce of marijuana.
Manawatū-Whanganui had the cheapest MDMA, at $220 a gram, with Otago’s neighbours in Canterbury recording a close second lowest at $221 per gram on average.
A Dunedin drug dealer, who declined to be named, said he sold both cannabis and MDMA and the results were not surprising.
"It’s cold here, so it’s harder to grow outdoors. Weed doesn't like the soil to be colder than 16 degrees and a frost can make your bud really unhappy.
"The lower south’s short summers and frosty winters basically means you have to grow indoors — which stinks, literally."
The dealer said the options were to spend "the big bucks" to create an indoor grow room, or get cannabis imported from other areas, such as Christchurch or further north.
The other factor was Dunedin’s large student population.
"These students come down and don’t know anyone, but we know all the suppliers for weed and MDMA.
"A lot of them are also living off the deep coffers at the bank of mum and dad. They’ll pay anything, so I charge anything I reckon they would pay — I’ve said some silly numbers for fun to some students I thought might actually cough up the big bucks.
"More often than not they pay it."
Nationally, marijuana usage was on the rise, with around 597,000 adults nationally using cannabis at least once in the past year.
Almost one in 10 adults aged 55–64 reported using marijuana, and the number of users aged 65-74 nationally had a massive jump, increasing by 51% over the past decade.
Otago also recorded the lowest rates of meth usage in the country at an average of 164mg per day per 1000 people.
