HRCA seek evidence-based drug policies that promote harm reduction and protect human rights. No one should be criminalised or punished for personally using or possessing a drug. Our drug laws should instead ensure people have legal access to a properly regulated supply of all drugs.

HRCA campaigns for an end to the harm and devastation caused by drug prohibition. We seek to replace New Zealand’s existing drug laws with new legislation that: respects bodily autonomy; honours Te Tiriti; ensures the commercial drug supply is properly regulated; and ends the role of law enforcement over personal use - that has disproportionately targeted the poor, Māori, young people, and people with chronic unmet needs.

We are Harm Reduction Coalition Aotearoa

Alex Hon Kuen Ho saw there was no coordinated network or activist group in Aotearoa advocating to rescind drug prohibition, so he pulled together a wide group of individuals with a shared commitment to end the harm caused by prohibition. Alex engaged academics, peers, and experts in criminology, harm reduction, addiction, social justice and political activism. This network founded by Alex would eventually evolve to become Harm Reduction Coalition Aotearoa, launching on International Harm Reduction Day, 07 May 2024.

Committed to Drug Reform:

Safe Supply

With legalisation and regulation, we will not only seriously weaken the underground market; we will also ensure product quality and safety, enable consumer rights, and allow people to feel safe to access support services.

Legalisation

The Misuse of Drugs Act has failed to reduce drug-related harm. Criminalisation, punishment and imprisonment has fuelled tension, violence and crime. It has ruined lives and torn families apart.

Evidence Based

We need modern, politically resilient, Te Tiriti respecting, human rights protecting legislation. We can build new drug laws which are scientific, fit for purpose, compassionate and which reduce harms.

The Six HRCA Objectives:

Establish cross party and non-partisan support to end drug prohibition by rescinding the failed Psychoactive Substance Act 2013 and the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 as recommended in the New Zealand Law Commission Review in 2011.
Ensure all adult possession, cultivation and production of ALL drugs is legal for personal use.
Dismantle all policies that reinforce drug Prohibition.
Secure the annulment of all criminal records and convictions related to adult personal possession, cultivation and production of drugs.
Ensure drug policies are rooted in science and evidence, and uphold the principles of harm reduction and human rights.
Promote a new Psychoactive Drugs Act managed by Health, that regulates all aspects of the supply of psychoactive substances. this includes those psychoactive substances that are currently legal and those psychoactive substances that are currently prohibited.

Harm Reduction Coalition Aotearoa Committee

Bill Logan - Chair (Acting)

Bill is a founder member of the AIDS Foundation (now Burnett Foundation), he was spokesperson for the Gay Taskforce, Homosexual Law Reform campaign of 1985-86. He has been involved in harm reduction work in Wellington and nationally for 40years, he was chair of the lower North Island’s Drug Health & Development Project Trust for 15 years until his retirement last year. He helped expand the services of needle exchanges to include Naloxone distribution, drug checking, and peer Hep-C testing.

Dr. Julian Buchanan - Secretary

Julian has been working with drug issues for four decades, initially with people struggling with addiction in the community and in prisons, before moving to academia as a Criminology Professor with a focus on drug policy. Julian has published over fifty articles on the subject, worked as an expert advisor and editor for the UNODC and addressed conferences across the world on the subject.

Rachel Browne - Treasurer

Rachel is Finance Manager at Drugs, Health and Development Project Trust, the provider of Needle Exchanges for the lower North Island. She has been involved with New Zealand's drug harm reduction scene for 24 years. Her iwi affiliations are Ngai Tūhoe and Ngāpuhi. Rachel is passionate about social justice and has a keen eye for detail. She came onto The Committee of Harm Reduction Coalition Aotearoa as Treasurer in March 2024.

Adam Dorsett

The course of Adam’s life has been significantly impacted by prohibitive, punitive drug laws. Scarred by physical, sexual, and psychological abuse as a youngster, with unsupported dyslexia, Adam left home. By the age of 16, Adam was self-medicating with drugs, namely heroin, to help relieve his traumas. He developed an opioid dependency; and due to the excessive cost caused by prohibition, he had to resort to committing property crimes in order to medicate his trauma and drug dependance.

This culminated in the state putting Adam in prison for most of his adult life, rather than providing the psychological support and medication he desperately needed to function in our society.

While imprisoned, Adam took an interest in drug policy, harm reduction, and prohibition, reading all of the books he could get his hands on. Developing an understanding of the hypocrisy and damages caused by prohibition was a revelation to him. It helped Adam to make sense of the injustices which shaped his life and allowed him to chart a pathway forward as a Harm Reduction advocate.

Spencer Dietrich

Born and raised in Canada, Spencer has been involved in harm reduction and advocating for change for over a decade, including a significant period of lived experience. She’s seen and experienced first-hand the harms caused by prohibitive drug policy and witnessed the numerous positive changes that can follow drug legalisation (e.g. the legalisation of cannabis in Canada).

Spencer is now living in New Zealand, working in the harm reduction sector. She helps provide several programs for the many communities of people who use drugs. Spencer is proud to be a Committee Member of Harm Reduction Coalition Aotearoa and knows this Coalition will have an important role in advocating for drug policy reform in Aotearoa.

Wendy Allison MNZM

Wendy has been involved in drug reform advocacy since 2008. In 2014 she founded the drug checking service KnowYourStuffNZ, which went on to successfully provide evidence and advocate for law changes that saw New Zealand become the first country in the world to introduce explicitly legal drug checking.

In 2023 Wendy received national recognition for her work with KnowYourStuffNZ. She was the first person to ever become a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to drug harm reduction.

“Harm reduction doesn’t start and end with drug checking though,” says Wendy, “and the evidence is showing that the vast majority of illicit drug harm stems not from the drugs themselves but from the fact that they are illegal. To effectively reduce harm, we need to tackle the central issue that creates it – our drug laws are simply not fit for purpose and need to change.”

Wendy has been a Committee member for HRCA since its inception in 2022.