19 Jun 2021

Sarah Helm: 50 years on from Nixon’s War On Drugs

From Saturday Morning, 9:35 am on 19 June 2021
NZ Drug Foundation executive director Sarah Helm.

NZ Drug Foundation executive director Sarah Helm. Photo: Supplied/NZ Drug Foundation

Fifty years ago US president Richard Nixon called a press conference to declare drug abuse "America’s public enemy number one". Quickly dubbed the war on drugs, Nixon’s campaign aimed to stop illegal drug use and distribution by dramatically increasing prison sentences for both dealers and users. 

Five decades on, the war on drugs is widely considered a failure, with the Global Commission on Drug Policy saying it should be replaced by decriminalisation strategies that are grounded in science, health, and human rights. Despite this, the war on drugs still has a ripple effect around the globe - including in New Zealand, where our own policy has been influenced by it.

Sarah Helm, the Executive Director of the NZ Drug Foundation, joins the show to discuss how we should be reshaping our drug laws - and in some cases looking at decriminalisation.