The Wire with Caeden

The New Zealand Drug Trend Survey (NZDTS) for 2024 has been released, and results have revealed an increase in participation in the 2020 Medicinal Cannabis Scheme. 

The percentage of people with prescriptions for medicinal cannabis increased from just 9% in 2022 and 2023, to 37% last year, while the percentage of users who have never asked for prescriptions decreased from 85% to 60%.

Producer Athena spoke to Associate Professor at the Massey University College of Health, Marta Rychert, about the medicinal benefits of cannabis, and what the survey results suggest about the current culture surrounding cannabis.

The submission period for the Treaty Principles Bill was due to close last week, however, due to mass amounts of last minute submissions leading to software issues, the deadline was extended to 1 pm on Tuesday, 14th January. 

Similarly, the submissions for the consultation period on the regulatory standards bill ended yesterday, another bill primarily pushed by David Seymour and the ACT party that would change how the government processes legislation. 

In our weekly catchup with the National Party’s Tom Rutherford, Wire host Castor spoke to him about these bills and how the party plans to operate in 2025.

Submissions on the government’s highly contested Regulatory Standards Bill close tonight. 

The legislation, which has largely flown under the radar, is now being slammed for being dangerous, with worries it will entrench the ACT Party’s ideology into New Zealand’s constitutional framework. 

The bill, which is not yet before parliament, focuses heavily on property regulation - catering towards developers and corporations. 

Producer Evie spoke to Climate Justice Taranaki’s Catherine Cheung about the increasing concerns that activist and environmental groups have surrounding the legislation.

NIWA has recently released their annual climate summary for 2024, which shows that last year was New Zealand’s tenth warmest year on record.

Of the top ten warmest years on record, eight of these have occurred in the past twelve years.

The report shows that these rising temperatures, which are in line with global trends, are largely due to climate change caused by humans.

As well as this, this comes as Copernicus, ECMWF, and NASA are expected to release their annual climate summary, which is expected to show that 2024 was the Earth’s warmest year on record.

News and Editorial Director, and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to Principal Scientist at GNS Science, Dr Nick Cradock-Henry, about this report, and what this report means for 2025.

They started off by asking him about the rapidness in temperatures seen in the report in prior years.