The Wire with Max

The latest season report for drug use at festivals from the organization, The More You Know was released yesterday. Laura Kvigstad, spoke with the Director, Wendy Allison about the recent report and further talked with her about policies and legislation for drug use in New Zealand.

First up on today’s Wire, our Worry Week topics is substance use, abuse, and legislation. Lachlan talks to to Kathryn Leafe from the NZ Needle Exchange about the programme. Oscar talks to Associate National secretary of E Tu union John Ryle about the devaluation of the public service industry. Andrew Little joins us for our regular chat, this week discussing the family court review and calls for it to be a royal inquiry, and the upcoming cannabis referendum. Finally, Ben brings us This Day in History on nationalisation of the Suez Canal.

Oscar talked to Assistant Secretary of E Tū Union, John Ryall about the Mental Health and Addiction services settlement and caring for the care industry. 

It is no secret New Zealand has one of the highest suicide rates in the OECD and one in seven people will experience a major depressive episode in their life at some point. In these statistics men, in particular, are over-represented and for years the subject of mental health and opening up has been somewhat of a taboo subject for males. A group of university students have decided to change this. They have started a group called Mana For Men and are aiming to raise awareness around men’s mental health and encourage blokes to open up about their feelings. Sam Smith spoke to one of the founders Louis Laws.