The latest release from the New Zealand Drug Trends Survey (NZDTS) offers fresh insight into both emerging and established party drug markets across Aotearoa New Zealand.
Based on 2025 data, ketamine is now among the more affordable party drugs in the country, with a national average price of $200 per gram.
The annual NZDTS captures a snapshot of drug trends through an anonymous online questionnaire completed by more than 8,800 people around the motu. Respondents are asked about patterns of drug use, market prices, attitudes towards drug policy, support services, barriers to getting help and harm reduction measures.
This second release of the 2025 findings focuses on ketamine, MDMA/ecstasy, LSD/psychedelics and digital drug markets. It points to a continued rise in online drug purchasing through social media and the darknet, underlining how popular these channels have become for supply. Buying methamphetamine and cocaine through social media has also continued to climb since 2020.
Dr Robin van der Sanden, from the NZ Drug Research Team at Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University’s SHORE & Whariki Research Centre, says the trend is likely linked to increasing supply.
“We’ve seen large-scale increases in meth consumption and availability in New Zealand over the last year, with cocaine also increasingly available across the country. These changes are paralleled by an increasing diversification of retail market channels consumers can use to access these drugs, including digital markets, like social media.”
Dr van der Sanden says it is important to recognise that social media and darknet markets serve different functions within the supply chain. Social media is largely used for smaller retail deals, while darknet markets are more often associated with larger wholesale transactions.
The survey also found notable drops in the price of MDMA powder and crystal. After inflation is taken into account, the average price has fallen from $301 per gram in 2017/18 to $159 per gram in 2025 — a decline of 47 per cent.
Those falling prices are likely tied to the recovery of global MDMA production and supply following pandemic disruption, along with the emergence of new manufacturing locations and supply pathways such as digital drug markets. These developments appear to have helped drive down the price of both MDMA and LSD tabs since reporting began in 2017/18.
Dr van der Sanden says MDMA and ecstasy availability in New Zealand has looked increasingly steady in recent years.
“Nearly three quarters of 2024 and 2025 respondents who used MDMA/ecstasy reported it’s ‘easy’ or ‘very easy’ to obtain in their region, compared to just over a quarter reporting the opposite. Similarly, the proportion of respondents reporting LSD/psychedelics are ‘very easy’ to get has been trending upwards since 2020.”
Although MDMA remains widely available, its use and purchasing are less frequent than methamphetamine, suggesting lower levels of dependency and harm. Dr van der Sanden says MDMA and ecstasy are now part of a broader and growing party drug market in Aotearoa.
“The ‘party drug’ scene has undergone a great deal of change in the last few years, with alternatives like cocaine and ketamine becoming more available across the country, meaning that people increasingly have access to a wider range of drug types, and are able to pick and choose the one’s they prefer.”
The latest release also offers the first insight into recreational ketamine use, showing that the drug is becoming more visible within New Zealand’s party drug scene. Dr van der Sanden says ketamine — a dissociative drug with legitimate medical uses as an anaesthetic — is becoming easier to access. In 2025, it had an average national price of $200 per gram, placing it among the cheaper party drugs.
“Ketamine has emerged globally in recent years, and seems to be carving out a niche for itself alongside other ‘mainstream’ illegal drugs like MDMA, cocaine and methamphetamine, which suggests it’s becoming an established drug in its own right.”
The 2025 findings also show that ketamine use varied considerably by region, with higher levels reported in Otago and Wellington.
“International evidence suggests recreational ketamine use tends to be concentrated among younger age groups. Respondents who use ketamine also reported a younger median age compared to users of other drug types, and a higher proportion reported they were a student, which helps to explain why ketamine use might be higher in regions with high student populations.”
The NZDTS is carried out by the NZ Drugs Research Team at Massey University’s SHORE & Whariki Research Centre. The 2025 survey was completed by 8,883 New Zealanders, with responses collected between 9 May and 6 October 2025.
