'An agonising loss of life and potential': Three accidental drug overdose deaths per week

Jo Newton knew what had happened to her son as soon as she picked up the call from police.

Stewart Pledger-Davies was 32, and for the month before he died he lived with his mum in Napier.

The eldest of five siblings, he was a joker, a protective older brother, fit and active. But his meth addiction made it difficult to be around him at times, she said.

He was "transient" - hard to get hold of, in and out of homelessness, and in and out of the justice system.

Newton said she tried on a number of occasions to get him help - in fact, a week before he died in January this year, she'd been on the phone to a rehab centre, and was told there were no places for at least two weeks.

"I said to them, he's not going to make two weeks. He needs support now."

Two weeks later, he was picked up by police not far from home, and took his last breath in the back of a police car en route to Hastings hospital.

His case is still before the coroner, so the cause of death isn't certain, but Newton said an autopsy found only meth in his system.

On average, three people every week die from accidental drug overdoses. The provisional number reached 169 in 2025, for a total of 1440 between 2016 and 2025.

That's according to a new report by the New Zealand Drug Foundation, which analysed coronial data on fatal accidental overdoses, and found the number has remained stubbornly stable over the past few years.

In 2024, it was 148.

The report noted nearly half of the cases were still under investigation by the coroner.

The death rate was 2.3 times higher among Māori than non-Māori, and men were more likely to die of an accidental drug overdose than women.

In about 85 percent of cases, there was more than one substance involved, and depressants such as opioids, benzodiazepines and alcohol featured heavily.

New Zealand Drug Foundation's executive director, Sarah Helm, said: "Over the last decade, there are 1440 families out there that have lost a loved one. That is an agonising loss of life and potential."

That was roughly twice the number of people lost to drownings every year, and more than half the road toll.

"There are some really practical measures we can put in place to prevent these fatalities," she said.

With opioids the biggest contributor to overdose deaths in New Zealand, a take-home naloxone scheme in the form of a nasal spray, the likes of which was already in place in Australia, would help to lower the death toll.

The Drug Overdose (Assistance Protection) Legislation Bill - also known as the Good Samaritan bill - protected those who sought help for people who overdosed.

It meant police could not charge people at the scene after an ambulance was called, and officers would not have grounds to search for evidence.

The Mental Health Minister, Matt Doocey, said at the time of its release: "We know we can't wait until someone is in active addiction to act. Early intervention is critical."

He said they had expanded early intervention services in communities and rolled out dedicated intervention staff in seven hospitals.

Helm said better data would also help the response. "We're a charity, we cobble these figures together," she said. "But we would love to see these to be official statistics. We'd love to see a proper plan in place."

Health NZ held data about hospital events related to drug overdoses - but neither it, nor the Ministry of Health routinely published national data specifically reporting on drug overdoses, the ministry confirmed.

It said the Drug Foundation's findings were used by the ministry to inform strategic direction and responses.

The Ministry of Health tracked self-reported illicit drug use through its annual health survey and as part the government's action plan, it was exploring options to improve data collection and reporting.

Newton said a number of things could have changed the outcome for her son.

"I wanted him to go to prison," she said. "That, for me, would have been the best place for him to have gone because he was facing some serious charges, and he was given intensive supervision [...] and part of that was always to get drug and alcohol support and he never did."

Good Samaritan laws would perhaps have helped, too.

"My son, for example, was on intensive supervision, was not meant to be using, had been on bail conditions. It's possible he didn't want an ambulance to be called," she said.

"We don't know how he got to where he was and it was a bit of an unusual place where he was found. It wouldn't be a way he'd walk normally. We believe that someone was trying to get him to my house and just went, here will do."

She said the work being done to curb supply was a good thing, but "the thing is, there's always going to be drug dealers".

"There's always going to be a new drug. It's a business. People are always going to try and make money. The addicts are the ones that need to be treated. And it's a health condition. Nobody wants to be an addict. Nobody asks for that for their life."

These days, she kept a vial of naloxone in the house. It wouldn't have helped Stewart, but it would save someone from an opioid overdose.

"Not that I'm in that world, but I like to say if someone was in trouble, if kids experiment ... I have a 17-year-old daughter, and if one of her friends takes something, I want to know that I can do the best for them."