Harmful methamphetamine use has become a serious health and social issue in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past 20 years, and it is arguably the country’s most feared and stigmatised substance. In Norway, Oslo has one of the highest rates of methamphetamine use in Europe. The two countries have much to learn from one another about how the drug is used, by whom and why – and what we can do about it.
Register for the seminar
Here you can register for the seminar April 27 at 9 am.
Webinar Speakers
Rt Hon Helen Clark
Helen Clark is patron of the Helen Clark Foundation and chair of the Global Commission on Drug Policy. She is a former Prime Minister of New Zealand, serving three successive terms from 1999 to 2008. From 2009 she held positions as the Administrator of the United Nations Development Program and the Chair of the United Nations Development Group, a committee consisting of the heads of all UN funds, programmes and departments working on development issues. She was the first woman to assume these positions, which she held for eight years, before standing down in April 2017.
Philippa Yasbek
Philippa Yasbek is the lead author on the report. She is a public health advocate who co-founded Gun Control NZ, an NGO that advocates for strong gun laws in New Zealand. She was an advisor on COVID-19 strategy and policy in the New Zealand Prime Minister’s Department in 2020.
Sarah Helm
Sarah Helm (Pākehā/Ngāi Tahu) is the Executive Director of the New Zealand Drug Foundation, a charitable trust that has been at the forefront of major alcohol and other drug policy debates for more than 30 years. The foundation advocates for drug policies and practices based on the best evidence available.
Professor Rita Sørly
Professor Rita Sørly works at UiT The Arctic University of Norway as a professor in social work, and as a senior supervisor at The Norwegian Health Directorate. Rita does research in qualitative social research, indigenous research and community mental health research. Her current projects are related to migration health, youth studies, mental health and substance use research.
Emma Lengle
Emma Lengle is a PhD fellow in Social Medicine at the University of Oslo. She holds an MD from the same university and a Master of Public Health from Harvard University. Emma does research at the intersection of health policy and social justice, with a particular focus on efforts to dismantle systemic inequality in the Norwegian welfare state.
Kali Mercier
Kali Mercier is Deputy Director of the Helen Clark Foundation and was one of the authors of the recent report, Minimising the Harms from Methamphetamine. Prior to taking up her current role, she worked for six years at the New Zealand Drug Foundation, leading their policy and law reform programme.
Professor Eivind Engebretsen
Professor Eivind Engebretsen a medical humanities scholar and a professor of interdisciplinary health science at the University of Oslo (UiO). He is the founding head of the Sustainable Health Unit (SUSTAINIT) at the Faculty of Medicine (UiO) and its associated Centre for Sustainable Healthcare Education (SHE).
The Webinar is made by The Helen Clark Foundation in cooperation with Center for Sustainable Healthcare Education (SHE)/University of Oslo, The Arctic University of Norway and NZ Drug Foundation.