Ministry of Justice chief executive Andrew Kibblewhite said charges for possession of cannabis for personal use had risen over the past year and a half, particularly for Māori. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
The Ministry of Justice says an increase in charges for drug possession is probably because of gang patch laws.
Appearing at the Justice select committee for scrutiny week, the ministry's chief executive Andrew Kibblewhite acknowledged charges for possession of cannabis for personal use had risen over the past year and a half, particularly for Māori.
Under questioning by Labour's Ginny Andersen, he said it was only a hypothesis, but the increase was likely due to the new gang patch ban, which gives police more search powers than before.
"It's quite likely that because there are more searches happening now there will be more drugs found, and that has seen an increase in the possession charges for both cannabis and methamphetamine."
More investigation would be needed to find out if that was in fact the case, he said.
Further investigation would also be needed to understand what was driving low rates of Māori trust in police and the justice system.
Questions about a shift away from a health-based approach should be put to police, he said.
"You're really talking about decisions that police will be making ... I don't have a perspective to offer on that one."
If further investigation did uncover a shift away from a health-based approach to drugs was occurring, or if bias was involved, that would lead the justice sector to take a joint approach.
"Some of the ... increase in the number of drugs charges has become part of the conversations I'm having only quite recently but I think some of the work we're doing would absolutely ask the question about what's driving that.
"If we understand what's driving that, that would lead to a justice sector conversation but we haven't had that conversation at this point."
Kibblewhite confirmed reducing disproportionality of Māori in justice system was one of the ministry's six priorities, and pointed to the new questions about trust in the Crime and Victims survey as one way of assessing that.
He accepted Labour's Duncan Webb's suggestion the system was "not making particular ground" on reducing that disproportionality, and there were no new programmes specifically targeting the problem.
National's Rima Nahkle, however, pointed out victimisation for Māori was down.
Kibblewhite also noted the number of Māori appearing in court was also being tracked, including reoffending, and programmes like Te Ao Mārama - which partners the district court with iwi and communities - were likely to have an effect but would take some years for that to be seen because it targets reoffending.
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