Alcohol and other drug (AOD) issues affect a significant proportion of New Zealand's population. Problem alcohol use is the most prevalent substance use disorder; methamphetamine is a serious and growing community concern; cannabis, opioids, and other substances affect many more. The social costs — in healthcare, justice, family harm, workplace productivity, and community wellbeing — are enormous. Grants supporting AOD treatment, harm reduction, and recovery services are high-value investments in individual and community health.
Alcohol: Alcohol is New Zealand's most harmful substance in aggregate terms. Hazardous drinking (more than 21 standard drinks per week for men, 14 for women) affects hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders. Alcohol-related harm includes family violence, road crashes, hospital presentations, liver disease, mental health comorbidities, and lost productivity.
Methamphetamine: Meth use has become a serious concern in many New Zealand communities, particularly in rural and provincial areas. Meth is associated with severe mental health effects, family harm, and crime. Recent years have seen high-purity meth at low prices — a concerning combination.
Cannabis: Cannabis is the most widely used illegal drug in New Zealand. Most cannabis use does not result in serious harm, but heavy use is associated with mental health difficulties, and dependent use can be difficult to address without support.
Opioids: While less prevalent than in some countries, opioid dependence — including from prescription pain medication — is a significant issue for some populations. Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST) services are critical.
Youth: Young people are at particular risk from substance use — both because of developing neurobiology and because early use predicts more severe problems. Prevention and early intervention for rangatahi are high-priority investments.
Government funding
Health New Zealand (formerly DHBs) funds most formal AOD treatment services — residential withdrawal, community-based treatment, opioid substitution therapy. Government funding is generally insufficient to meet demand; wait times for treatment are common.
Key services
Harm reduction services
Māori and Pacific AOD services
Māori and Pacific communities are disproportionately affected by AOD harm and face specific barriers to accessing culturally appropriate treatment. Kaupapa Māori and Pacific-led services — providing treatment and recovery support within cultural frameworks — are both more appropriate and more effective for these communities. Grants for Māori and Pacific AOD services fill significant gaps.
Youth prevention and early intervention
Preventing young people from developing serious AOD problems is dramatically more cost-effective than treating adult addiction. School-based prevention programmes, community youth AOD workers, early intervention services for young people with emerging use, and youth-specific treatment services are high-priority investments.
Family and whānau support
Addiction profoundly affects families. Partners, parents, siblings, and children of people with addiction experience significant harm — emotional, financial, and sometimes physical. Grants for family support services — counselling, practical help, information — recognise that addiction is a family issue.
Recovery community infrastructure
People in recovery benefit enormously from community — peers who understand their experience, social connections that support sobriety, activities and purposes that replace substance use. Recovery community organisations, AA and NA fellowship support, recovery cafes, and sober social spaces are valuable and underresourced.
Harm reduction
Evidence consistently supports harm reduction approaches — meeting people where they are, reducing the risks of use, and building pathways to treatment for those who want it. Needle exchange, take-home naloxone (to reverse opioid overdose), drug checking services, and managed alcohol programmes are evidence-based harm reduction approaches that need philanthropic support when government is slow to fund.
AOD and justice
A very high proportion of people in the justice system have significant AOD problems. Drug courts, AOD treatment in custody, and community-based treatment as an alternative to imprisonment all reduce reoffending. Grants supporting AOD-justice intersections fund dual-benefit interventions.
AOD workforce development
New Zealand has a shortage of skilled AOD practitioners — particularly those with cultural competence for Māori and Pacific communities. Grants for AOD worker training, professional development, and workforce pathway development build the sector's capacity.
Treat addiction as a health issue: Effective AOD philanthropy treats addiction as a complex health condition — not a moral failure or criminal matter. This has significant implications for what programmes are funded and how grantees talk about the people they serve.
Lived experience leadership: People with lived experience of addiction and recovery are the most credible and effective advocates for effective AOD policy and services. Grants that resource lived experience leadership — in programme design, peer support delivery, and policy advocacy — produce more effective services.
Long-term recovery requires long-term support: Recovery is not a single event but a long-term process. Services that support people through the years of early recovery — when relapse risk is high and social infrastructure is often thin — produce better outcomes than short-term treatment alone.
Address the social determinants: AOD problems are often rooted in trauma, poverty, housing instability, and adverse childhood experiences. Grants that address these underlying factors — alongside AOD treatment — produce more durable recovery outcomes.
Tahua's grants management platform supports AOD funders and addiction services in New Zealand — with the grant tracking, outcome measurement, and relationship management tools that help funders invest effectively in treatment, harm reduction, and recovery.