4 February 2026
Hayden
[FYI request #33252 email]
Tēnā koe Hayden
Your request for official information, reference: HNZ00106865
Thank you for your email on 17 January 2026, that was transferred to Health New Zealand | Te
Whatu Ora from NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi, asking for the following under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the OIA):
1. Number and percentage of New Zealanders who regularly take Schedule 5 medications (by
drug category)
2. Number of medicinal cannabis prescription holders
o
Geographic distribution (urban vs. regional/rural)
Response
NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi transferred your request to Health New Zealand for the aspects
relating to medicines dispensing and population health data. Under section 14 of the OIA, requests
may be transferred in whole or in part when information is not held or is more closely connected
with another agency’s functions.
Health NZ does not categorise medicines as “Schedule 5 medications” as this is not a medicines
classification used for health system reporting.
Health NZ also does not hold information on the number of people who hold a medicinal cannabis
prescription.
As a result, we cannot provide the percentage of New Zealanders who regularly take Schedule 5
medications. This part of your request is refused under section 18(g) of the OIA, as the information
is not held by Health NZ.
However, to assist you, we have interpreted your request as seeking the closest available
information that we hold.
Please refer to
Appendix One for the following dispensing data:
• Count of unique people who received at least one dispensing of the selected drugs, by
chemical, rural/urban status and financial year, 01 Jul 2019 to 30 Jun 2025
• Count of unique people who received at least one dispensing of cannabis by chemical,
urban/rural status and financial year, 01 Jul 2019 to 30 Jun 2025.
These figures are based on recorded dispensings and should not be interpreted as the number of
people who regularly take Schedule 5 medications or as the number of medicinal cannabis
prescription holders.
All data provided is provisional data. This is data which has not undergone the validation process
that we use for published data. We recommend that caveats are consistently used, underscoring
that the data is provisional, not validated through a formal validation process, and could be subject
to change.
How to get in touch
If you have any questions, you can contact us a
t [email address].
If you are not happy with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the
Ombudsman. Information about how to do this is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or
by phoning 0800 802 602.
As this information may be of interest to other members of the public, Health NZ may proactively
release a copy of this response on our website. All requester data, including your name and
contact details, will be removed prior to release.
Nāku iti noa, nā
Danielle Coe
Manager (OIAs) – Government Services
Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora
