Pubdate: Tue, 29 Mar 2005
Source: Hawke's Bay Today (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2005, Wilson & Horton
Contact:  http://mytown.co.nz/hawkesbay/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2947
Author: Paul Taggart
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

DRUGS, LIKE ALCOHOL, ARE NO EXCUSE

For years alcohol has been blamed by criminals for their offending, but the 
courts rarely see it as a mitigating factor.

It is the person responsible for the crime who chose to drink, therefore 
they deserve the full wrath of the justice system, if guilty.

And so it should be with drugs. Much has been said in recent months about 
the scourge of methamphetamine or P; with seminars, conferences and police 
time being devoted to finding ways of stopping the spread and use of the 
mind-bending substance.

P was at the heart of a case that went to trial in Auckland last week. 
Antonie Ronnie Dixon was found guilty of the murder of James Te Aute, who 
was shot with a home-made sub-machine gun in East Auckland in 2003.

He was also convicted of another seven charges including firearms offences 
and kidnapping and will be sentenced in May.

Dixon denied all the charges, as well as the attempted murders of Renee 
Gunbie and Simonne Butler, who were mutilated by a samurai sword in Pipiroa 
on the same day. Ms Gunbie lost a hand in the attack.

The trial was told Dixon was a nasty, angry man who embarked on a crime 
spree while fired up on methamphetamine. His defence lawyers claimed he was 
insane. After Dixon was convicted of murder, Crown solicitor for Auckland 
Simon Moore said the case showed criminals on P would not be able to use 
the drug as a defence for their actions.

And that is the way it should be. It doesn't matter how many strategies 
politicians, police officers and social workers come up with to minimise 
the use and abuse of P, at the end of the day it comes down to individuals' 
choices. The drug is relatively easy to manufacture, therefore is quite 
widely available, including in Hawke's Bay. So people just have to learn to 
say no when the drug is offered for sale, or offered for free in an attempt 
to recruit additional users.

The fact that Dixon's attempt to blame his use of methamphetamine for his 
crimes was rejected by the court was another small step along the road to 
reining in the P monster and making individuals take responsibility for 
their own actions.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom