Children as young as 9 have been offered free "party packs" of pure methamphetamine as the P epidemic deepens - but communities are fighting back. Across the country, small towns have taken imaginative steps to combat the drug and a Herald survey has found hopeful signs that the scourge can be contained. Anti-drug campaigners say the "party packs" give children a glass bomb (pipe), a lighter and enough P for two smokes. Children aged 9 and upwards have been offered them by older youths in Whakatane, says Johanna Wilson, who helps run the town's "no need for speed" team. [continues 599 words]
Communities Are Finding Ways To Keep Young People Away From P and Other Drugs. Murupara's anti-P campaign has been so successful that schoolchildren are said to have drug dealers running scared. Eight months ago, Murupara's community leaders and social service agencies worked out a plan which other towns now aspire to follow. District councillor Jacob Te Kurapa said Murupara's school students have learned about the pitfalls of P and signs to watch for. Young people who are approached, he said, are now saying to users, "we know you, we're going to tell". [continues 1362 words]
People seem to believe our society is violent but statistics suggest otherwise A survey assessing attitudes towards crime shows most people believe our society is more violent than it really is. Of the 1500 people questioned during the Ministry of Justice study, two-thirds of them thought that at least half of all crime reported to the police involved violence or the threat of violence. Police statistics show around 10 per cent of crime actually falls into that category. Many people also overestimated the likelihood of a household being burgled, leading the study's authors to conclude that many people had "an inaccurate and negative view of crime statistics". [continues 258 words]
Health Minister Annette King has asked for an urgent report on whether moves by Rotorua GPs and pharmacists to ban all pseudoephedrine products from the city should be introduced nationwide. Pseudoephedrine-based cold and flu pills are used to make pure methamphetamine, known as P. People trying to gather the drug's raw ingredients often break into pharmacies or go from town to town buying as many pills as possible. Many pharmacies across the country have already stopped stocking pseudoephedrine products as a result, but this is the first time a group of GPs has refused to prescribe them. [continues 431 words]
On a wet, wintry evening last month, around 180 Murupara residents crowded into a school hall to hear about a drug that has already begun to harm their tight-knit community. Concern about the arrival of P in the small Bay of Plenty town was so great that everyone from schoolchildren to the elderly had turned out. And they were shocked to learn about the devastating effects P was having. Some cried. Some felt sick. But they also decided that enough was enough. [continues 552 words]
Police have exposed Taupo businessmen, housewives and schoolchildren as drug users after an undercover operation revealed the extent of criminal behaviour in the area. Detective Inspector Graham Bell said he was astonished at how many "respectable" Taupo residents were using methamphetamine, commonly known as speed. "People who come from decent homes and nice neighbourhoods have now been lured into the use of this drug in epidemic proportions," he said. A police operation launched four months ago into burglary and stolen property came across the widespread drug scene. [continues 370 words]
An Auckland man shot in the leg while selling cannabis is refusing to tell police who pulled the trigger. Detective Sergeant Neil Grimstone said a 25 year-old man was shot in the thigh about 3 am yesterday while selling drugs from a house at Caravelle Close, Mangere. Police believed that a gang member was responsible for the attack but the injured man claimed that he did not see who it was. "I suggest he has every idea who it was but he's not prepared to tell us at the moment," Detective Sergeant Grimstone said. [continues 150 words]
Strip-searching prison visitors and examining inmates' bodies for drugs are among ideas being considered by the Corrections Department to stop illegal items entering prisons. Draft proposals are being considered for the new Corrections Act to halt drug use in prisons, as nearly one-third of prisoners drugs-tested last year returned positive results. Ideas include allowing officers to strip-search adult prison visitors with their consent and conducting full body examinations of inmates. Prisoners now could be strip-searched and have their nose, ears and mouths examined but the new proposal would cover all orifices. [continues 182 words]
By noon each day, thousands of New Zealand forestry workers have each scaled more than 50 pine trees and dragged ladders, harnesses and metre-long pruning shears through dense gorse and blackberry bush. But instead of putting their feet up and taking it easy, many eat on the run while they go in search of a different kind of relaxation. A recent survey on cannabis use in the forestry industry showed 77 per cent of silvicultural workers, who plant, prune and thin trees, had smoked marijuana in the previous year. [continues 537 words]
