Meeting to tackle meth
Nelson Mayor Rachel Reese will be among community leaders attending a meeting to help fight Nelson’s ‘‘runaway’’ meth problem.
Former Nelson police detective Sean Young is due to host the event, set up by the voluntary organisation Community Connect, at Nelson College for Girls on Monday evening.
‘‘The problem in Nelson is huge,’’ Community Connect’s founding member Silvia Yorke said. ‘‘I personally know lots of people who are on it, have been on it, are affected by it,’’ she said, of the drug commonly known as ‘‘P’’.
‘‘And the problem’s not just the people who are on it, but for every person that’s on it, at least 15 or 20 people are affected by them,’’
‘‘It’s becoming a community problem, [with the effects seen] in school, in families, it’s everywhere,’’ she said.
Yorke lamented a lack of rehabilitation centres and resources to deal with methamphetamine addicts.
The Silas House drug and alcohol treatment centre in Nelson offers education programmes for past and present addicts.
The centre’s clinical director John McCaughtry said the use of methamphetamine in Nelson was on a par with marijuana. ‘‘I’ve been told that you can buy P at the same price as marijuana, so it’s cheap.
At the moment we’re not getting very far at all in getting the problem sorted,’’ McCaughtry said.
He hoped to set up a detox facility at the centre within the next 6 months, or as soon as a property could be found and leased.
National director for the Salvation Army’s addiction services, Lynnette Hudson, is guest speaker at Monday’s meeting.
‘‘My primary reason for doing this is because we’re seeing meth use bedding in across the country and it’s becoming normalised.’’
In 2005, the Salvation Army only saw 10 per cent of people going to their services having used methamphetamine, but now it’s across the board, Hudson said.