Kiwis’ use of meth at crossroads
On Monday morning, Tribal Huk leader Jamie Pink announced he had paid the price for his very public campaign to rid a Waikato town of meth: losing one of his eyes.
He had earlier given a deadline to P dealers to leave the town of Ngaruawahia, or face the gang’s wrath. But can gangs - or anyone else - really solve New Zealand’s meth problem?
While some data indicates use of methamphetamines in New Zealand has fallen, there are concerns large quantities of methamphetamine available on the world market could allow the problem in this country to worsen.
Earlier this year Customs group manager intelligence, investigations and enforcement, Jamie Bamford, said there was a worldwide glut of methamphetamine, and this country was an attractive market.
Massey University illegal drug researcher Dr Chris Wilkins said there was a risk the methamphetamine problem could get ‘‘a bit worse, in which case it will be quite bad, or we’re going to be able to get a handle on it’’.
‘‘We’re certainly at that kind of tipping point,’’ he said. ’’What would really set alarm bells off, is if the price continues to go down and supply continues to go up.’’
Monitoring had found that supply had increased since around 2013/14, which was similar to what was happening in Australia. Evidence, such as major seizures of methamphetamine, was mounting that the supply of the drug was increasing.
According to the Ministry of Health, 0.9 per cent of adults reported in 2012/13 having used amphetamines in the previous year, while 0.2 per cent reported using them at least monthly. In comparison, 2.7 per cent of people had reported using amphetamines during the past year in 2003.
NZ Drug Foundation executive director Ross Bell said that while use had come down, there was a feeling that in provincial New Zealand there were pockets of increased use.
’’Those are parts of the country without access to adequate treatment, with treatment waiting lists, or no treatment at all.’’
About $120 million a year is spent on alcohol and drug treatment. With that level of spending about 45,000 people who wanted drug and alcohol help were seen. Figures showed a further 50,000 people a year looked for help and couldn’t get it. So the current effort needed to be doubled.
Getting a clear national picture of drug use is difficult because drug trends were localised, Wilkins said, but funding was not available to carry out the level of monitoring needed across the country.
‘‘Some of these smaller centres have all the ingredients for high levels of drug use,’’ he said. Factors could include high levels of unemployment, social problems, a lack of social services and a lack of drug treatment services.
’’I wouldn’t be surprised if places like Ngaruawahia have high drug use among young people.’’
But Bell warned that events in Ngaruawahia could not automatically be extrapolated to the rest of the country. The dealers in Ngaruawahia might all have been small, he said. Another factor was that most methamphetamine dealers did not operate houses where the drug could be bought, in the way cannabis sellers did. Dealers would often only deal with people they knew.
Bell expected the dealers would be back in Ngaruawahia quickly. - Fairfax NZ