Researchers map meth labs

Five North Island locations are identified as ‘hot spots’ where drug cooks are busiest

Five areas in the North Island have been identified as “hot spots” where a P lab is more likely to be found. University of Auckland researchers have been looking at the geographical spread of where methamphetamine was being made.

In the study, published this week, Helensville, Herekino (in the Far North), Hamilton Central, Opanuku (in West Auckland) and Newton (in Central Auckland) were identified as “hot-spots”.

Drs Daniel Exeter and David Newcombe gathered and mapped out police data of clandestine meth lab seizures from 2004 to 2009.

They analysed this further in light of an area’s demographic features and found that in three of these areas the residents tended to be younger, earned less, had higher levels of deprivation and it was more rural.

However, the researchers, from the university’s School of Population Health, said these socio-economic characteristics were not as visible in Hamilton and Helensville.

Exeter said this suggested there were unknown factors at play.

“There’s no single group of determinants or causes we can attribute to an environment that is a meth lab production hub,” he said. “Meth, and meth production, knows no bounds.”

The research, titled “The geography of methamphetamine manufacture in New Zealand between 2004 and 2009”, showed the majority of clandestine meth labs were found in a private residence — accounting for 808 (76.5 per cent) of 1056 seizures carried out in 2004 to 2009.

More recent police data obtained by the researchers showed this figure had almost halved in the subsequent five years to 561 — with 362 (57 per cent) occurring at a residential home.

From 2004 to 2009 clandestine lab seizures from a vehicle accounted for 138 (13 per cent) and 21 were at a motel or a hotel (2 per cent).

Other places where seizures occurred were in a public place, such as a cemetery, park, schoolyard dumpsters and the parking lot of a police station or storage unit.

National manager organised crime, Detective Superintendent Greg Williams, said police were concerned about the drug’s impact on the community.

Since 2009 police had been working to break supply chains and enhance support for those needing it.

Exeter and Newcombe hope their investigation can help those working to curb the drug’s production and use to further home in on areas that needed help most.

Newcombe said the geographical information could prove useful if it was incorporated in public databases.

“For instance, a national clandestine methamphetamine laboratory registry accessible to the public may be beneficial to potential homeowners and renters.”

One Hamilton landlord, who didn’t want to be identified, experienced first hand the costly impact of a methcontaminated property.

He only found out meth had been in the Frankton house when he went to sell it last year — but because of exclusions in his insurance policy he was unable to claim on damages.

The landlord was unable to prove conclusively it had been used as a lab, but said the level of contamination in one room was consistent with that.

One year on, the house, which had an asking price of $329,000 remains vacant and is for sale “as is, where is”.

“I had one [offer] of $80,000, I didn’t know if it was a joke,” the owner said.

So to improve his chances of a sale, he is forging ahead with decontaminating the property this week, at a cost of around $10,000.