Synnies ‘took son to dark’
Mum says destructiveness of synthetic drugs a much more tragic story than 75 deaths
Synthetics are ravaging New Zealand families — and the mother of a man who died after using the toxic drugs has spoken of the “darkness” of addiction and the inescapable pain of losing a loved one to the killer epidemic.
Chief Coroner Deborah Marshall yesterday revealed at least 75 people nationwide had died after taking synthetic drugs since June 2017.
Of those, 24 people had died as a direct result of drugs’ toxicity. Of the others, synthetics are provisionally attributed as the cause of death.
In those cases a final cause of death was yet to be ruled by coroners.
Kahu James Harawira joined the tragic list in June 2017.
He was found dead behind a building in Henderson, soon after his stepmother Stephanie saw him scoring synthetic drugs from a local dealer.
Harawira, one of 11 children, had turned 29 days earlier.
Stephanie Harawira, who’d raised her boy since he was young, said synthetics were not just decimating the lives of addicts — they were destroying Kiwi families every day.
“It just leaves a hole in your heart and it doesn’t get any better when you lose your son,” she said.
She was not surprised the death toll had reached 75, and she said she expected it to keep rising.
“Seventy-five deaths — that’s horrid, and that’s only the ones that have passed away,” she said. “What about all the people who are hooked on this stuff . . . and their families?
“It’s so addictive and so destructive . . . synthetics are just killing, and they will keep killing.”
Harawira said the “rampaging” problem of synthetics was not properly realised in New Zealand.
Many of those who had died were troubled, vulnerable, homeless.
So most people believed the synthetics epidemic was affecting only certain sectors of the community.
“I think it’s being brushed aside. It’s not getting the urgency it deserves.
“How many of our kids have to die? How many families have to be destroyed by synthetics? It won’t be until it hits a politician’s kid or their families that there is proper action.”
“Synnies” were developed to be a legal alternative to cannabis.
But on May 8, 2014, after nationwide protests against the drug, it became illegal to sell or use psychoactive substances in New Zealand.
Harawira said the Government, in allowing the drugs into the community, was responsible in part for the deaths of all 75 users.
She has been a community worker for many years and has supported many people battling addiction.
Within months of synthetics hitting the NZ market she noticed a dramatic change in drug users.
“They weren’t just stoned like they are on marijuana,” she said. “They were in a zombie state, peel-them-offthe-street stoned — there was such a huge difference.
“It just got really dark — they just got really dark, their eyes were dark.”
Harawira had spoken to her son numerous times about the drugs, begging him to stop. But the grip of synthetics was too strong. “They think they are immune . . . It’s like you can see them walking off a cliff, you yell out . . . and they just carry on.”
In August the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Act gave police discretion to take a health-centred approach, rather than prosecuting those in possession of Class A drugs.
It also classifies the main substances of synthetic drugs — AMBFUBINACA and 5F-ADB — as Class A drugs.