Let the police gather the evidence
that uses police operations to open the door to identify individuals and families that clearly have drug problems and introduce them to health-based solutions.
The programme was found to reduce the harms associated with meth, and has recently been rolled out to Murupara.
But far more needs to be done to reduce demand. The number of people who use methamphetamine is relatively small at around 1.4 per cent of the population — or around 40,000 people. Wastewater testing shows us that this group consumes 743kg of the drug each year. Not everybody who uses the drug causes problems, and that’s important to note, but we know that within this group, serious and disproportionate crimes, concerns and costs are all too real.
It’s clearly in the community’s interest to reduce the popularity of methamphetamine, and we should be doing this with the same intent the police employ to bust dealers. If we just focus on the supply side, we’ll never get to the bottom of things.
The community benefits of success here will be immense, but more than that a reduction in demand hits organised crime as well as their market contracts.
Many people would perhaps reach those conclusions on their own, but evidence-based policing is proving just how important it is.
And this is really just the start of EBP, and while it quietly works away with little fuss or publicity, that approach is far stronger than many of the views we hear publicly espoused by people whose firm opinions are negatively correlated to how much they know.
History 1609
The English ship Sea Venture, commanded by Admiral Sir George Somers, runs ashore on Bermuda, where the passengers and crew found a colony.
In NZ, a petition organised by Kate Sheppard and with more than 25,000 signatures, is delivered to parliament, demanding women's suffrage.
World War I begins as AustriaHungary declares war on Serbia.
A US Army bomber crashes into the 79th floor of New York’s Empire State Building, killing 14.
US President Lyndon B Johnson announces he is increasing the number of American troops in South Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000 “almost immediately”.
An earthquake in northern China kills at least 242,000 people.
The Los Angeles Summer Olympics opens.
A gunman opens fire at a garlic festival in Gilroy, California, killing three and wounding 17 before taking his own life.
US President Donald Trump issues a stout defence of the disproved use of a malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine, to treat Covid.
1893 1914 1945 1965 1976 1984 2019 2020 Birthdays
● Garfield creator Jim Davis is 77
● Rock musician Simon Kirke (Bad Company) is 73
● Rock musician Steve Morse (Deep Purple) is 68
● Rock singer Jacoby Shaddix (Papa Roach) is 46
● Golf star Nelly Korda is 24
Quiz Answers
1. Somerset Mt Vesuvius
3. Cookery book The Wind in the Willows Pyramid Daisy Duke 1982 Police Ten 7 Tomato One.
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Complaints 4. 6. 9.
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