Meth addicts getting desperate for help

Meth addicts desperate to detox face up to a five month wait for a bed in some rehabilitation centres.

The pressure on addiction services comes as new figures from the coroner show the annual number dying – at least in part – as a result of methamphetamine related toxicity has tripled over slightly less than five years from seven in 2015 to 21 in 2018.

A third report from police on the national wastewater testing programme for the period May to July showed methamphetamine remained the most commonly detected illicit drug nationwide with about 15 kilograms consumed on average each week.

The drug, which stimulates the central nervous system and causes feelings of euphoria, was causing an estimated $19 million per week in social harm, or more than $1 billion annually.

Addiction recovery service providers say they have seen a huge increase in demand for counselling and detox services.

‘‘Across the country we’ve got

Lynette Hutson

waiting lists out to March for residential beds,’’ Salvation Army national director addictions Lt Col Lynette Hutson said.

Use of meth had grown steadily over the past decade and now matched alcohol as the main substance of concern among those seeking help.

Christchurch City Mission chief executive Matthew Mark said drug and alcohol counsellors had seen a trebling of youth seeking help for meth addiction in the past year.

The increase in demand from those with meth addictions had strained capacity of the service with counsellors carrying caseloads of up to 45 to 50 people.

A national phone service, Meth Help, provided by Odyssey House

Christchurch, was also reporting huge demand, with clients waiting two to three months, coordinator Andrew Munro said.

Counselling sessions had recently been capped at six weeks to manage demand.

Munro said they were forced to cap the programme in order to help as many people as they could. ‘‘We were long term but we’ve actually found we can’t hold that space any more,’’ he said.

The weekday-only service employed four staff or 2.5 full-time equivalents, which he said probably wasn’t enough.

Access to counselling was key to preventing a relapse as often people used the drug to mask experiences of trauma.

After a detox and period of abstinence the issues that led them to drug abuse recurred, Munro said.

‘‘...It’s really important to get [counselling] because really you are just opening up pandora’s box again so you are probably going to go back.’’

Mark, Hutson and Odyssey House chief executive Nigel Loughton said they had not received any increase in funding for addiction services alongside the growth in demand.