Meth use on the rise, police say
Six years after the launch of an action plan to slash methamphetamine use, statistics show some success. But police say recent trends show meth use is once again rising. So what is happening? ASHLEIGH STEWART talks with a former meth user, and the experts
More drug dealers and users are importing methamphetamine than producing it domestically, as use of the drug climbs, police say.
The news seems to contradict the Government, which has recorded dwindling statistics since its methamphetamine action plan was launched in 2009.
Ministry of Health data shows the number of recreational methamphetamine users has halved in the four years to 2013, but high profile seizures of large amounts of methamphetamine (P) and police stings continue to make headlines.
Assistant commissioner investigations Malcolm Burgess is unsure whether police are ‘‘getting better or we’re as good as we were at catching it, and there’s more to be caught’’.
‘‘Our sense is there’s possibly more out there. The price appears to have dropped, which suggests there’s plenty of supply.’’
The ‘‘vast majority of meth’’ was produced in the North Island, then filtered through the rest of the country. These days, dealers and users had turned to importing meth, rather than producing it themselves, Burgess said.
‘‘It’s become more commercial and less number-eight wired. There are less clan labs, but the ones we are seeing are more sophisticated.’’
Leader of the illegal drug research team at Massey University, Chris Wilkins, said the ‘‘biggest thing’’ that had happened in the last two years was the ‘‘increasing use and supply in Christchurch’’.
While a gram of methamphetamine may go for about $600 in Auckland or Wellington, the same amount could cost up to $1000 in Canterbury.
Vinnie Jago has been caught in the meth cycle over the same period. His dealers were readily available, to the point where he was sometimes spending $1500 a day on his addiction.
At his most crazed, Jago discharged himself from hospital and burgled houses on crutches for money for drugs.
Drugged and dazed, 17-year-old Vinnie Jago came to on a hospital bed. With consciousness came a faint recollection of a police chase. Stitches held his leg together. Then there was pain, but the illicit drugs still coursing through his veins numbed it somewhat. He was, by his account, ‘‘in oblivion’’.
It was not the first time Jago had been caught burgling a house to fuel an up to $1500-a-day methamphetamine addiction, and it also would not be his last. Since he began smoking, the drug had cost him friends, family and livelihood. This time, a police dog got him. The thought of going back to jail was terrifying, but so was the psychosis that came with a meth come-down; one that was already gnawing at his drug-addled brain.
Jago had only one thought: Escape.
He hauled himself out of bed, leg throbbing, and fled the hospital on foot. That afternoon, he was burgling houses on crutches.
‘‘No-one and nothing was more important than methamphetamine,’’ Jago, now 22, says.
The sentiment is not one he holds alone. According to most recent data, about 36,000 New Zealanders are trapped in a similar cycle.
Per capita, New Zealand has long been known to have one of the highest number of methamphetamine users in the world.
Government initiatives aimed to slash the numbers, most recently with a targeted action plan launched in 2009. In the years following, meth soared in price and dropped in potency – a sure sign the initiative was having an impact, it was argued.
Not so fast, police and researchers say. In the six months to June, almost $246 million worth of methamphetamine was stopped at New Zealand borders – the highest volume to date seized in a six month period. High profile police stings and record seizures continue in the headlines.
Police aren’t sure whether they are getting better at their jobs, or there is more drugs out there. Nowadays, they are leaning towards greater supply.
Meth serves as a stimulant to the central nervous system. Users get a feeling of euphoria as the drug causes the brain to release excess levels of dopamine. Effects last between six and 12 hours. It is highly addictive and tolerance develops quickly, meaning larger doses are needed to achieve the same high.
The list of street names is lengthy; Meth, speed, pure, crystal, ice, crank, glass, P, to name some. Users can inject, snort, smoke, or swallow the drug.
For Jago, his meth obsession began the same way as many others did – a dalliance that led to full-blown addiction.
When he was just 9-years-old, Jago’s mother died of a brain aneurism. Jago’s father was a functioning alcoholic and started working 70 hour weeks. He suffered a stroke not long after his wife’s death, but recovered.
Jago started drinking booze and smoking cannabis, and stopped going to school. His older sister was never home, and his brother was ‘‘a bit of a criminal too’’, having been arrested and gone to jail several times for petty crime.
At 15, Jago was kicked out of high school and was enrolled in an alternative education programme at the YMCA, under his father’s orders. Jago stresses his Dad had always tried to do the right thing by him.
But what his Dad didn’t realise was that his primary function was funding his son’s habit.
‘‘I stole from my old man for drugs. I knew he’d get up at night to go to the toilet, so I’d sneak down beside his bed, take his credit card out of his wallet and run down to The Palms. I’d draw all the money out that I could, run back and try and put the card in his wallet.
‘‘Going up to your friends with $800, you thought you were so cool. It was cool to me to be a drug addict.’’
He was first arrested for wilful damage while out tagging with friends. He soon started stealing cars, and eventually got caught for that too. Having been kicked out of the YMCA, Jago was hauled over to the Canterbury Youth Development Programme, which got him a job unloading skips.
That lasted a couple of months, until he was fired for not showing up. ‘‘I gave up. Drugs were more important. I was a lost little boy.’’
Soon enough, cannabis became ecstasy and opioids, and then methamphetamine.
Meth had ‘‘always intrigued’’ Jago, but interest became infatuation after he befriended a P-addict.
Such was their addiction, that he and his friends turned to theft to fund their $1500-a-day obsession.
By day, they were robbing houses, by night, they were stealing cars.
It was three months until he was arrested again, for stealing a car. The jail sentence was set at 18 months, of which he served just nine months for good behaviour. During his time in the youth unit, he passed NCEA Level 1 and 2, and completed an automotive mechanic programme.
‘‘I was like the A student in jail,’’ Jago laughs. ‘‘I did good in there.’’
Upon his release, he moved back in with his Dad and got his old job back. But it was not long before old habits came creeping back.
Jago would turn up for work high on meth, barely functioning after three to four days without sleep, and eventually, he stopped turning up and was sacked again.
He turned again to ripping off family members, stealing from his Dad and robbing his brother.
He was jailed for more burglaries soon after. While he spent some time in the youth unit, he was eventually moved in with the adults.
‘‘I was only 18. That was a wakeup call. It was really, really scary. I was getting asked to prospect for gangs ... getting a hiding for saying no. People were trying to fight me for my two Weetbix every morning.’’
Still, nothing stuck. The $350 people receive upon their release from prison went immediately towards a quarter gram of meth.
After a few months into his newly procured employment as a scaffolder, Jago told his workplace a friend had died and never went back.
‘‘There’s so much money in drugs ... nice cars, hot women. I just wanted to be that. I was a Crip one day and a Blood the other day. I tried to fit in and I just wanted people to like me.’’
It was then that Jago received the police dog bite that landed him in hospital with 72 stitches. Self-discharged and on the run, he missed his court appearance. He ripped off his Dad again and stole from his best friend.
The final straw came several months later when a family came home while Jago was inside their house, stealing their belongings.
‘‘At that point I was over it, I just gave up.
‘‘I was a sh.t drug addict and a sh.t criminal.’’
Five ‘‘brutal’’ months in jail followed. On his release, Jago swore that he wanted off drugs. It was the first time he had committed to getting himself clean.
As of June, he has not touched an illicit drug in two years.
‘‘My life has done a complete 360. Been working nine months as a window washer. It’s the longest job I’ve ever had.’’
‘‘I loved drugs, but they destroyed my life. They took my soul.’’
John Key’s Methamphetamine Action Plan, launched in 2009, aimed to cut user numbers and improve treatment for addicts. It would provide ‘‘critical steps’’ in the fight against meth, Key said at the time.
In 2009, the Ministry of Health calculated P addicts made up 2.2 per cent of the general population. By 2013, that number had halved.
Police are hesitant to agree with the statistics.
On Wednesday, police arrested a teenage tourist after he received $1m worth of methamphetamine, hidden in soup packets.
Last week 10 people were arrested in raids on the Head Hunters gang, including three inmates at Mt Eden prison. The lot were charged with a range of serious offences including the manufacture and supply of methamphetamine.
In June, four people were found guilty for $1m methamphetamine stash found in Chews Lane, in the shadow of Wellington’s central police station.
Just two months prior, two major drug busts in Auckland netted police 123 kilograms of meth, more than all of the drug seized in New Zealand last year.
‘‘Either we’re getting better or we’re as good as we were at catching it, and there’s more to be caught. Our sense is there’s possibly more out there,’’ assistant commissioner investigations Malcolm Burgess says.
‘‘The price appears to have dropped, which suggests there’s plenty of supply,’’ he says.
The current circulating product was high-purity and NZ-wide.
Recent police analysis showed the ‘‘vast majority of meth’’ was produced in the top half of the North Island, and filtered through the rest of the country.
These days, dealers and users had turned to importing meth, rather than producing it themselves. They were becoming more savvy.
‘‘Its become more commercial and less number-eight wired. There are less clan labs, but the ones we are seeing are more sophisticated,’’ says Burgess.
It is hard for him to pinpoint a solid link between crime and meth, but says people ‘‘desperate to fund an addiction’’ had long been compelled to, specifically, ‘‘bizarre and violent’’ crime.
While some credit should be given to police and customs for the huge hauls recently seized and their preventative work, Burgess concedes an impact will not be made until demand for the drug is tackled.
Leader of the illegal drug research team at Massey University, Chris Wilkins, says his raft of research also makes him less optimistic about the eradication of meth.
His research shows the drug has increased in price over the years, and there has been a ‘‘solid decline’’ in strength.
But the ‘‘biggest thing’’ that had happened in the last two years was the ‘‘increasing use and supply in Christchurch’’. Wilkins believes the spike may be related to the rebuild.
‘‘The earthquake disrupted the market in 2011, and there was an influx of construction workers who tend to be young men with good, high-paying jobs who tend to be in the demographic drawn to drugs,’’ he says.
Prices were much higher in Canterbury, he says. While a gram of methamphetamine may go for around $600 in Auckland or Wellington, the same amount could cost up to $1000 in Christchurch.
Demand has not slowed, he says.
But for Jago, it has. He now wants to help meth users. He wants to believe in the Government stats.
‘‘I can’t keep what I have unless I give it away,’’ he says.
After he got clean, he got his hobbies back. He surfs. He toys with the idea of going to university to study geography.
He has mended his relationship with his family. He talks to his Dad every day, and has good relationships with his brother and sister.
‘‘I robbed my brother’s house when I was using and now I housesit for him.’’
Nonetheless, he still does not know if he will ever be clear of methamphetamine.
‘‘I won’t say never because I know I will always be a drug addict – it’s f..king evil, it’s a relapsing disease,’’ he says.
‘‘Staying clean is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But my life has never been better.’’
I stole from my old man for drugs. I knew he’d get up at night to go to the toilet, so I’d sneak down beside his bed, take his credit card out of his wallet and run down to The Palms.’’