THE PARTY-PILL GENERATION

NZ's drugs market is changing. Paul Yandall reports that cannabis is being
replaced by trendy drugs which can keep you dancing all weekend. And the
police admit they are losing the war against narcotics.

Glen: 24, single, Auckland urban professional, likes golf, dancing and
class A and class C drugs.

Police believe Glen and his ilk are driving a change in the market for
illegal drugs in this country.

"They're the ones who are supplying most of the demand for the new Party
drugs - young Aucklanders with disposable income who want to dance all
weekend," says the head of the Auckland drug squad, Detective Senior
Sergeant Colin McMurtrie.

Cannabis is waning in popularity. Says Glen: "I don't even think of it as a
drug any more. It's there if you want it [but] there are more interesting
things to take the edge off a stressful week."

In place of cannabis are methamphetamine - also known as speed or "poor
man's cocaine" because of its similar high - and Ecstasy.

Methamphetamine, which comes as a pill or in powdered form for snorting or
injecting, acts on the central nervous system to increase a user's heart
rate and blood pressure, producing a "high" and a sense of alertness.

Says Detective Senior Sergeant McMurtrie: "Methamphetamine is now being
made locally. It's a cheaper alternative to cocaine and it gives the
desired effects, and there's more money to be made so gangs are starting to
produce it."

A two-month covert police operation which targeted 24 properties in
Northland, Auckland and the Coromandel the traditional production regions
for cannabis - seized more than 280g of methamphetamine on Wednesday.

Twenty people were arrested and a " meth lab" was found at a Northland
property. It was the second such lab discovered this year. The first ever
found in New Zealand was shut down in Auckland in 1995. By 1998, that
number had grown to six. Last year, a dozen labs were shut.

The head of the Northland operation, Detective Inspector Viv Rickard of
Whangarei, said gangs were responsible for most production.

"These people can produce the drug in 24 hours from its base ingredients
and they can sell it at a good mark-up here," he says. Cannabis, in
contrast, can take up to 16 weeks to grow.

Coupled with Ecstasy, which can be bought in Europe for as little as $2 a
tablet and sold here for $100, the attraction for criminals to supply the
drugs is obvious.

In 1998, 1.3kg of methamphetamine and its chemically related cousin,
amphetamine, was seized. By last year the amount had jumped to 11.6kg.

Ecstasy has shown similar growth. Police seized 2788 tabs in 1998 and
15,000 tabs in 1999. Last year, 7373 tabs plus 67g of the drug in powder
form were found. Already this year, more than 25,000 tabs have been seized.

By comparison, the number of outdoor grown cannabis plants seized over the
past three years has dropped from 162,000 in 1998 to 105,000 last year.

Some of that drop can be attributed to an increase over the past few years
in the indoor growing of cannabis, says Detective Sergeant Tony Quayle of
the National Drugs Intelligence Bureau.

"But there's a definite increase in meth and Ecstasy out there," he says.

An Ecstasy raid by the Customs Service two weeks ago yielded 25,000 tablets
hidden inside a BMW car gearbox. It shows how much of the drug is consumed
here, says customs drugs and prohibited goods investigations manager Phil
Chitty.

"The demand is out there and it is growing and wherever there is demand,
someone is going to try and supply."

Cocaine and heroin seizures are static.

Obviously, there are no figures that show how much of any illegal drug is
being consumed here. A survey by the University of Auckland Alcohol and
Public Health Research Unit comparing rates of use in 1998 with 1990 showed
that the percentage of people who had used a stimulant such as
methamphetamine had increased from 1.6 to 4 per cent. The percentage who
had used Ecstasy and LSD had increased from 0.4 to 2.1 per cent and 3 to 7
per cent respectively.

The unit's director, Professor Sally Casswell, says another survey to be
conducted this year is predicted to show an increase, although it is too
early to say what is likely to be revealed.

Sally, Jackman, spokeswoman for the New Zealand Drug Foundation, whose
mission is to minimise drug-related harm, says there is little doubt that
more methamphetamine and Ecstasy use will lead to further deaths.

"But let's get things into perspective first. There are 500 alcohol-related
deaths and 4500 tobacco related deaths in New Zealand every year," she says.

Two deaths have been attributed to Ecstasy use - Aucklander Ngaire O'Neill
in 1998 and Whangarei man Jamie Langridge last year.

Detective Senior Sergeant McMurtrie believes we will see more if current
trends persist. He points to the recent cases of four people being taken to
hospital after taking the drug One4b - the active ingredient of which,
Butanediol, is also used as a CD-cleaning solvent overseas - as a sign of
what is to come.

"It doesn't matter how many times you tell people that taking drugs can
kill them, they all adopt the drink driver's [mentality]: I know 500 people
kill themselves on the roads by smashing up their car, but it won't happen
to me."

That, he says, is an attitude that will take more drug education programmes
and probably two generations to change.

Until that change happens the use of methamphetamine and Ecstasy will
increase in line with trends in Europe and there is little police can do to
stop it, says Detective Senior Sergeant McMurtrie.

"If you are to ask me whether we are losing the battle, I would have to say
yes, yes we are."