NEW METH DRUG ROCKS NZ

A POWERFUL methamphetamine drug known as "crazy medicine" in Thailand
has hit New Zealand's capital city.

Sunday News has been told tens of thousands of Ya Ba pills arrived in
Wellington late last year from the infamous Golden Triangle.

The Ya Ba was imported following a major shortage in the local P
market, caused by police crackdowns on dealers and gangs. More than
380 officers worked on 12 operations across the country in November
and December, resulting in nearly 400 arrests and the discovery of
hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of the Class A drug.

Customs has also hit P production. This week, the government
department revealed it intercepted more than one tonne of
pseudoephedrine - the base ingredient in P - last year.

The National Drug Intelligence Bureau - which includes police, customs
and the Ministry of Health - was unaware of Ya Ba's arrival in Wellington.

Bureau head, Detective Inspector Stuart Mills, said police had "not
yet seen Ya Ba as of yet", but they had noticed an upsurge in other
synthetic drugs in Wellington such as Ecstasy.

"We do receive a bit of information on Ya ba periodically, but it is
not widely available," he said.

According to an underworld source, Ya Ba - which also contains
caffeine as a base - is yet to be widely offered for sale in
Wellington, but the drug syndicate behind them has started circulating
them through the vice scene as cheaply as $18 a pop to build a market.

"People in the know are being offered them. I think they're just sort
of leaking them out and then people are going to want them. People
have been saying, 'I'm over P, I want to try something new', then lo
and behold, there it came," he said.

The source said the pills would soon sell for $60-$70 each, something
he said was a "bargain" given their strength.

He said one pill would have the same effect as one to two points of P.
A point of P costs $100.

"For your average Joe one of them [Ya Ba] will be more than enough,"
he said.

"It would blow their head off. And they're just so more-ish, you have
it and you think 'man, I want another one'."

Ya Ba use got so out of control in Thailand in the early 2000s Prime
Minister Thaksin Shinawatra declared war on the drug, its dealers and
users. Within 10 months, 2500 people were dead. Sunday News' source,
who has spent more than a decade in the gang scene, said he bought
seven Ya Ba tablets off a member of a drug syndicate. He said the
syndicate member said of his supply: "The sky's the limit."

The source said the pills, from Burma, were orange, tasted like
aniseed, "smoked up a storm" when lit, and were stamped with the
initials WY - Ya Ba are often embossed with those initials.

The source said the pills would "kill" the P market.

"It's pure methamphetamine mate ... it's better, it's cleaner ...
instead of sitting around smoking a pipe all night you have a few hits
of this and bang, you're away night-clubbing or whatever.

"You can't sit down. If you do you'll stand straight back
up."

The source said Ya Ba first emerged in the gang scene in Auckland in
the early 2000s, but even the hardcore criminals couldn't handle them.

"It made them [the cooks and gangs] mental, it was nasty
stuff.""

Mills said the emergence of any methamphetamine-based drug was of
concern because of what people would do on it and for it.