EPIDEMIC SHOWS NO SIGN OF SLOWING, DRUG EXPERTS SAY

Government efforts in the fight against P have not been focused or
funded enough and the country is playing catch-up on an epidemic
showing no signs of slowing down, police and drug experts say.

Despite many high-profile busts and seizures, those working with users
of P say the demand for the drug is higher than ever.

A methamphetamine action plan drawn up in May 2003 as a multi-agency
approach has led to P being upgraded from a Class B drug to Class A.
Under the plan, police were given an extra drug lab response team,
Customs was boosted by 16 officers, and money was given to
rehabilitation programmes.

But critics say the plan is deficient in P-specific funding, there
remains a lack of education on the drug and there are big gaps in
policing gangs who control the P market - all issues that need to be
addressed before we are on top of the problem.

Associate Health Minister Jim Anderton said there were "always areas
that can be improved upon", but he was happy with the progress made
since the plan was drawn up.

"There's no magic bullet in any of this. You can't say, 'Here is a
template for fixing drug abuse.' Nobody knows. The whole world is
caught up in this stuff ... it is a dangerous drug.

"But in the context of the serious effects of drugs, alcohol and
tobacco are way up front by a country mile."

Police Association president Greg O'Connor disagrees.

Although he commended the plan, Mr O'Connor said, the Ministry of
Health was too focused on alcohol and tobacco, and P had not been
given a high enough priority.

Other police spoken to by the Herald echoed Mr O'Connor's sentiments,
with two noting the country was playing catchup and chasing its tail
on the P problem.

Mr O'Connor said the Australian Government had set aside $3 billion to
target the drug.

Efforts to fight P in New Zealand had not affected the drug's price or
supply, indicating a lack of progress.

"It comes back down to one question. Has anything that anybody has
done affected the availability or price? And it hasn't. It's more
lucrative than ever before."

Increases in violent crime statistics and in the growing amounts of P
being found in busts showed the drug was on the rise.

Mr O'Connor said the disbanding of police drug squads from the late
1990s and a police focus on statistics had resulted in a huge lack of
enforcement on mid-level dealers.

A single organisation - police - needed to standardise its own efforts
and those of other organisations.

The biggest hope of tackling the problem was the recently announced
Organised Crime Agency, which will target gang crime and serious
fraud, among other things, but will not be in action until July.

Mr O'Connor hoped the agency would bring a national focus to the P
issue. Education was also needed because there was no point in
catching criminals supplying drugs without stopping the demand for the
drugs.

"You've got to be fighting it at every level," he said.

Former detective Mike Sabin, who runs Methcon, a business teaching
people about the addiction behind P use, said the present lack of
education was likely to cause big social problems.

An entire generation was growing up accepting P as a readily available
drug.

There was not enough prevention or education to stop people taking the
drug.