EDITORIAL: P USERS TAKE NOTE

Yet again the drug methamphetamine (P) is in the court news.

And yet again it seems to be the principal ingredient in that crime being
committed in the first place. There is a warning here that those who use
the drug would do well to heed.

Napier man Trevor Eagle is now facing a long stretch in prison for the
loathsome crime of abducting a woman from her home and sexually violating
her repeatedly. He pleaded guilty to all changes, but his lawyer said he
had no memory of any of it, having been under the influence of P at the
time. "He's a living, walking example of the dangers of P," said the
lawyer. The police pointed out that while he had a criminal history, he was
not known as a sexual predator. Before P addled his brain, that is.

Sadly, this is all too familiar. Many of the most brutal and brainless
murders and other vile crimes carried out in recent memory have been
committed by young men whose brains are fried on P. Take Antonie Dixon, who
was high on P before murdering innocent bystander James Te Aute in Auckland
after attacking his girlfriend and another woman with a sword; or Steven
Williams, who murdered his stepdaughter Coral-Ellen Burrows; Williams'
sister, Anamari Margaret Stone, who admitted manslaughter of the man she
lived with; or William Bell, who killed three people in the Panmure RSA.
The list goes on and on, and in each case the common factor, apart from the
brutality, is the use of P by the perpetrators.

The effects of P on chronic users have been well documented, with 60 per
cent likely to develop psychotic tendencies. Treatment of addicts is said
to be difficult because the drug makes users volatile and anxious.

So why the continued use among relatively normal New Zealanders. Why can't
they see the dangers of becoming another Steven Williams or Trevor Eagle?
Who knows, but rest assured, all who dabble with the drug run huge risks.