P PUSHERS TARGET KIDS

Children as young as 9 have been offered free "party packs" of pure
methamphetamine as the P epidemic deepens - but communities are fighting back.

Across the country, small towns have taken imaginative steps to combat the
drug and a Herald survey has found hopeful signs that the scourge can be
contained.

Anti-drug campaigners say the "party packs" give children a glass bomb
(pipe), a lighter and enough P for two smokes.

Children aged 9 and upwards have been offered them by older youths in
Whakatane, says Johanna Wilson, who helps run the town's "no need for
speed" team.

The team uses schools and community groups to warn youngsters of the drug's
dangers. Other centres are trying to get rid of P using innovative
techniques and special events.

In Kawerau, ex-addict and former Mongrel Mob member Warwick Godfrey has
organised a boxing match featuring local police, firefighters and current
and former gang members, billed as the Fight Against Drugs.

Singing competitions, growing vegetables and erecting billboards are among
other methods communities are using to convince people to steer clear of
drugs altogether.

"There's definitely a real movement and P has been the catalyst for that,"
said Kim Conway, who leads a research team evaluating anti-drug programmes
in 20 towns around the country.

"Because of P's unpredictable and volatile effect, people have woken up.
"It's certainly something that communities are now saying they can't just
ignore and think it will go away. A lot of people hadn't realised just how
immersed [in drugs] their communities were."

In Kaitaia, people were stunned to discover a few years ago that sports
coaches were giving out "dak packs" (marijuana) as prizes for player of the
day.

Kaumatua and kuia in the Bay of Plenty have been assaulted by their
grandchildren who are high on P, and last year a record 200 methamphetamine
laboratories were discovered by police - 33 times more than were found five
years ago.

In addition to the 20 areas chosen by the Government to run Community
Action on Youth and Drugs (Cayad) programmes, other towns have successfully
started up their own initiatives.

In Murupara, one drug dealer left town after local children dobbed him in
to police and in South Wairarapa someone handed over their P equipment
after a public lecture on the drug's dangers.

Ms Conway said the key was to adapt ideas to suit the needs of particular
communities.

Organising sports and cultural events gave people something to do other
than take drugs and were also an effective way of encouraging people to
work together on long-term solutions.

"What you're trying to do is get a bit of community pride going. Get people
to take ownership of things that are happening in their community because
when it comes down to it, people do want the best for their kids," she said.

Creating employment opportunities was another vital tool. In Opotiki and
Whangaruru, in the Far North, market gardens were set up for cannabis
growers to tend vegetable crops instead. "Growing dope to make a living is
considered entrepreneurial in some areas and now of course P is a very
profitable enterprise," Ms Conway said. "In Whangaruru, one grower who was
selling the surplus veggies at a roadside stall said it was the first
legitimate money he had made in ages."

The concept of community policing, where kaumatua or other respected people
ask drug dealers and manufacturers to stop or leave town, was also paying
dividends in some places.

Ms Conway's team at the SHORE (Social Health Outcomes, Research and
Evaluation) centre offers advice and feedback to those running the 20
Government-funded programmes.

But for those towns doing their own thing, it was proving difficult to know
which initiatives worked and which didn't.

Tere Lenihan, who co-ordinates anti-drug efforts in South Wairarapa, said a
forum where such information could be shared was desperately needed.

"Even if there was a website or something. A lot of energy and effort goes
into doing things with these communities and why reinvent the wheel when
someone else has already done it?"