URGENT ACTION NEEDED TO CURB SPIRALLING USE OF METH AND P

A disenchanted judiciary is rightly beginning to take a hard line on P
pushers, says The Daily News.

In Napier Youth Court last week Judge Paul von Dadelszen sentenced a
17-year-old girl to three months in a youth justice facility with supervision.

The girl earlier admitted buying, and then supplying, a flu product
containing pseudoephedrine, which can be converted into methamphetamines.

Her sentence is the highest available to Youth Court judges under the
Children, Young Persons and their Families Act. Judge von Dadelszen also
warned that drug users and youths peddling P faced "serious consequences".

Like other judges around the country Judge von Dadelszen is disturbed at
the effects on users, their families and victims of crime.

The judge and his fellows are also becoming increasingly frustrated that P
is use an excuse for violent crime.

The drug is being mentioned in increasing numbers of court cases as a
reason for people losing control.

Many are using youngsters to gather raw materials and there is a strong
suspicion that gangs are getting into distribution and sales.

Children as young as 10 have been found with the drug itself.

So serious is the situation the Opposition is now accusing the Government
of putting lives at risk through not taking harsh enough action.

A recent survey by Massey University's Centre for Social and Health
Outcomes Research and Evaluation showed that methamphetamine use is
spiralling out of control.

A recent convention in New Plymouth for those who run women's refuges
expressed serious concerns about its impact on families.

Police reported busting a record number of methamphetamine laboratories
last year and on Saturday three men were arrested after they were
discovered a mobile clandestine drug laboratory in the boot of a car.

Last week, a suspected meth lab exploded in a caravan near Kaikohe. A
26-year-old man received burns in the explosion. This is at least the third
time a suspected meth lab has gone up in flames in Northland.

There have been other examples elsewhere in the country.

Act Party list MP Muriel Newman said the Government had known for several
years that methamphetamine was becoming a problem, but had done little to
address it.

However, a Government spokeswoman said several programmes to help overcome
the methamphetamine problem were put in place last year and more would
follow this year. We can only hope these work.

While New Zealand tends to follow the rest of the world in drug trends, in
this case it is exceeding experience elsewhere and unless this is brought
under control the results do not bear thinking about.