SPEED FAST BECOMING DRUG OF CHOICE FOR KILLERS.

Speed Is Fast Becoming The Preferred Drug Of New Zealand's Killers, With
Three Recent Murders Being Blamed On The Drug Including The Death Of Coral
Burrows. Ruth Hill, Of NZPA, Tracks The Rising Popularity Of
Methamphetamine Among The Nation's Criminals.

It was the fist of Steven Williams that delivered the death blow to his
six-year-old stepdaughter, Coral Burrows.

But it was arguably the methamphetamine drug P that turned this man -
described by his mother and ex-partner as a "caring" parent - into a killer.

Masterton District Court was told last week how Williams (29) drove Coral
and her brother to school after a night-long binge on P, the pure form of
speed.

He told police how he "snapped" and battered the little girl to death after
she complained she didn't want to go to school.

Coral's murder is just the latest in a litany of methamphetamine-related
violence to have hit the headlines in the last year.

Double murderer Ese Junior Falealii described being given P by his
accomplices before embarking on some of the eight robberies in which he was
involved, which culminated in the murders of pizza worker Marcus Doig and
ASB Bank teller John Vaughan in May last year.

Antonie Ronnie Dixon, who is to stand trial accused of murdering James Te
Aute and hacking two women with a samurai sword in January, was reportedly
under the influence of P.

But in addition to the headline-grabbing violence, police blame P for an
upsurge in burglaries and other crimes by desperate addicts.

National Drug Intelligence Bureau head, Detective Inspector Gary Knowles,
says the P "epidemic" is the worst he has witnessed in three decades in the
force.

While opiates like heroin or cannabis tend to make users "mellow and
relaxed", methamphetamine-users become "violent, schizophrenic and paranoid
- their whole personality changes".

"This is a drug with no social or moral conscience."

And the problem is growing: So far this year police have dismantled 160
meth labs - compared with 147 for the whole of last year.

"Interception and arrests for methamphetamine-related crimes are going up
remarkably.

"And anecdotal evidence shows a massive correlation between metamphetamine
and violence," Mr Knowles says.

P has made the job of front-line police even more dangerous, he says.

"A friend of mine who is the senior sergeant at a local station said people
high on P become totally irrational within a split-second.

"They have no control over the way they act, and are extremely violent and
in your face.

"It increases the danger of what is already a dangerous career.

"Every officer turning up to an incident of domestic violence or road-rage
now not only has to worry about what sort of person they are dealing with
but what kind of drug they are on," he says.

A United Nations survey earlier this year put New Zealand among the "very
worst" for methamphetamine addiction, Mr Knowles says.

Customs has seized 776,900 tablets or powdered equivalent of ephedrine and
pseudoephedrine - one of the ingredients of methamphetamine - in 374
interceptions so far this year, compared with 10,000 tablets in 2000.

"It's like the old heroin days where people are body-packing it
internally," Mr Knowles says.

"This shows they're pretty desperate people because that's a pretty
disturbing, extreme thing to do."

Mr Knowles says new legislation and resources will give greater leverage
for police to stem the rise of P.

Associate Health Minister Jim Anderton recently announced illegal importers
could face up to eight years in jail.

However, while detection is on the rise, a bottleneck in processing
evidence is holding back prosecutions.

Police Commissioner Rob Robinson told a parliamentary committee last month
the current backlog would take a year to clear because of a shortage of
scientists at Environmental Science and Research (ESR).

The police union, the Police Association, said some cases were taking two
years to go to trial and delays in testing speed labs meant drug makers
were being freed on bail to re-offend.

However, Mr Knowles says he had "full confidence" that ESR will clear the
backlog.

"They're just as frustrated as us, but the experts you need in that area,
you can't train overnight."

With the establishment of new "clan lab" teams (to crack down on
clandestine laboratories), interception rates were going to go up, he warned.

Interestingly, many gangs which dealt in the drug were barring their own
members from using it, he says.

"Particularly among ethnic-based gangs, we're seeing big splits between
members that want to deal and use and older members who don't and who are
trying to break away.

"Then there are others who will do it just for the money, not to feed their
addiction, but out of pure greed.

"There's big money to be made."

Beyond the crime statistics, P is wreaking havoc on countless individuals
and families, say many working in drug rehabilitation.

Wellington drug counsellor Glen Robinson, of Drug Arm, says P affects
"people of all walks of life".

"I've seen everyone from white collar professionals to unemployed people
whose lives have been destroyed by this drug."

Users say the drug makes them feel "invincible".

Falealii told the court the drug was totally different to pot, heroin or coke.

"It kind of takes a bit of fear away, boosts your adrenaline and makes you
hyped up and keeps you up for ages and makes you do things you don't
normally do when you are straight," Falealii said.

Mr Robinson says that regardless of the reasons people take P in the first
place - whether to mask anxiety or depression or just to be part of the
party scene - it soon brings them down.

"It wrecks families, relationships, careers.

"What I've noticed is users end up turning on their families. They don't
care about anything but their next hit and they will steal, cheat, lie, do
whatever it takes.

"P takes away their whole future. They can't see further than their next high.

"We've all noticed a lot a lot of violence out there since P has been on
the go because people don't care any more about anything."

While P has been around "a long time", it has only recently become "the
drug of choice", he says.

"A lot of gangs have got into it because it's quick money.

"It's not like growing cannabis where you have to wait for months for it to
grow.

"You can make it in a single night in the bedroom."

Some young kids are being supplied "free" with the drug, and once they're
hooked, are being pressed into service by the gangs, he says.

The manager of Auckland's community alcohol and drug service, Robert
Steenhuisen, says cannabis and alcohol are still the biggest addictions for
New Zealanders, but P is definitely "on the rise".

"And with this drug, it seems to take a much shorter time between someone
starting to use it and experiencing really serious problems.

"Like any drug, when it becomes the main organising point in people's
lives, it's destructive."

A "point" usually sells for about $150 and some people are spending
thousands of dollars a week, he says.

"Obviously this leads people down a path of narrowing options. The only way
to get that sort of money is to deal the drug and that involves you in
criminal circles and so on and so on . . ."

Unlike heroin and other drugs, there is nothing people can take to make it
easier to detox, he says.

"They've just got to ride it out, and that's really tough.

But everyone who asks for help can get it.

"Often people just need a safe place to come down and someone to sit by
them and tell them it will get better."

Forensic psychiatrist Krishna Pillai of Auckland's Mason Clinic, says P is
the "worst" drug, in his experience.

Methamphetamine caused permanent psychotic disorders in some users.

"And once you've experienced one episode of paranoia, it takes less to
develop the same degree of paranoia next time," he said.

Studies in methamphetamine in post-war Japan showed some people remained
psychotic for years.

The most insidious thing about the drug was the way in which users quickly
developed "a tolerance" to it and needed more and more to get high.

"In a very short time they're not getting a buzz any more. They're just
using it to avoid the come down.

"And that's the period which we associate most with violence."