POLICE ACCUSED OF HYPING P RISK

Police claims that school children are taking the killer drug P are
exaggerated and risk undermining attempts to tackle the problem, an
anti-drug campaigner says.

An officer warned at a public meeting in Porirua on Friday that children as
young as nine were consuming pure methamphetamine in New Zealand.

But anti-P campaigner spokesman Denis O'Reilly said the drug was not widely
available in schools. If school children were using the drug, it would be an
exception.

"This is just hype and risks creating fear and confusion in what is already
a very serious situation," he said. "If you are going to have a community
strategy, it's in our interests to keep the hype out."

Schools needed to be more concerned about students using marijuana, alcohol
or tobacco, he said.

However, concern among primary and secondary school principals in Porirua is
such that they have called for another meeting about the drug. Porirua
Healthy Safer City Trust coordinator Jenny Lester, who organised the meeting
last Friday, said police claims that young people were consuming P were not
exaggerated.

"There was no point pussy-footing around on the facts. When you talk about
any drug of choice, it's nothing new that young people get involved."

Police have also expressed concern that gangs are collaborating to produce
pure methamphetamine. A Nomad member from the Kapiti Coast has been seen on
Mongrel Mob turf in Porirua, in what officers believe is a clear sign gangs
are acting in unison.

Mr O'Reilly, who has also acted as a spokesman for the Black Power gang,
acknowledged that New Zealand gangs were colluding to manufacture and
distribute the drug. Overseas crime groups were also likely to be involved
in the illegal trade.

But he believed some gang members were so opposed to P that they were making
efforts to reduce its use through education. "There are some old heads in
the gangs who are saying to their boys that the penalties are high," he
said.