CRACK DOWN HARD ON SCOURGE OF P

Over the past two weeks the Herald has been drawing attention to the latest
curse to take hold in our community - pure methamphetamine, known as "P".
Like all stimulants, it gives young or tired people an artificial energy
boost, helping them, as they see it, to have fun, keep going, escape reality
or attempt to meet the pressure to perform at a high level. But like most
illicit drugs its effects do not stop there. It can drive users to psychotic
violence, against themselves or others, particularly on the way down from
their chemical charge. And it is highly addictive.

The experiences readers have shared with us over the past fortnight ought to
leave no doubt of the extent of this scourge. Epidemic is not too strong a
word. The drug has crept into most corners of the country. It is in schools
and workplaces, small towns and city office blocks, criminal gangs and
high-earning professional circles. In fact it is pushed particularly hard to
the well-off because it is not cheap. An addict can spend between $1000 and
$3000 a week.

Among those who related their ordeal to us were the wife of a Melbourne
Cup-winning jockey, Tony Allan, and a couple from Dairy Flat who watched
their son spiral out of control after he started smoking P and blamed the
drug for his death. There is a pattern in the accounts we have published.
Most of the dead or damaged people had come to P from other drugs, including
cannabis, in their ceaseless search for a new escape. A night on P would be
followed by morning mood swings and depression. Families suffered, often
violently. Work standards deteriorated. Users who lost their jobs resorted
to theft, often from their families, to feed the addition.

But P also has its own insidious method of feeding its own growth. Since it
can be made from the pseudoephedrine in some common cold and flu remedies,
some addicts become "shoppers", going to pharmacies to buy the medicines and
selling them to mysterious "laboratories" where the ingredients are
extracted for the manufacture of the methamphetamine. Shoppers are said to
sell to the labs at twice the price they paid for the tablets and police
believe they are often paid in quantities of P, which they can use or sell
at greater profit.

Now that pharmacies are taking note of who buys tablets containing
pseudoephedrine, the medicines appear to be coming into the country from
orders over the internet. Customs officers say they have noticed a 30-fold
increase in imports of the pills over the past two years. They seize perhaps
20 per cent of the number they suspect is heading for P laboratories. A
deficiency in the law makes it hard to seize more.

Fixing that deficiency should be just the first response from the Government
to this scourge. It has known of the problem for six months and should not
take another three months, as suggested, to effectively stop these imports
at the border. There is no legitimate need for anyone except pharmaceutical
companies to be importing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine in any form. If
direct supplies from overseas can be stopped, pharmacies might be able to
starve the laboratories. After the 11 pharmacies in Gisborne took the pills
from their shelves and denied sales to certain people who were coming in
several times a week, police reported a marked decline in P-related crime.

But stronger measures are needed against an industry that seems to have
developed an extensive infrastructure in a comparatively short time. The
police might consider setting up a special unit to concentrate on
infiltrating the industry and going after the principal organisers rather
than just the gangs and other more visible cogs in the distribution
networks.

The drug is here, it has taken hold to the extent that New Zealand now
records one of the world's highest rates of its use. It is time for the
Government to start tackling it urgently.

Herald Feature: The P epidemic
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storyarchive.cfm?reportID=3D1162612