DRUGS GANGS TARGET KIDS IN SCHOOLS

In parts of my electorate and many others around Auckland, gang members, are
targeting local schools to create drug addicts among our children.

Dealers offer free samples of pure methamphetamine to children as young as
12. By the third hit these children are so addicted they will resort to
violent crime and prostitution to pay for drugs. We now have killers as
young as 12.

Methamphetamine is powerfully addictive. It can be easily manufactured in
New Zealand. In 2000, nine clandestine laboratories were located and
dismantled. In 2001 that number rose to 47 and last year shot up to 147. If
allowed to continue, this trend is going to physically and psychologically
destroy many of our young people.

A 13-year-old girl tried to hang herself at school. At first it was thought
that she was on meth, until police found that her mother was the addict and
was sending her daughter out to prostitute herself to pay for the drugs.

That is what this drug is doing right now, right here, to our New Zealand
children. The police must be given the resources in money, staff and power
to smash these gangs - and they must be given them now.

Judith Collins MP for Clevedon.