TAKING OUT DRUG PROBLEMS

A drug called P: it is causing more devastation, crime, illness and heartbreak
than almost anything else on the go in New Zealand.

Former Wellington drug squad man Brendon Spencer spent the best part of the
past decade untangling drug-related crimes.

But with the incursion of P, stronger than homebake, more addictive, more
expensive but as easily produced in the backyard lab, a crime wave looks at
times unstoppable.

Mr Spencer, son of Invercargill Coffee Club president Daphne Spencer, left the
police two years ago but retains a commitment to drug eradication from school
Dare programmes to awareness talks such as the one he gave to the club on
Wednesday.

He worked in Porirua, a city area with a population similar to that of
Invercargill - just under 50,000 - and a growing burglary problem.

"Burglaries are up 75 percent there as in many parts of New Zealand just
because people with an addiction to a drug like P need so much money to feed
it," he said.

The money is found through burglary, prostitution and a host of gang-related
vices carried out in company director style.

Many gangs of any ethnic componency were well organised with a president and
office bearers and directors of portfolios from vehicles to drug distribution.

Gang members might pay $65 a week to belong to a gang but belonging gave
status, an income, a feeling of belonging, a guaranteed future, promised work
even for young people.

Porirua had 112 patched gang members and, with the family and friends links of
these, probably 1000 people involved in gang activity.

It was the sheer scale of offending that shocked listeners.

People asking what financed such endeavours were told of the proceeds of
burglaries, everything from frozen dog rolls to jewellery and motor vehicles
finding a buyer.

Once hooked on something such as P, people had to make huge efforts to sustain
the habit.

In cost it knocked addictions to alcohol and other drugs into a cocked hat.

Feeding the habit could cost lives at both ends - the user eventually losing
his own health and often his life as a result of this abuse.

"Stimulants like a drug called P work like this: the more you have, the higher
you go and the lower you then get. Crack, a synthetic cocaine, has had the same
effect in other countries," Mr Spencer said.

There were perks in being a member of the drug squad, like going to work
unshaven, in jeans and leather jacket.

But for undercover cops whose work involved assuming another identity, it could
be hard graft, many leaving the police at the end of a three-year term.

Today conditions were better, he said.

Staff working under that sort of pressure had counselling and there was concern
for their future.

Answering a raft of questions, Mr Spencer said the widespread use of cannabis
had almost become accepted at some levels of society.

"Our climate and its cultivation in places in Northland making it a cash crop."

But a chemically derived drug that could be made with a few ingredients and
utensils in a backyard garage-lab had the potential to let gangs grow and
thrive at huge cost to ordinary New Zealanders, he said.