P ADDICTS FLOCKING TO CLINICS FOR HELP

The number of people seeking help for addiction to crystal
methamphetamine has skyrocketed, with one Wellington clinic treating
six new patients every week, many of them high-flying young
professionals.

Care NZ Wellington manager Sandra Plaisted said the agency had noticed
a sharp rise in the number of people seeking help for the drug, which
is a pure form of speed commonly known as P.

"We are seeing about six new people every week. Last year, we would
probably have seen about six over the whole year."

Most of the cases were people aged between 28 and 40, many in
well-paid jobs, including lawyers, accountants and computer
programmers, she said.

Wellington Hanmer Clinic director Rosemary Casey said she had also
noticed an increase in people whose main drug was P, though the age
group was younger than at Care NZ.

"We are seeing an increase, and I would say probably 10 a month. It's
at least doubled from last year."

Ms Plaisted said she could not pinpoint the reason for the rise, but
it appeared to confirm frequently voiced fears that New Zealand was
facing a timebomb of problems caused by speed.

Police figures indicate a massive increase in the manufacture of speed
which in its less pure form comes as a powder that is snorted, and at
its most pure, P, is in a crystal form that is smoked.

Last year, police busted 147 speed labs, compared with 41 in
2001.

A spokeswoman said they had busted 65 to the end of June this
year.

Ms Plaisted said many of the people presenting for the use of P had
serious problems in their day-to-day lives caused by the drug.

Some had suffered psychosis, and many were experiencing severe
difficulties in their relationships.

Care NZ Auckland manager Sue Roberts said the increase in South
Auckland, where the agency had most of its clients, had been more gradual.

She estimated there were about six new patients a week whose primary
drug problem was P.

She believed part of the increase could be explained by a law change
in May which made speed a class A drug.

"You're looking at life imprisonment for some offences related to it
rather than 14 years when it was class B, and I think that's prompted
some people to get off it."