METHAMPHETAMINE BEING USED BY SCHOOL PUPILS

Police Issue Drug Warning

Auckland: Police on Auckland's North Shore have warned that the spread of
methamphetamine use in New Zealand is showing up among school pupils.

The "methamphetamine road show", organised by local police and community
workers, has been travelling around the district, highlighting the dangers
of the drug, also known as speed or in its purer form as "P".

"The drug is available at every school and college on the North
Shore," police community relations manager Senior Sergeant Bruce Wood
said this week. "If you talk to the children in those schools, they
will say quite openly, 'Yeah, we can find P if we want it'.

"That's the alarming bit, because kids want to try things. And once
they try P, because it's so addictive, they try it again.

"The gangs that market the drug give it free for a period of time and
then they call in the debt. By then the kids are hooked."

Mr Wood said the problem was not restricted to Auckland, but was
spreading quickly around the country.

He said anecdotal evidence indicated methamphetamine use in the wider
community over the past two years was increasing violent behaviour and
leading to a wider range of serious crimes.

The suicide rate was also "escalating" because users found it
difficult to escape the addiction.

"From the education point of view, very good students are changing and
dropping out.

"In the health sector, we are hearing from accident and emergency
[staff] about people coming through who are violent and psychotic."

Mr Wood said methamphetamine was easy to produce but hard for addicts
to shake.

"The ones I've spoken to say that, once they get started on it, they
can't leave it alone. They always try to get that first rush they had
on day one."

In a report released earlier this year, the Customs Service said all
indications were that there had been a significant rise in the use of
methamphetamine in New Zealand since 1998.

The report described the availability of the drug as comparable to the
sharp increase in the supply of heroin in New Zealand in the late
1970s through the activities of the Mr Asia syndicate.

It said the availability at an affordable price - one gram of pure P
sold for as low as $800 - was creating an ever-increasing population
of users.

New Zealand Secondary School Principals Association president Paul
Ferris said the problem was a serious one.

"More and more principals are aware that it has a really negative
effect on student behaviour," he said.

"It leads to a whole lot of other anti-social behaviour that brings
students to the attention of the school and the law."

Mr Ferris said he did not believe there was any active selling or
marketing of methamphetamine in schools.

But he was aware of instances of students arriving at school while
under the influence of P.

"Because people in schools come from the community, they bring their
problems into our schools, and principals are very vigilant about
keeping schools safe."