CHILDREN RUN GAUNTLET OF GANGS TO BUY DOPE

A disturbing new trend has emerged in the country's drug culture, with
revelations that children as young as 13 are buying cannabis from gang-run
tinny houses in Tauranga.

A Massey University study released yesterday and backed up by local police
and school principals showed that 13- to 17-year-olds are the biggest
buyers of cannabis from the drug dens.

The Drug Use by Young People (13-17 years) in New Zealand survey showed
that 70 per cent of the 1000 young people questioned bought at least some
of their cannabis from tinny houses.

That was a worrying trend which was reflected here, said Tauranga Police
CIB head Karl Wright-St Clair. Teenagers were putting their safety at risk
by visiting tinny houses.

"These people are often violent criminals," he said.

"These places are gang related without exception."

Young people might be setting themselves up to be assaulted or robbed when
they visited these places, Mr Wright-St Clair said. However, reports to
police were few and far between because teenagers did not want their
parents to know where they had been.

The other danger in teenagers visiting tinny houses was that they might be
offered other harder drugs to try while they were there.

"Cannabis is bad enough but there is a smorgasbord of drugs around at these
addresses," Mr Wright St-Clair said.

"We find methamphetamine at many of the tinny houses we go to now." He
estimated less than 10 per cent of 13- to 17-year-olds in Tauranga were
using cannabis.

School principals across Tauranga had only anecdotal evidence from students
who had been caught with cannabis as to where they had got it.

Tauranga Boys' College deputy principal Rob Naumann said the small number
of pupils who had been caught at school with cannabis claimed to have
obtained it either from their own neighbourhood or from older teenagers.

He was unaware of any tinny houses near the school, although two years ago
people had been pedalling cannabis to students around the perimeter of the
school grounds.

So far there had been no cases of speed or pure methamphetamine use at
Tauranga Boys', but when it was magic mushroom season they kept a close eye
on students, he said.

Bethlehem College secondary school principal Brian Seatter said there was
no doubt cannabis was readily available to young people in the local area,
but he was not sure where they got it from.

Mount Maunganui College principal Terry Collett said students caught at
school with cannabis were often just trying it and had got it from friends.

The findings of the nationwide survey, which included 13- and 14-year-olds
for the first time, were released at the 4th International Conference on
Drugs and Young People in Wellington.

When compared with a recent study involving adult cannabis users, where
only 20 per cent brought from tinny houses, it showed that youth were the
biggest market for them, said researcher Dr Chris Wilkins.

"It's much more convenient for youth (to buy from tinny houses) because
they don't have to approach an older brother or sister or an adult to get
it for them and risk their parents finding out. They can just bowl up with
cash and get their cannabis," he said.

The survey also showed that other than tobacco, alcohol and cannabis, the
most popular drugs among young people were amphetamines, hallucinogenic
mushrooms and LSD.