POLICE WANT TO TELL DRUG USERS' BOSSES

Police want to tell employers about the arrests of more than 40 people
- - including a nurse and a train driver - caught buying drugs from
South Auckland tinnie houses.

The arrests were made during Operation Beware, in which people from as
far as Huntly, Tauranga and New Plymouth were among those buying
cannabis at Otara tinnie houses in the past few weeks.

Eastern area commander Inspector Jim Searle said they included a train
driver, mortgage broker, nurse and tradespeople. Some turned up at
tinnie houses during the day in company vehicles.

As well as prosecution, police are investigating if there is any way
of legally telling employers what employees have been up to during
work hours.

Mr Searle said police believed many people were buying drugs in work
time and there were concerns not only for their safety but for
co-workers or those they care for.

"A number of jobs are unsafe when people are affected by drugs," he
said.

The move, which is still being discussed by the police legal section,
is expected to face staunch opposition, especially from civil
libertarians.

Green Party associate health (drugs and alcohol) spokeswoman Metiria
Turei said police had no right interfering in employment matters.

"The police are enforcers of the law, not of their own views or
morals. People are entitled to their privacy."

The list MP said there were ways for employers to learn about arrests
- - such as through the media at the end of a court proceeding or from
court lists which were available to the public.

"People are exposed once they have been convicted so the police do not
need to engage in any overt exposure. It's an abuse of their power if
they were to engage in that sort of behaviour"

East Manukau MP Ross Robertson seemed reluctant to comment on police
approaching employers saying there could be privacy issues.

But he hoped police "threw the book" at anyone caught buying or
selling drugs in Otara.

"We are sick and tired of these people who frequent our community.
They destroy the lives, hopes and aspirations of young people."

The MP has recently met police and members of the community to discuss
concerns about drugs, gangs and crime in the township.

Mr Searle said Operation Beware was in response to a public call for
zero tolerance to gangs and illegal activity. It will continue next
month.

He wants Otara to lose its "tinnie house destination"
reputation.

"If you buy drugs in the area there will be consequences and there
will be zero tolerance, regardless of if you've been in trouble before
or have an otherwise clean record - that is the risk," he said.

"People should be reminded a criminal history can impede you from
travelling to some countries or gaining employment."

Fast service stalled by police bust

Buying tinnies in Otara is quick and easy. It's a bit like a fastfood
drive through, only quicker.

Stop in the driveway, walk around the back of a house that looks like
any other in the street and pass $20 through a window for a tinnie or
two.

Yesterday the Herald hadn't even been on the stakeout for five minutes
when police spotted two cars pulling into the driveway of a
well-frequented tinnie house - just 800m from the Otara police station.

The drivers got out, but were back within a minute with their
purchases. They only got a hundred metres down the road before being
blocked in by a marked police car.

The drivers looked stunned, not because they had been caught buying
drugs but because the media was there to witness it.

The bust was typical of dozens in Otara during the past week as police
crack down on people buying drugs from tinnie houses.

When Constable Howie Iraia asked one driver what he had been up to the
Herne Bay man "stalled in his answer, which is normal".

"I asked him if they had purchased cannabis to which he replied he
did."

Two tinnies were then produced and Mr Iraia asked the driver and his
two mates if there were any other drugs in the car - he warned them to
be honest because they and the car would be searched. Out came a pipe
and a tobacco tin.

At the other car Constable Pieter Serfontein repeated the same process
on a 23-year-old driver from Papakura. He was also handed two tinnies.

The driver told the Herald he didn't try to hide the cannabis, which
he paid $20 each for, because he knew he was "busted".

"Man, I was pretty much caught by surprise [by the stakeout]," he
said. "There was nothing much [I could do] I knew I was going to be
busted."

The men were taken back to the Otara Station where they were expected
to be charged and given a summons to appear in court on drug related
charges.