Black Power member's warning: Stop dealing meth

A high-profile Hawke's Bay Black Power member is warning his fellow members to stop supplying methamphetamine to the community.

Taradale-based spokesman and lifetime member of the gang Denis O'Reilly said a community hui would be held at Waipatu Marae Hastings on March 21 to discuss effective responses to methamphetamine harm reduction.

The hui is a community meeting - not a gang event, O'Reilly said.

O'Reilly hopes the hu will reiterate a need to reduce meth demand within the gang, while acknowledging the gang's involvement in supplying the drug.

"There's no doubt that we face a deep problem with meth use in Aotearoa. It is indeed a long white cloud in a P pipe, and the weather won't clear any time soon.

Denis O'Reilly is a lifetime member of Black Power. Photo / Abbie Napier

"But, like climate change, we better learn how to deal with the reality of meth and build community resilience against it.

"One issue is our respective crews' involvement in the supply chain.

"[But just] because an individual from this or that chapter is part of a distribution chain it doesn't mean that the chapter is."

O'Reilly believes the supply control issues of methamphetamine are best left to the Police and Customs.

"Their hand and resources have recently been strengthened and let them do their best.

"But demand reduction is our primary Mokai Whanau Ora effort, and the coalition Government's focus on mental health and addictions and the shift of focus in drug policy towards harm reduction is encouraging."

The Mokai Whanau Ora, a Community Action Youth and Drugs (CAYAD) Project aims to enrol the leadership of gangs to self-prohibit the manufacture, distribution and use of methamphetamine.

O'Reilly does not have an exact number for meth users within Black Power, because he believes it is hard to collate.

"It ebbs and flows. My observation is that there are some crews that tolerate recreational use, others who are vehemently no use.

"As dispiriting as things sometimes are, let's move out of the valley of lamentations and fire up our own community action."

"Understand that whatever the situation, you are not on your own, and accept, at some stage, we all need somebody to lean on."