Government to make treatment of P addicts a priority

Lucci Hennah’s drug-dealing father was murdered at his Waihi home. Photo / Richard Robinson

The Government says it will make treatment of methamphetamine addicts a top priority.

Justice Minister Simon Power this week told Prime Minister John Key of his concerns about the treatment required for those caught up with the drug, known as P.

Mr Power attended the Stellar Trust fundraising dinner last weekend which highlighted "the issue of how to deal with this drug's impact on families" with the well-known law and order issues.

"That really made an impression on me," said Mr Power. "I see things through a justice lens, and there was quite another dimension expressed."

He told Mr Key the Government needed to put considerable focus on dealing with P, recognising the implications for health and education as well as law and order.

Mr Power said it was too early to detail what the Government would do.

In this week's Herald series the War on P, families of people who use the drug described how they were at their wits' end trying to find treatment for the addiction.

One mother said she watched her son cry on the phone as he begged to be let in for rehabilitation."

Drug workers said there was a shortage of residential treatment for all drug and alcohol services, although they emphasised addicts had to want to change their own lives.

A spokesman for Mr Key said he had long been concerned about the impact of P, which was having an increasingly detrimental effect on the community as illustrated in the Herald series.

National's work on P was in its infancy but progress would soon be made.