'Homebake' heroin back on the street

Drug users are turning to "homebake" heroin as a reaction to criminal gangs' grip on the drug trade, the New Zealand Police Association says.

Drug users, anxious to escape the threats, debts and violence associated with organised crime, are turning back to homebake, according to the association's magazine Police News.

Homebake became popular in the 1980s when the "Mr Asia" syndicate was broken up and imported heroin supplies dried up.

Police News said some pharmacists had reported to police a sharp increase in people apparently shopping for codeine-based products, which can be "baked" into morphine and then converted to heroin.

- NZPA