KEY POINTS:
A trainee Catholic priest turned Black Power life member receives his master's degree today - the next step on his mission to banish methamphetamine use in New Zealand.
Denis O'Reilly, 55, will be the first person to graduate from Unitec New Zealand with a master's in social policy.
The father of six and grandfather of 16, who lives in Napier, has a long history of social advocacy in New Zealand.
Mentored by Sir Robert Muldoon in the 1980s after the pair struck up a close friendship, he has held senior roles at the Departments of Labour and Internal Affairs and the New Zealand Employment Service.
At the other end of the spectrum, Mr O'Reilly has brought gang leaders together to try to stamp out P use, and helps people whose use of the drug is stopping them from turning their lives around.
Mr O'Reilly told the Herald he was driven to pursue a degree in social policy by the way P use was being tackled in New Zealand and wider issues concerning Maori and other marginalised groups of society.
"In a rapidly changing world you've got to get back into the books because what was true in 1980 might not be true any more," he said.
"It's hard to understand the psychology and what's motivating it ... but at a gut level you need to ask yourself why Maori kids in New Zealand are so imprisoned.
"We're not understanding something here and I wanted to learn more."
Mr O'Reilly said many gang chapters had sworn against P, and were trying to reduce its prevalence among younger people in their communities.
"We are making an impact on meth. It's not a cool drug to be using, but people are not getting it."
He said some gang members were still making, distributing and using the drug and while a market existed for it, that would not change. But there was hope.
"For the first time, you have a gang demographic that is similar to the social demographic in terms of the older members, so there is a window of opportunity there, to work with those people and redefine things."
Mr O'Reilly said that while mixed messages continued to be sent about gangs, with a proliferation of gang culture on television and the "talking-up" of young people in gangs, children who chased fame would respond in "the most negative way possible".
