Money or the bag choice can get shoppers hooked

By BRIDGET CARTER

Some shoppers for P ingredients do it for cash initially but soon become hooked on the drug, say police.

Kaitaia Senior Constable Brian Camplin said he believed some of those shopping at pharmacies for the cough and cold pills started using the drug because their payment was often not in money, but P.

Shoppers could buy up to $25 worth of pills from the pharmacy and earn $50 cash each from a drug dealer.

Or, they could be paid $100 worth of P and have the choice of selling the drug or smoking it themselves.

Behind the scenes was a cook or dealer, making $1000 worth of product with around 20 tablets.

"Young guys and girls, elderly people, anyone will jam into a car, drive to Auckland and on the way down go to every chemist shop they can," he said.

"When they get to Auckland, they do the rounds then come back again."

Senior Constable Camplin said P had become commonplace and the driving force behind an increase in social problems like domestic violence.

The town's college was now testing students suspected of using P because police believed it was being sold to students.

Senior Constable Camplin said police recently tested five students at Kaitaia College, after gaining consent from their parents.

He "could have sworn" they were taking P, but the tests, carried out separately from the school, came through negative.

Herald Feature: The P epidemic

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