'P' is for psychotic - users linked with rising violence

By PATRICK GOWER

Drug users call pure methamphetamine "P" and like the clear, long high the burning crystals deliver.

Police and drug experts call it a scourge, a drug epidemic behind a surge in meaningless violence.

"Pure" methamphetamine - also known as burn or ice - is the crystallised version of the former party drug now popular on Auckland streets, with its users ranging from the city's poor to millionaires.

It is described as the methamphetamine version of crack cocaine.

This week the Herald revealed that it was the drug of choice of RSA triple killer William Bell, and that Ese Falealii, the gunman convicted of killing a pizza worker and bank teller during a spree of armed robberies this year, was also a user.

The Weekend Herald has also learned of two suicides attributed to the drug.

It is easily available and costs about $1000 a gram. It looks like rock salts.

Users will buy it in bags by the "point" - roughly a tenth of a gram - for around $100 to $150.

The drug is smoked by heating the crystals and inhaling the vapour. Once the crystals cool again, users can usually reheat it get further "hits". A point can be used anywhere from three to 20 times.

The most popular way to smoke it is with a glass pipe and gas fire-lighter, although it could just be heated up on a broken piece of lightbulb if necessary.

There is an initial rush, but users say its effects do not wear off for up to 10 hours.

A large range of glass pipes can be bought at shops or markets where cannabis users would usually go to get pipes for smoking.

The New Zealand Drug Foundation has publicly warned against the dangers of pure methamphetamine.

Police say its popularity is reflected in their discovery of methamphetamine labs - 120 this year compared with nine in 2000. Auckland police blame the drug for the rise in crimes of violence and robberies.

Detective Senior Sergeant Colin McMurtrie, who heads the Auckland drug squad, described it as "the drug of choice".

He said it affected the central nervous system, and because there was a high, "there will of course be a low" - characterised by depression and paranoia.

But even the high had its dangers.

"They used to feed it to soldiers in the war to make them more aggressive and alert."

Mr McMurtrie said it came as "no surprise" to hear that Bell had been a heavy user in the months before he bashed three people to death with the butt of a shotgun.

"We are seeing more violence because of it. And its not just in robberies and violence. We are seeing violence just for the sake of it."