Police take to the road in drugs battle

North Shore police have warned that methamphetamine use is spreading among school pupils.

A "methamphetamine road show", organised by police and community workers, has been travelling around the district.

The road show highlights the dangers of the drug, which is also known as speed or, in its purer form, as P.

"The drug is available at every school and college on the North Shore," police community relations manager Senior Sergeant Bruce Wood said yesterday.

"If you talk to the children in those schools, they will say quite openly, 'Yeah, we can find P if we want it'.

"That's the alarming bit, because kids want to try things.

"And once they try P, because it's so addictive, they try it again.

"The gangs that market the drug give it free for a period of time.

"Then they call in the debt. By then the kids are hooked."

Mr Wood said the problem was not restricted to Auckland, but was spreading quickly around the country.

He said anecdotal evidence indicated that methamphetamine use in the wider community over the past two years was leading to more violent behaviour and to a wider range of serious crimes.

The suicide rate was also increasing because users found it difficult to escape the addiction.

"From the education point of view, very good students are changing and dropping out.

"In the health sector, we are hearing from accident and emergency about people coming through who are violent and psychotic."

Mr Wood said that methamphetamine was easy to make, but difficult for addicts to shake.

"The ones I've spoken to say that once they get started on it, they can't leave it alone.

"They always try to get that first rush they had on day one."

In a report released earlier this year, the Customs Service said indications were that there had been a significant rise in the use of methamphetamine in New Zealand since 1998.

The report described the availability of the drug as comparable to the sharp increase in the supply of heroin in New Zealand in the late 1970s through the activities of the Mr Asia syndicate.

It said the availability at an affordable price - one gram of pure P sold for as low as $800 - was creating an ever-increasing population of users.

The New Zealand Secondary School Principals Association president, Paul Ferris, said the problem was serious.

"More and more principals are aware that it has a really negative effect on student behaviour," he said.

"It leads to a whole lot of other anti-social behaviour that brings students to the attention of the school and the law."

Mr Ferris said he did not believe there was active selling or marketing of methamphetamine in schools.

But he was aware of instances of students arriving at school while under the influence of P.

"Because people in schools come from the community, they bring their problems into our schools," he said.

"Principals are very vigilant about keeping schools safe."

- NZPA