P affects every sector of society. Photo / Martin Sykes

P affects every sector of society. Photo / Martin Sykes

To the New Zealand Prime Minister, John Key.

Dear Prime Minister:

The recommendation to you from your science adviser, Sir Peter Gluckman, that the Government could ban over-the-counter, non-prescription sales of cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine, one of the precursors to the manufacture of pure methamphetamine or P, is a good one. To do so would be a step in the right direction. If nothing else, it would be a positive signal that the Government is intent on getting a real handle on the P problem.

As you observed at your news conference this week, P is a huge problem that tears lives and families apart. Especially prone to P addiction are vulnerable young women, as we have seen in my own family. But P does not discriminate. It affects the young and the middle-aged. It affects the rich and the poor.

People lose everything. In fact, P itself becomes the only thing in people's lives until they have lost the lot, their jobs, their wealth, their decency, their honesty and their self-respect.

P does not care who it takes on its road to hell. There is evidence that it can take hold of you after your very first hit. Certainly, frequent use of P over a few weeks will be enough to cause addiction, turning good people into secretive, thieving liars. Addicts cut themselves off from those they love, and cease to feel for anyone. P addicts have no care for the pain they are causing and they begin to associate only with those who use it, those who embrace and have been embraced by this evil, vicious, violently destructive drug.

When my own clever, funny and intelligent daughter was first arrested, P had captured her completely. I will never forget the horror of listening to her in the car when, with my brother, we drove north from Auckland to my sister-in-law's home where we planned to keep her safe and locked down in order to detox her and get her away from the drug. P had stolen my girl's heart and soul. I do not exaggerate when I tell you it was like driving along with the possessed little girl in The Exorcist.

You acknowledge that there is a real desire amongst the New Zealand community for something to be done about the P epidemic, an industry you suggest could be at a value to those involved of $1.5 billion. If this is true, then the problem is huge. I think there is more than a real desire to see something done. I suggest the desire is passionate. But we have not only a desire to break this industry. New Zealand, as a nation, must break it. P has declared war on our communities.

And if it is a $1.5 billion industry, then that has not come about because of the sale of a few cold and flu tablets over the counter of the chemist shops. The main thrust of any war on P has to be launched at our borders. But, as I say, the banning of sales of medicines containing pseudoephedrine to any Tom, Dick or Harry sends a message of intent.