Helping P addicts

They come from all walks of life and spend anywhere between $500 to $3000 a week to feed their methamphetamine habit.
And often it's not just methamphetamine they use, according to David Benton, director of Tauranga's Hanmer Clinic. The drug more commonly known as P goes hand in hand with other drugs and only a ``small percentage' of P addicts are not using other substances.
The most common drugs used in tandem by people who attend the outpatient drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre were marijuana and alcohol, Mr Benton said.
He first became aware of P in the 1990s while training as a drug counsellor in the United States. A new drug had emerged on the scene called Ice.
"At that stage [the drug] was actually about 10 years old but it was about to sweep the country. Use of stimulants in the United States is about 1.4 per cent of the population, while all drugs including cocaine and heroin come and go in the popularity stakes.
"Eventually it filtered into other countries, including New Zealand, especially in the last ten years."
New Zealand ranks second only to the United States in a scientific survey of illegal cocaine and cannabis use in 17 countries.
Methamphetamine is today one of the most addictive drugs on the market because it ``grabs you the quickest,' Mr Benton said.
"It makes you feel terrific because it increases dopamine [a chemical in the brain] that makes you feel good. It enhances mood and body movement and makes you less aware of aches and pains."
There are four ways to take P _ smoke it, snort the powder, swallow it in pill form, or inject it.
Injecting is the fastest way to get a ``hit', because the drug is introduced into the vein, directly into the bloodstream where it quickly reaches the brain.
Mr Benton has seen addicts who inject drugs cause significant bodily damage from over-injecting.
A key way to tell if someone is high on P is to watch their eyes, Mr Benton said. "They'll have a rapid side-ways flicker."
Mr Benton said it was often very difficult for families to help a drug addict because most of the time they didn't want to be helped.
"Usually it takes an intervention. [For example] `We love you, we hate what you're doing and unless you get treatment these are the consequences'."
It helped to have pre-arranged professional care before having this discussion, he said.
"Ten percent of any group of people are likely to get hooked on any drug. They tend to have a genetic predisposition; it tends to run in families just like colours of hair, colours of eyes, asthma and depression ... Look up your family tree.
"Most drug addicts only stop when they've been hurt enough.
"It's pre-conscious, the brain thinks it needs the drug for survival. That's why we run a two-year programme [at the Hanmer Clinic], because that's how long it takes for the brain to rewire. The more you use the more damage you do and the harder it is to repair.
"Quick fixes don't work. Addiction is not a broken arm. You don't put a plaster on it and off you go ... In a one-year period 40 per cent of people might relapse but [the majority] learn by it, and get back on track.
"We don't write them off. Addiction is not an issue of free-will. Once the drug takes hold it really drives the addiction."
Mr Benton said in his experience, two-thirds of females and two-fifths of men, had some sort of abusive issues as children, that complicates the recovery process.
Funding for drug rehabilitation and treatment worldwide tended to focus on a harm-reduction and brief intervention model, which was inappropriate for severe addiction.
"International research and our own clinical experience indicates more is better."