Nickie Muir: Lessons abound in drug bust

Nickie Muir.

When Argentina ceased to be a "transit" country for massive amounts of cocaine passing through and instead became the end-of-the-line destination for consumption, the government decided to plaster the city in black posters which read: "Evil Cocaine" (Maldita Cocaina).

It helped that Maradona had been caught with a stash of baby powder, and it seemed to be more palatable to accept that the national idol might have a raving drug habit rather than be anything other than an Olympic heterosexual.

Is it time then that we started paving the streets of Northland and all our major cities with "Maldita Methamphetamina" - given it's unlikely that any of that half-tonne of crazy-town thrown up on the unlikely narco-hub of Ahipara was destined for offshore.

Sobering to consider that there is enough of a market for mental mayhem that is P, right here, in little old Godzone.

If there is any lesson in all of that, it has to be that drug dealers really need to stay in school longer and stop taking any form of drug that is detrimental to brain cells.

Seriously, if I were the boss of the guys that organised the run that practically drove half a tonne of P into the local police station and said: "Look at me!", I'd be investing heavily in education right now.

For a start, they need a social studies lesson on income ratios and the fact that the average income in Northland is about 20K a year.

Any abandoned boat that is worth over 10 years' wages working hard on the oyster farms is going to raise questions like: "What does that guy do for a living?" and "How do I get a job like that?"

Secondly, there's a lot in the science curriculum that could have helped these boys out.

Simple things like: how to read a weather map or even just how to read a map - there are other ways of triangulating points on a map so that you can hide gear other than marking a big "X" on the beach or putting the GPS co-ordinates into a GPS unit - that is obviously connected to a vehicle and dodgy doings.

Here's a thought: police officers can read GPS, too. Who knew? Mmm. But then, most police officers stayed in school.

Then there are the other competencies that the curriculum advocates, like the social skills that would help these nationals of the country of Dumb understand that, if you launch boats at midnight in a storm, there's bound to be some old fisherman who's out there sleepless and observant noticing that there are a bunch of dumb munters with very flash gear who are unlikely to be brain surgeons or real estate agents.

He's likely to feel resentful that he's spent a lifetime working hard and paying tax and yet could never afford a boat like that.

Empathy. It serves you well no matter what line of work you want to get into.