North's P expert foresaw drug war

An admission authorities are losing the war against methamphetamine comes as no shock for a Northland drug educator who says `P' has left a trail of human carnage across New Zealand.
Police Minister Annette King has admitted strategies to combat the billion-dollar methamphetamine trade are not working and tighter controls of chemicals used by criminals to make P are needed.
Her concession that authorities are struggling to win the war against P comes in a new Cabinet paper setting out Government policies to target organised crime.
But Mike Sabin, head of drug education company MethCon, said the admission from government about P was understated and long overdue. He has been warning of the losing battle with the drug for many months.
"We have been losing this war for a long time, except with this particular war the collateral damage has been borne out on the citizens of the country, leaving a trail of victims and human carnage in its path," Mr Sabin said.
"Having met with the government's Minister responsible for drug policy over two years ago, and being told at that point that the government was winning the fight on P, and that nicotine was killing far more people, it was crystal clear that the country was at the mercy of organised crime and its billion dollar baby."
Mr Sabin believes that New Zealand has the potential to extinguish this problem more successfully and rapidly than other countries, but the policy framework and infrastructure needs to change.
Northland police commander Superintendent Mike Rusbatch said drugs and alcohol were recognised as catalysts for crime.
Methamphetamine offences peaked at 268 in 2005, fell slightly in 2006 but increased again last year with 121 reported offences.
In 2005, 15 methamphetamine laboratories were discovered in Northland, 20 in 2006 and nine last year.
Mr Rusbatch said Northland police had increased its focus on drug offending over the last year which was shown by the number of arrests in the annual drug operation earlier this year which netted 218 arrests, a record number for the region.
The Government set up a joint agency approach to tackling P in 2003. Measures included reclassifying it as a Class A drug and creating a Methamphetamine Action Group.
But methamphetamine-related cases as a percentage of all cases sent to the High Court have risen from 41 per cent in 2004 to 54 per cent in 2006.
The paper said efforts to target methamphetamine sale and use and prevent medicines such as cold cures being used to make the illegal drug did not appear to be having any impact on the price, purity or availability of P.
Ms King said police and chemical companies agreed that voluntary controls over the sales of chemicals used to make P were ineffective, and laws were needed to prevent organised gangs getting hold of precursor chemicals.
During the annual Northland police blitz on drugs earlier this year four methamphetamine laboratories were uncovered - including two commercial operations with links to gangs.
At the time head of Northland's organised crime unit, Detective Sergeant John Miller, said the ``significant' quantities of chemicals found at labs in Dargaville and Kaikohe West meant they had been commercial operations with definite gang connections.
Specialists from Environmental Science and Research were called in to dismantle the laboratories and remove toxic chemicals.
"There's no doubt gangs are driving the commercial aspects of cannabis and meth production in Northland," Mr Miller said.
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