Community needs to buy-in to meth crackdown – Editorial

Kaikohe has a serious methamphetamine problem that the police and other agencies have been unable to solve.

Editorial

THREE KEY FACTS

• Ngāpuhi leader Mane Tahere calls for a police crackdown on methamphetamine use in Northland.
• The region has the highest meth consumption, with nearly 2000 milligrams per day per 1000 people.
• Tahere urges community cooperation with police, despite past criticisms of heavy-handed tactics.

The leader of the country’s largest iwi is calling for a police crackdown on people in its community.

It’s is a bold call from Ngāpuhi‘s Mane Tahere but it should be commended.

The reason is drugs, specially the scourge of methamphetamine.

Wastewater testing revealed in the second half of last year New Zealand consumed meth at the highest levels ever recorded.

Ngāpuhi‘s patch, Northland, has the highest consumption of meth in New Zealand, with nearly 2000 milligrams per day consumed per 1000 people.

Tahere says he has seen young Northlanders smoking a meth pipe in daylight in the main street of Kaikohe, just down the road from the police station.

So, Tahere has asked the Police Minister for decisive action and thinks police should use similar tactics in Northland to what we saw them do in Ōpōtiki last year.

You would think there aren’t too many opponents to cops rounding up drug dealers but there were complaints about the alleged heavy-handed nature of that police operation.

Police simultaneously raided 15 homes in Ōpōtiki, resulting in 22 people being charged with a variety of offences, including possession of methamphetamine for supply and participating in organised criminal groups.

But some people believed the National Organised Crime Group (NOCG) went too far, with complaints of strip-searches and children watching parents being taken away by police.

Police Minister Mark Mitchell told the Herald police can’t solve the meth issue by themselves. He is right, there needs to be community buy-in.

Tahere also said the view by some Māori that you can’t trust police must change.

“Our hard, staunch kind of hate for the police is not the future. A lot of police are our whānau now anyway,” he said.

“For us as Ngāpuhi, we have said, instead of fighting politically let’s come together and take on these real issues ... Our marae are telling the stories of whānau becoming dependent on drugs.”

Tahere’s cause and that of his community aren’t helped when the likes of the Green Party irresponsibly sow further seeds of mistrust.

For decades meth has destroyed people, families and entire communities. Now we are using the drug more than ever.

Perhaps it is time to give the hard-line tactics Tahere wants to see on his streets a crack.

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