Drug-scourge paraphernalia easy to buy

By TONY WALL

An Auckland business is selling hundreds of glass pipes used to smoke the drug P, or pure methamphetamine - described as New Zealand's version of crack cocaine and a scourge on society.

Pipe Dreams, in the Victoria Park Market, is one of at least two stores in central Auckland selling the specialised pipes.

Pro-cannabis Green MP Nandor Tanczos' Hemp Store in Queen St also stocks glass pipes, but he says they are for "herbal tobacco", not P.

Mr Tanczos says his store often gets customers wanting P pipes but he and his business partners are refusing to stock them because the drug is a "menace".

But the head of the organised crime squad, Detective Sergeant Darryl Brazier, said most glass cannabis pipes could be adapted to smoke methamphetamine.

Selling drug paraphernalia is illegal but businesses get around that by promoting the pipes as for tobacco or as aromatherapy oil burners.

A Herald staff member visited Pipe Dreams yesterday and asked for a P pipe. She was directed to a counter full of glass pipes with round, bulbous ends and a large hole on top.

Manager Verena Luggen later said the pipes were sold as "oil burners", but she acknowledged that they were being used by P smokers.

She said she sold hundreds every week and they made up about a quarter of her overall turnover. Despite seeing the damage the drug did to her customers, she sold the pipes "because if I don't someone else will".



P has skyrocketed in popularity but has gained a reputation as a dangerous and highly addictive drug.

Auckland multiple-murderers William Bell and Ese Falealii smoked P before their bloody rampages.

Other users, ranging from gang members to financial high-flyers, have lost everything after becoming addicted to the drug.

The Herald has learned of a number of suicides connected to P and the Auckland morgue has had at least one case where repeated P use was suspected as being the direct cause of death.

The Government moved this week to crack down on methamphetamine. It will be reclassified as a class-A drug, and dealers will face life in prison. The move puts methamphetamine in line with heroin, LSD and cocaine.

P users burn the methamphetamine crystals in a glass pipe, but also use light bulbs or tin foil.

Cannabis pipes are slightly different, with a smaller hole on top and a hole on the side of the bulb.

Ms Luggen said her store tried to keep its profile low "because we don't like that stuff

. It's an absolute crap and horrible drug."



She said she could see the change in people who were regular users.

"We see people coming in and buying a pipe and then three months later they have just shrunk. It's the worst thing I've ever seen.

"It's a moral conflict, that part of the shop ... but I need to pay rent, I need to pay wages, I need to live.

"It doesn't excuse anything. It makes me feel horrible."

Ms Luggen said she provided information to people on the dangers of methamphetamine and how to wean themselves off it.

The Herald also bought a similar glass pipe from Sharkys on K Rd. Confronted later, the manager said: "I can't give you no information," and hung up.

Mr Tanczos said his store sold a herbal product called Stop P, which helped wean addicts off the drug.

He said reclassifying the drug was only "window-dressing" and would do nothing to target dealers and manufacturers.

"No more speed labs will be busted as a result, and no new treatment facilities will open."

He said police resources that were "wasted" on following up cannabis offences should be redirected towards methamphetamine production.