Fall in P-lab busts hints epidemic has peaked

By SIMON COLLINS

The mania for P (pure methamphetamine) may have peaked.

Police spokesman Jon Neilson said yesterday that 134 P laboratory were busted in the nine months to the end of September, down slightly from 149 in the same period last year.

At the same time, scientists have halved the backlog of P cases waiting for analysis.

Last January scientists at the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) in Auckland had 189 cases backed up. Now the total is 89.

High Court Justice Judith Potter described the backlog in April as "intolerable" after New Plymouth man Phillip Brian Marriner had to be remanded in custody for almost a year waiting for his case to be heard.

Rotorua lawyer Bill Lawson said in February that he might take a case under the Bill of Rights Act on behalf of Murupara man Craig Mulder, whose trial is finally due to start on November 8, 17 months after he was charged.

The Government gave ESR an extra $17 million in the Budget in May to hire extra staff and buy new equipment to cope with the processing backlog.

At the time, ESR said it was struggling with a rise in P lab busts from nine in 2000 to 41 in 2001, 170 in 2002, 202 last year and a projected 300 in the year to June.

ESR's general manager of forensics, Wayne Chisnall, said the problem "might have levelled off a bit".

"We have geared up for about 200 a year and clearing the backlog," he said.

The institute has hired three P experts from North America on one-year contracts and hopes that they may choose to stay longer.

One of them, a 26-year-old woman who gave her name only as Ashleigh for security reasons, arrived last week from the US Drug Enforcement Agency in San Francisco. She said the problem had levelled off in the US.

"We don't know if it has peaked. We go through variations through the year," she said.

Mr Chisnall said ESR had streamlined its procedures and was giving priority to cases due to come up in court. It had also spent $650,000 on new equipment for its Auckland laboratory.

Science Minister Pete Hodgson visited the institute yesterday to congratulate its 12-member team.