Fall in yearly Wairarapa drug convictions

Data released by Statistics New Zealand showed there were 33 convictions in the Masterton District Court for drug offences - a slight decrease from 35 in 2013.

Convictions for drug offending in Wairarapa have averaged about three dozen a year since hitting a high nine years ago, fresh statistics show.

Data released by Statistics New Zealand showed there were 33 convictions in the Masterton District Court for drug offences - a slight decrease from 35 in 2013. Drug offences include importing or exporting illicit drugs, dealing or trafficking drugs, manufacturing or cultivating drugs and possessing or using illicit drugs.

The number of drug convictions was highest in 2005 at 69 - twice the current level.

Wairarapa Detective Sergeant Barry Bysouth said the statistics reflected his experience in the field where drug use has remained fairly constant.

"We have not seen any increases or decreases on the ground, just a consistent level of offending," he said.

"We put resources into investigations of all classes of drugs, whether they be A, B or C, and I know there are comments around whether police should be investigating the class C drugs, but we do because they are against the law. But we also incorporate our A's and B's as well and there is no dramatic drop or increase in offending."

Mr Bysouth said he encouraged low level offending to be dealt with outside of court to prevent a backlog in the court system.

"The police work closely with the courts to try and prevent cases from coming in front of them to free up court time for serious cases, so when we have low level offending then we can deal with it in a number of ways now.

"That can be through the use of formal warnings when we literally tell somebody 'we are going to warn you for this, don't do it again' and then a formal record exists about that warning but they don't have to go through the courts, and the other one is through the precharge warnings where people are arrested for drug offences but they are not pursued through the courts," he said.

"We do encourage that to prevent the backlog of criminal cases through the courts."

NZ Drug Foundation executive director Ross Bell said drug use, manufacturing and trafficking was a big problem.

"Surveys done by the Ministry of Health routinely show that New Zealand has some of the highest illicit drug use in the world, so it would make sense therefore that that would be reflected in our crime stats around possession."

Mr Bell said the key to stemming the drug problem was to curb demand. "The law enforcement approach to drugs, which is hoping the police and the court will get rid of these problems, is a real limited and narrow-minded way of addressing the drug problem," he said.

"What we argue is that, if there is demand for drugs, then criminal gangs will find a way to supply that demand. So in this country we need to switch our attention on to reducing the demand for drugs. We will do that through prevention, good education, appropriate treatment for people who are in trouble." NZME.