One in 5 under-30s have been offered P

Former addict Pat Buckley runs the Stellar Trust's drug programme in schools. Photo / Dean Purcell

About 20 per cent of young adults have been offered P and 5 per cent have tried it, according to a new survey on the drug.

Campaigners say the results show the problem is far more widespread than previously thought.

A UMR Research survey for the anti-P Stellar Trust found that 15 per cent of all adults polled knew someone who regularly used methamphetamine or P. Nine per cent said they had been offered it themselves and 2 per cent had tried it.

However, the figures were much higher among 18- to 29-year-olds - 19 per cent said they had been offered the drug and 5 per cent had tried it. Maori polled consistently higher in usage and exposure, with 28 per cent saying they had seen someone use P.

The Stellar Trust plans to present the results of the online survey of 1000 people to Prime Minister John Key at its Wellington launch this week.

Trust chairman Burton Shipley, the husband of former National Prime Minister Jenny Shipley, said the survey showed that only 14 per cent of people believed enough was being done to fight the spread of P, despite the Government's initiatives.

"We agree with the research that we need to be doing more."

The trust has tried unsuccessfully to persuade the Government to provide money for media campaigns and its drug education programme in schools, run by former heroin addict Pat Buckley.

Many officials and independent advisers believe such campaigns are a waste of money - a view Mr Shipley rejected.

"We have our own education programme running alongside the health curriculum in many high schools and the feedback from pupils on that programme is quite stunning."

The trust's patron, Chief Family Court Judge Peter Boshier, said the evidence showed education campaigns did work.

Among people who thought that not enough was being done to fight the spread of P, by far the most popular solution was tougher sentences for dealers and users, including the return of the death sentence (mentioned by 42.8 per cent).

The next most popular were education through either the media or in schools (21.6 per cent) and increased resources for police (12.5 per cent).

The survey also found P was rated as the second most easily available drug after cannabis. It was described as "not difficult at all" to get by 39 per cent, well behind cannabis (69 per cent) but ahead of both Ecstasy (32 per cent) and speed (31 per cent).

UMR said the survey, which also included phone interviews on some questions, had a 3.1 per cent margin of error.

An annual survey of drug users released this week reported that P use had stabilised since the drug's "epidemic growth" early in the decade.

The Illicit Drug Monitoring System survey of 315 frequent users said the price of a gram of P had risen from $610 in 2006 to $738 in 2009, indicating that large seizures by police and customs were having an effect on smugglers and dealers.

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