Stephanie Worsop: Methamphetamine - an uncontrolled blight on communities

Methamphetamine is a blight on our communities. Photo / File

There are few things that pose a bigger threat to our communities than methamphetamine.

The drug tears families apart, funds gangs and destroys its users. It is a common factor in domestic violence, homelessness and child abuse.

Meth is a blight on our community and as hard as we try, we can't seem to get a handle on it.

The Government announced on Saturday it would allocate $20 million to programmes working to reduce the damage methamphetamine use causes to whānau, businesses, communities and economies.

Two of the nine community-based providers to receive funding are in the Bay of Plenty - Eastern Bay Iwi Provider Alliance and Manaaki Ora Trust.

Eastern Bay Iwi Provider Alliance will receive $1.78 million to run Mauri Oho – Working to Reduce Harm of Methamphetamine 2020-2023, to provide individualised treatment and support services to address meth harm for whānau.

Service support will be provided by four iwi health providers throughout the Eastern Bay of Plenty. The funding is for three years and will support up to 80 people each year.

Manaaki Ora Trust will receive $476,677 for a Māori-focused detox facility in Rotorua.

The funding will provide a specialised detox centre next to the residential facilities at Te Whare Oranga Ngakau. The funding is for one year to develop kaupapa service design, renovation, set-up and operational costs for three months.

The money will be appreciated but community providers doing their best to tackle this pervasive issue need more than just financial support from the Government.

This latest funding boost is not the first time the Government has set aside money specifically to target methamphetamine.

The Meth Action Plan 2020 was introduced in 2009 by the National Government and had been running until the Labour-led Coalition Government dropped it for a more broad-based approach.

This plan set aside $10m each year from the proceeds of crime fund, made up of money seized from criminals, and specifically targeted New Zealand's methamphetamine trade.

Despite these efforts from Government, past and present, meth continues to invade and poison our communities.

A staggering 1.8 tonnes of meth was seized by Police and Customs last year, three times as much as the previous year.

In the first half of 2020, Police busted 38 clandestine meth labs.

The problem is rife and shows no signs of slowing down.

Community providers such as Manaaki Ora Trust and Eastern Bay Iwi Provider Alliance do amazing work, but in order for our communities to make progress it must be backed up by the actions of a Government committed to taking a hard line against meth.