Lab bust 'only start' of P problem

ROBYN EDIE/Southland Times

WORSE TO COME: Invercargill Salvation Army captain Doug Newman warns that P could become a torrent on city streets, and preparations to deal with it should begin.

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The first P lab bust in Southland could be the start of the drug exploding on the streets, and the region needed more services to deal with it, a Salvation Army boss believed.

Invercargill army Captain Doug Newman – a former police officer who worked the streets of South Auckland for five years – has seen the devastating effects P can have on a community.

Although there was already a need for a residential treatment centre for alcoholics and drug abusers in Southland, that need just got bigger, he said yesterday.

"We have just seen a P lab busted in town. The police are saying it's trickling into the town. I think it's a matter of time before it becomes a torrent, and we need to be prepared. There needs to be some planning and some structures put in place now."

The Salvation Army had helped treat a couple of P users in the city, but cannabis remained the drug of choice, he said. "But if P manufacturers are in town, who is to say it isn't sitting out there waiting to explode, and we have to be prepared to meet it."

The nearest residential treatment centre for alcoholics and drug abusers was in Dunedin, preventing many southerners from getting the help they required, he said.

"This P lab bust could be catalyst to seriously consider building a residential treatment programme centre in Invercargill."

The Southland District Health Board yesterday declined to say whether the region needed its own alcohol and drug residential treatment centre, saying it might have answers today.

The board's mental health services divisional manager Louise Travers did say, however, that Southland patients identified as needing residential treatment were referred to programmes that best matched their needs.

Detective Senior Sergeant Brian Cowie, of Invercargill, said if P use ever became a torrent in Southland it would be disastrous for the community, but there was no evidence of that happening yet.

The drug was more prevalent in bigger cities, while he believed the widely publicised horror stories of P further north may have stopped some people from trying it. The best way to get on top of the drug was for the community to be vigilant and report users and dealers to the police, Mr Cowie said.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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