Eye on Crime: P makes addicts human crimewaves

A recovering Christchurch drug addict with 172 convictions says his up to $2000-a-day P and opiate habit was supported by over 500 burglaries, robberies and dishonesty offences, most of which he has never been caught for.

John, 44, is a living example of the way a drug habit drives other crime and spreads the impact of illicit substances throughout the community.

Now in a residential addiction programme, John said his offending skyrocketed once he began taking expensive methamphetamine, the drug now commonly known as P.

"Mate, I committed a lot of crime. I committed crime I've never been caught for over the years. I'd go out and commit burglaries four, five or six burglaries a night. Every night. Every day. Even while I was at work I'd go away at lunch time and commit a crime to support my habit that night. I was using anywhere up to $2000 daily of all sorts misties (morphine sulfate), whatever. P started coming in and that's where the cost really went up. You're paying $120 for a point (0.1g)."

John said his drug use started at home with parents who smoked cannabis and took pills.

He was drinking by age nine and smoking cannabis by 11.

Intravenous opiate use was his "big turning point" at age 14.

"It put me into a life of crime aggravated robbery, robbery, burglaries, car thefts just a lot of dishonesty crime. I've basically served 22 years of my life behind prison walls because of my drug problem."

The head of the Christchurch Police drug squad, Detective Senior Sergeant Brian Archer, said there was a strong association between drug dependency and crime. "Even if you were a moderate user of cannabis you'd spend $20 to $30 a day and that adds up.

"When you get into the more expensive drugs: methamphetamine costs about $100 for a point that's a very small amount of drugs, about enough for one use that's about $700 a week. So there is a very strong link."

Like the rest of New Zealand, Christchurch's drug scene was mainly cannabis-based, he said.

But, older "hard-core" intravenous users still used morphine and codeine-based drugs.

Some of those had gone over to P but there were still distinct groups of users.

"What I don't see is that P has been the drug of choice for everyone but it still has its own following."

Intravenous users tended to be older the "elder statesmen" of the drug world, Archer said.

Massey University drug researcher Dr Chris Wilkins said Christchurch's "isolation" from the North Island led to a "unique" subculture with a higher proportion of injecting morphine users and a popularity of BZP pills (party pills) and nitrous oxide greater than was found in other centres. P was stronger in the North Island but Christchurch was catching up, he said.

Archer said Christchurch's P scene and the burgeoning numbers of P labs discovered 31 last year compared with 12 in 2006 was still very much based on the Kiwi do-it-yourself attitude.

The skills needed to cook P could be passed on easily and, due to the cost, "people are prepared to give it a crack", he said.

Recovering addict John agreed with Archer that there were "noticeably newer players on the scene".

"I was a user and even I felt sorry for the younger ones," John said.

"Because it's so easy to get addicted."

John has five children, all girls, and two of the older ones, aged 17 and 18, used drugs, he said.

"I definitely don't want them to have the same life as I've had.

"I had a choice to say no.

It's not a sickness it's a personal choice.

"For these younger generations I pray for them not to get into it."

 

- © Fairfax NZ News