I think one of the fundamental misunderstandings by journalists and politicians over the new P epidemic is that they don’t understand the economics and power struggles at work.
Police are more interested in gaining vast new surveillance powers and intelligence about Triad’s and Chinese organised crime than stopping the free flow of meth ingredients into the country.
The drop in cannabis supply is directly connected to the jump in meth trade.
There are two main forces that are seeing cannabis shortages around the country. The first is the change of law that lowered the evidential threshold for Police to claim people are profiting from illegal activities and the other is the quiet tsunami of meth being imported that is now changing the economic model for drugs.
When the Police changed laws to lower the evidential threshold from beyond reasonable doubt to balance of probabilities when pursuing assets from the proceeds of crime, they inadvertently changed the odds for criminals.
If you could have your house seized and property taken for making money from cultivating drugs, you may as well make as much as you can and rather than spend it on assets, live on cash. Cannabis cultivation – while extremely profitable – takes at least 3 months to get a payout on.
Meth is a far more lucrative product for cash payouts. Instead of waiting 3 months to make a profit from a cannabis crop, gangs can make the same amount from a cook up of meth in a weekend.
The Headhunters, whose ties with Triads and Chinese organised crime give them access to huge amounts of pseudoephedrine (the base ingredient for meth), and has given them an expansion throughout the regions that is fuelling a meth binge that is devastating the regions and the South Island.
This expansion is creating huge tensions with other gangs who have previously used cannabis, prostitution and protection rackets as their main source of income. These gangs are now needing to turn to manufacturing their own meth to compete with the Headhunters market dominance and cashed up influence….
The reason why Black Power and Mongrel Mob are so anti-P is because it’s fuelling a Headhunter expansion into their regions of influence. These tensions are also feeding an arms race between the gangs as Headhunters gain high powered guns from their Chinese organised crime contacts to enforce their expansion via muscle.
The question needs to be asked – are the Police simply using their new surveillance powers to gather intelligence or are they actually cracking down on the organised crime syndicates causing so much misery?
“Meth is a far more lucrative product for cash payouts. Instead of waiting 3 months to make a profit from a cannabis crop, gangs can make the same amount from a cook up of meth in a weekend.
The Headhunters, whose ties with Triads and Chinese organised crime give them access to huge amounts of pseudoephedrine (the base ingredient for meth), and has given them an expansion throughout the regions that is fuelling a meth binge that is devastating the regions and the South Island.”
Thank you for this Martyn as few of us know nothing of this, and that itself is a deep concern to many as if we don’t know of this the MEDIA are keeping us dumbed down and this brings another question to our minds;
Why haven’t the Police sent out stark warnings to the whole country asking for help to combat this serious issue?
Are the media also complicit by silence on this serious issue here?
Are they part of the problem?
The other issue also is if cannabis is now being taken over by the P as the drug of choice is this because Cannabis is a criminal offence where is P is still not, and if this is the case why is P not a criminal offence?
P use and production is definitely a criminal offence.
I’m not sure whether your comment as to the legal status of Meth, is an attempt to put a sarcastic spin on this or not.
But it should be obvious that the Police are using their Mr Big approach when it comes to dealing with the gang meth problem and are directly participating in this activity in the effort of gaining intelligence, to the gangs lines of supply.
I’m a bit concerned that Martyn’s intel that Black Power and Mongrel Mob are so anti-P, when in Dunedin I know for a fact that even the highest ranking members deal meth and have even joint forces to do so.
For the record no! I’ve never used Meth, but have had to end relationships with casual friends through their overt use of this drug. After not seeing one such person for a year I was shocked to see how badly they had deteriorated, while I was shopping at a supermarket.
A bit of fantasy in this article. You don’t seem to know a lot about how gangs work at all, but repeat poaka bullshit. The P epidemic is 100% down to ngati poaka.
I blame the pnats for the increase of P in our country they have cut funding to border controls and checking of luggage is minimal. The P ingredients will be coming from China and we have already seen the lengths some of these people will go to get it onto our country. People who once smoked marijuana have turned to smoking P its more accessible and cheaper. Where is the funding for this problem our government have confiscated cars, bikes, property and money this should all go back into eradicating this evil drug. But as usual our PM is in denial as he is with most pressing issues. I remember his empty promises to eradicate this drug but what is he doing exactly the same as the housing issue ‘there is no crisis’ really how comes the drug rehab places are full and they have huge waiting lists and the courts are choked with P related cases
I think your comment makes sense. Indeed, we see an increase in crime across the board, so to say, as they cut back in spending on police, at least on a per capita basis, in many areas.
All this talk about a drop in crime, that was a bit of window dressing and spin, as they changed the way they gather statistics and also have instructed police to not prosecute every incident, by rather giving (particularly young offenders) a warning.
So now police are underfunded, hence also the call by some for them to be armed, as they do in some situations face major challenges they do not seem to be able to deal with.
Poor training may be added, hence another peculiar shooting incident in Hamilton the other day or night.
I wonder what will come out re that one.
When you run “public service” into the ground, as the Nats have, putting more pressure on staff, and paying little for resources, naturally crime will return, including drug smuggling, production and distribution.
Whether there is some difference between Headhunters and other gangs, recent Newshub reports seem to contradict what Martyn writes here. Some Black Power members had revealed that some chapters that had formerly distanced themselves from P and drug dealing, were back into the game. So it cannot only be the Headhunters distributing P.
a cannabis crop can come in at 8 weeks if you have the right strain.meth is not physically addictive its much easier to get off than heroin cut the supply and you get rid of the problem,the police obviously arnt getting the resourses they need its not just gangs.every crim and his dog are doing it cause of the money to be made.in australia its about a quater of the price it is here.your right though the authorities dont have a clue.
P a holes
The recent death of a P Producer is a great result. If infected rats invaded NZ we would eradicate them (black blague) P is just the same.
These P cookers are destroying the NZ people & their culture.
They infect our children and their parents. If you can call them parents when they can expose their children to such a debilitating drug without any responsibility or truth.
How could any decent nz’r be associated to this drug.
Wake up Kiwis & realize what your doing to your family & friends.
P producers would not exist without demand.
What are you doing Kiwis!
What the F!
Your destroying your families and children.
Stop or your a self indulgent fool.
Tell the authorities if you know someone who cooks and distributed P.
Do it now and stop the filth.
Johann Hari, in Chasing the Scream, makes some poignant observations. As he points out, before prohibition in the US, beer was the most popular alcoholic beverage. During prohibition the most popular drink became whiskey.
The penalty for being caught with a boot full of beer was the same as for being caught with a boot full of whiskey, a boot full of whiskey was worth a lot more than a boot full of beer. Simple risk/benefit analysis, distributors are going to go with the more lucrative commodity.
Another observation is the nature of the drug market in a prohibitionist environment. The habitual user is motivated to become a dealer as a means of servicing their dependence. Since most users already have a supply the budding dealer needs to create new users that will be required to go through them – more than anyone, the hard drug user understands the concept of the middle man and the importance of not letting the end user get close to the next tier of the distribution network.
The real reason the police are making record drug busts isn’t improved intelligence or more sophisticated detection methods, it’s as a consequence of meth use reaching a saturation point. The cops are literally falling over the stuff.
Drug prohibition laws have had the perverse affect of increasing the use of the targeted substances.
the reason why the speed-epidemic started and is sustained in nz is because we cannot get ready access to (the much less harmful) cocaine..
meth is not called ‘poor mans’ cocaine’ for no reason..
..and the best solution/cure for meth addiction..?
..(which by the way is a horrific-thing..it makes a smack habit look like a walk in the park..)
..the cure is (for those who wish to stop) is to substitute medicinal cocaine for the meth..and then come off the coke..
..which i can report (from experience) is a relative breeze..
..(2/10 on withdrawal-scale..tobacco is 4.5./10 on that scale..heroin 9/10..)
..that is what a sane drug policy would look like..
..but we will not get this sane drug policy from either the tories or labour..
..so nothing will change..it will only get worse..
Remember when Peter Gluckman, now a Knight of the Realm and Chief Science Advisor to the Prime Minister, supported banning the sale of cold and flu medication (the stuff that worked, not the pretend stuff we now have access to) so that we could control P manufacturing in NZ?
I think Humanity is a drug culture and so once drugs are rendered illegal thus enabling money to be made from scarcity of supply the whole thing becomes an abstract business concept proffered by monsters.
Decriminalise ALL drugs, problem solved.
No cops, no gangs, no crime, no MSM sensationalism, no burgeoning prison populations, no profiting lawyers, court systems, insurers, banksters.
Just a few dead and dying dependants who couldn’t keep their end of the bargain with the Devil. ( Metaphor.)
The problem is that we’re being governed by Monsters for Monsters who capitlise on monstrous behaviour and if we allow that to continue, we become the problem. We are, in fact, the monsters. Except me. I like kittens and puppies and couldn’t hurt a fly so it can’t be me right?
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