SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: Jeanette Saxby – Methamphetamine and what a fool believes…
But what a fool believes, he sees
No wise man has the power to reason away
What seems to be,
Is always better than nothing
Than nothing at all…..
Lyrics from song , What a fool believes.
Doobie Brothers 1979
Mike Sabin was no such wise man but as a former Drugs Detective he was well-aware of creating believable circumstantial evidence.
“In 2006 Mike Sabin took leave from the police to create MethCon Group Ltd a world first, and its aim was to provide employers, Government agenices, community organisations and members of the public with better education, policy and strategies to respond to New Zealand’s growing P problem.
The business quickly expanded from Northland across New Zealand with Methcon gaining recognition with a number of business awards, and Mike Himself was recognised with national leadership awards for his commitment in this area.”
While researching solutions to New Zealands Methamphetamine crisis Mike Travelled extensively into the United States and Europe and provided research and recommendations to the previous Government and the new National led Government, which have given this issue considerable priority”
From Pete George Dec 22, 2014
History of Methamphetamine
Methamphetamine was developed in Germany in 1887 and was very popular. In 1919 the Japanese invented a stronger and water-soluble version of Methamphetamine which made it a perfect drug for injecting as the hypodermic needle was still relatively new.
It was used heavily by troops in WW2 both to stay awake and for long flying missions. Hitler was rumoured to have a dependency on Methamphetamine which may explain his erratic behaviour.
In the 1950s it was regularly prescribed by doctors all around the world as a diet aid and for depression also. It was of course highly addictive.
In the 1970s the US Government made it illegal and its manufacture was then taken over by Motor cycle clubs and now Mexico provides most Methamphetamine to the USA.
Methamphetamine or P has been in New Zealand for over 20 years and its use is increasing Not many families in New Zealand, won’t have a story to tell about the P use of a sister, mother, brother, daughter or cousin using P. I live in Paeroa , jokingly known as P town.
Back to METHCON MIKE , Well evidence would show, to any drug and alcohol clinician, his method was flawed and based largely on police practice/prejudice and not any patient centred rehabilitation model.
Mike Sabin advocated a zero- tolerance approach and stated the current focus on Harm minimisation needs to be abandoned and replaced harm elimination. This was loved by those in the National Government. See how bad ideas get compounded with even worse ideas…National Government who wanted to get tough on crime.
The New Zealand drug Foundation disagreed with Mr Sabin and stated that the USA is the last place to look for solutions.
Mike Sabin gave no supporting data or evidence but claimed his method, slashed P use in America by 25% in four years. Sadly no data or study correlates with this and statistic show a growing Meth-problem across all states. It does point to where this rabid anti-P dialogue stems from and how it was completely without evidence or even reputable research. From 2007 to 2009 there was an increase of 254% in the number of clandestine methlabs discovered in the Southern states.
What I find really puzzling is the fact Northland has the greatest number of users of P in the whole country. And Northland was Mike Sabin’s the former MP for National seat. And yet Northland also has had the largest P seizures made by the police. One bust was half a ton 500kg of high quality imported Methamphetamine. All this would suggest P use has grown like an algal bloom in Northland. Strange that this should be the result from ten years of Mike Sabin’s vigilance?
The headline P found in High levels in Whangarei wastewater since police and health officials gained data . NZ Herald 28 November 2017
So just was Mike Sabin doing? I suggest he started the biggest lie and misinformation campaign in New Zealand’s history, and had the financial backing and full support of the National Government.
I’ve long taken issue with Mike Sabin as I am qualified as Drug and Alcohol Clinician and put Patient or client needs first when discussing treatment. I haven’t found any education or qualification to suggest Mike has a degree or any tertiary education. As an activist and advocate for better funded drug and alcohol treatment I have been on the receiving end of some nasty texts. This is what the then, MP wrote to me in 2010, When I said,
“I believe you are ignorant. Prohibition of cannabis is a failure and your views contradict the top police official and current Drug and Alcohol treatment practices. “
Mike Sabin replied with this,
There is no need to be insulting Jnette, the very fact you think drug use doesn’t create victims and cause harm to others (which has not a jot to do with enforcement and prohibition) satisfies my impression of the size of minds in this discussion.
I have a post Graduate qualification and am a clinician with 20 years experience. I have completed and published several papers on Cannabis use in New Zealand and completed a Literature review on The Public Health Message on Cannabis and also worked on a methadone programme as well as had some personal insight into drug use .
He continues on,
As I said, I think its best we agree to disagree. Come back to me when you have some solutions to the real harm caused by drug abuse rather than the idealogical self-centred standpoint of someone chuffing on a pipe or a joint in the comfort of their own home oblivious to the world around them.
I don’t care what anyone says, prevention will always be better than cure..
I’m aware of the views of the so called top cop and all the others who struggle to see the trees for forest, (wood for the trees, is the proper..saying )
I guess we shouldn’t stop at illegal drugs then should we? Prohibition of theft, child abuse and rape and burglary doesn’t seem to be working so maybe we should make those things legal and then they would stop happening… I would like to see a world free of drug dependence and all it brings with it, you would like to be able to use drugs as it suits you. We are unlikely to have any common ground.
All the best
Kind regards
Mike Sabin
RE: Top Cops views on cannabis welcomed
24 August 2010 6.30 pm
This text I received from Mike Sabin speak volumes about his character.
Mike Sabin, in my opinion, is a cheat and a bully and has been behind the creation of anti P hysteria and the industry of making money out of victims. Not one person I know received any treatment, nor were any new treatment programmes for methamphetamine reduction being planned at that time. Mike Sabin left Parliament under a cloud of silence. He was investigated by the Police for assault in 2014 while being chair of the law and order portfolio in Parliament. Two weeks before he went to trial he was appointed to a new position as General manager of the Luxury Northland Resort known as Peppers.
Nice for those with CONnections.
Jeanette Saxby
B Ed , Post Grad dip Hth Sci
Addiction Clinician
The combination of arrogance, ignorance and greed very much typifies many far right politicians.
The whole tenor of Sabin’s correspondence here is not only unprofessional, it is full of sweeping non sequiturs which undermine his own credibility and sincerity, but he is probably too limited an individual to even begin to understand this.
But to give credit where it is due, there is one woman in Parliament, known to be a vindictive poor-clobberer, who personally and craftily, did an effective job in working to convince NZ’ers that people at the bottom of the heap are the authors of their own misfortune and should be firmly jumped on wearing $700 shoes, before stomping off to continue loving Bill English’s brain.
Ordinary folk can’t afford lawyers, but chances are an enterprising lawyer will mount a class action on behalf of the private property owners who believed this total tosh. At least one P-tester has publicly stated that they knew the standards were wrong.
I suggest that Ardern is also morally wrong in saying private property owners shouldn’t receive compensation because no-one forced them to clean up their properties. They believed lies and they acted responsibly.
Still going strong, it seems:
http://www.methcon.co.nz/
Believe it or not!
Yes but if you go into the companies office you will see that the Methcon Group (1742283) that Sabin created in 2005 was deregistered in 14/11/2012 and another set of directors registered the new company Methcon Group (3164586) 13/10/2010 and on 27/10/2010 the original Methcon Group changed its name to Mike Sabin Ltd. The website has no reference to directors or employees.
Yes, the website looked like it may be a different company with different directors and so. Thanks for the info.
Voluntary Deregistration it says:
https://opencorporates.com/companies/nz/1742283
Mention of the man here:
https://www.noted.co.nz/currently/politics/what-really-happened-to-mike-sabin-john-key-and-the-housing-minister/
What Sabin is doing now:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11433148
” Former National MP Mike Sabin has picked up a job as the head of a luxury resort in Northland.
Mr Sabin has been appointed chief executive of Peppers Carrington Estate, a five-star, 1000-hectare resort on the Karikari Peninsula.
The former MP for Northland will be in charge of plans to redevelop the property into the largest five-star resort in the country.
Chinese real estate giant Shanghai CRED purchased the business from US businessman Paul Kelly for $28.7 million in 2013, and planned to market it to wealthy Chinese tourists.”
He goes where the money is, that is clear!
NO principles, just much greed and self importance.
+100 – sad that there are so many fraudsters aka MethCON and people getting political currency, and making profits out of this misery.
I can’t believe he called his company Meth-con!!! It’s the most honest company name I’ve ever seen.
It’s like he gets a kick out of seeing what he can get away with – same as John Key
+1 Aaron!
Talking about jonkey, let’s take another look at his golfing buddy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6LfLPL12Q8
Are any of these corrupt NAT Mps (ex also) ever going to be held to account? NZ is a frustratingly pathetic country when it comes to this, and our MSM doesn’t help matters. SOME ACCOUNTABILITY PLEASE, IT’S TAX PAYER MONEY THEY ARE/WERE USING!
From your quotes I see a fairly civil debate between two passionate advocates looking at a problem from two very different perspectives.
As a policeman Mr Sabin would see the destruction of families and communities and the crimes committed to fund a P addiction. His solution is to stamp on supply and use.
As an Addiction Clinician you would see addicts as broken individuals needing health care to help them with their addictions. Your solution is to advocate for more addiction services.
A balance between these two approaches is required for sure. The two approaches need to work together. Mr Sabin isn’t the enemy here. People selling P into our community still need to be targeted.
Johnpo2002 sees a debate where none existed.
Nor was this exchange in any way civil.
Johnpo2002 way not know that Sabin’s rudeness alone puts him beyond the bounds of civility.
If the issue was P, then Sabin’s throwing in other assorted problems was classic Crosby/Textor cat-the-table tactics to divert attention from the issue, while making odious assumptions insulting to his critic.
If these irrelevant assumptions were made deliberately to rile his opponent, then yes, he is a bully, and a ratbag as well. If he believed them himself, yes he is still a bully, but maybe a numskull rather than ratbag, or perhaps all three – his communication is all over the place.
No-one in their right mind supports P, but Sabin made a lot of money from it’s use – he cashed in on other people’s misery when he had other choices – targeting the P makers, providing resources to help addicts, looking and then looking again at the prevalence of P in Northland, and then asking why is all this happening ? Most third formers could tell him.
Mental health people- police – all health professionals – have been begging for adequate funding for years, so telling a clinician she should be advocating more addiction services is telling your grandmother to suck eggs.
Jeanette called him “ignorant”. Sabin called her smallminded. In the context of the debates I see on Twitter these days it seemed fairly civil. At least they were engaging with each other.
I’m not trying to defend Mike Sabin. I just see two people working on the P scourge from different perspectives. Blaming each other for the problem gets us nowhere.
He most certainly is.
I can’t be bothered explaining to you why, just read the article again.
People who sell P are the enemy.
I mean on balance you, or who ever try to get as much reward in your favour. Anything less than 14% and it’s probably not worth doing because there’s always some one with higher returns on offer. ALWAYS. Just got to do a bit of research and grow a pair is all.
Policy that allows people to sell P is the enemy. Making profit from those selling P is the enemy, I could go on.
But thank you for your investigation Jeanette Saxby.
I have a new game/ book… “Where’s Mike Sabin”?
Johnpo2002 , I have little love for the drug of meth (or any other hard drug, for that matter). I’ve witnessed first hand what such a drug did to one of my close family members.
But I also have no time for the mindless redneckery that surrounds drugs, nor the prohibition laws that make “P”, heroin, cocaine, etc, a very profitable enterprise for dealers and private companies “fighting” the scourge.
Mr Sabin’s response to Ms Saxby suggested a lack of intelligent rigour with his logic – and more of an emotion-laden, knee-jerk reaction. The only thing missing was a plaintive “won’t someone think of the children” cry.
How is the “war on drugs” working out?
Very nicely, thank you very much. If you’re a dealer or a private testing company, it’s a lucrative industry.
Well, someone needs to “think of the children”. In particular, children of P-smoking mothers during the pregnancy. The human brain is the most complex and wonderful structure in the known universe; and it should be treated with respect. Many will know what P does to an adult brain; it was plausible to suppose that a developing fetal brain would be the more vulnerable. Such a conclusion is drawn from Trecia Wouldes’ study from Auckland*, “Prenatal methamphetamine exposure and neurodevelopmental outcomes in children from 1 to 3 years”. Anecdotally, I understand that teachers at least in the Waikato are recognising “P babies” in infant classes, due to their disruptive behaviour.
A counsel of perfection, from the armchair: if pregnant, or potentially so, no cigs, alcohol, or meth. Cannabis less clearly an issue, but wisely to be avoided.
Treat your children well.
*https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24566524
That man is an extremist and a bit of a know it all.
How ironic hi business is called Methcon, because that is what has happened to NZ. A con about dealing with meth. The war on drugs is a abject failure – until we grow up and go for solutions that put the patient first rather than bullshit revenge fantasies. Then we are domed to this issue repeating itself over and over.
A classic example of this has been the HNZ fiasco, one has to ask the question – how much money did the likes of Methcon make out of this disaster?
Millions I bet
If that’s his argument then he is bankrupt of ideas. It indicates to me a man of narrow ideas (except profitting from the illegal drugs trade in a roundabout way) and refusing to consider other viewpoints.
The sad thing is that his redneckery would find favour with some of his unenlightened, ill-informed constituents. Thank god he is no longer a serving policeman.
methcon wasn’t the only con we had 9 years of being conned and we have 44% who still voted for the con- artist they are better known as the national party
i wonder if there is a case for the SFO
Who knows Greg, but the Commerce Commission could be interested in some of the practices where the testers and cleaners have admitted that they knew that the standards they were working to were wrong.
So many people and groups got it so wrong, that it’s a very tangled web, and the Coalition Govt have to be congratulated that the nightmare a lot of harmless people, including children, were plunged into, is over.
And that focus now being placed on proactively helping the addicts is another totally excellent outcome, and one wishes them all well.
Where’s the spell check?
As for the rest, an interesting post, I must say.
Dodgy. He probably appointed people to public bodies because he knew every way in which they were already constrained and compromised.
Am I missing something here. Mike Sabin is due to go on trial. He gets a nice little sinecure and the trial stops.
Aren’t these two separate events? Why should his appointment stop his trial. Or as an option, who would employ a man who has a serious charge hanging over him. How can this happen?
It does indeed look like that where those who actively support the NZ National Party are given plum jobs despite all the damage they have done over the years.
So it’s a case of not what you know but who you know.
Bullying. A form of state bullying!
Oh dear…
Hey is that you Suzy?
It me, Richie. I don’t know if you know me. We are both celeb influencers working to spread government propaganda but I’m not quite at your level!
What do I need to do for the Police to get on DWTS? Ta!
Love you you are so positive which is so great!
Sometimes I get depressed.
Oh Dear Mike.
Personally I believe Education will work where Prohibition doesn’t.
You show much ignorance of the real world, Mr Sabin. You should listen to people who are at the coal-face, such as the very knowledgeable Ms Saxby.
The Napoleon of Crime
Which one ?
If cannabis was decriminalised some of the millions of dollars that they spend on cannabis raids etc, could be spent on safe use of cannabis and research. The huge amount of money of remaining could be spent on good help for ‘P’ rehabilitation and prevention.
Every time a social issue arises the cry goes up – “More education!”
And there it hangs in mid-air.
What are the moves behind this sad little cry? At which point in the arc will ‘people’ be educated?
Clearly, from comments above, this is not a symptom of just Those People who are unemployed. It affects people with and without high education, employment, status. Who has the money for conducting this depth and breadth of campaign – and sustain it? And back it with the social services required? How would ‘education’ actually reach the people who ‘can’t afford’, don’t watch, fly below the middle range radar? Perhaps someone has the answers…
As a person who rates extremely low on the chart for misuse of drugs I cannot understand the attraction. I wouldn’t even bother with no-doz.
What is so alluring about this muck? How are people persuaded to try it, continue with it, succumb to it? And, if they wish to escape – what’s the overall, all-round ways to do so? To rebuild trust and connections, for example? To access programmes with enough capacity and resourcing over time to see them emerge reasonably proofed and intact?
I agree with JOHNPO2002: ad hominem statements usually fail to win friends – although they definitely influence people… Despite the ire and indignation – more honey, less vinegar.
Evidently Cuba have just introduced a new law if any Cuban National or foreigner is caught with drugs no matter how large or small the quantity is, they will be sentenced to 42 years hard labour.
I wonder whether that might discourage the Asian P Importers and the traditional P distribution gangs here in New Zealand.
NO it won’t as that applies only to Cuba, does it not.
One of the core insights garnered from the first inquiry into cannabis and mental health (following the tragedy at Raurimu) concerned the role of education. However it was not MORE education, it was ENABLED education that was identified as a key driver to harm reduction/minimisation. Subsequent policy work also identified the requirement to remove the double standards separating licit and illicit drug consumption as they were ‘an identified impediment to credible drug education’.
How MethCon (and others) got awards for its appalling public education endeavours was so much mutual back-slapping and as such, it set back progress on reform to the stone age.
Regrettably, MethCon’s Sabin saw it as its dual mission the vilification of anyone who held contrarian views. When unsubstantiated claims were challenged by this writer (CHCH Town Hall) he resorted to the epithet ‘keep smoking the whacky baccy’.
Who would have thought that would qualify him for such high station and political office as chair of the law and order committee…..
The science is now evidencing that men who have had occasion to experience psychoactive drugs such as LSD etc… are 50% less likely to commit partner assault. Perhaps there was a ‘law and order’ message in that Mr Sabin.?
His unreasoned personal attack on you Blair, at a public meeting,is a commonly-used tactic of politicians nowadays, but I have never seen it done by a professionally qualified person.
Stupid people who don’t realise how stupid they are, are very difficult to engage with constructively – or even to talk to – which could be why Key and his ilk put them in positions of responsibility where there were other agendas going on.
State Housing is the obvious one, but this is a total shocker .