Pubdate: Wed, 28 May 2003
Source: Bay Of Plenty Times (New Zealand)
Contact:  2003 Bay Of Plenty Times.
Website: 
http://www.wilsonandhorton.co.nz/wh_companies/newspapers/bop_times.html
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2926
Author: Melanie McKay-Giles and Jeff Neems
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

CHILDREN RUN GAUNTLET OF GANGS TO BUY DOPE

A disturbing new trend has emerged in the country's drug culture, with 
revelations that children as young as 13 are buying cannabis from gang-run 
tinny houses in Tauranga.

A Massey University study released yesterday and backed up by local police 
and school principals showed that 13- to 17-year-olds are the biggest 
buyers of cannabis from the drug dens.

The Drug Use by Young People (13-17 years) in New Zealand survey showed 
that 70 per cent of the 1000 young people questioned bought at least some 
of their cannabis from tinny houses.

That was a worrying trend which was reflected here, said Tauranga Police 
CIB head Karl Wright-St Clair. Teenagers were putting their safety at risk 
by visiting tinny houses.

"These people are often violent criminals," he said.

"These places are gang related without exception."

Young people might be setting themselves up to be assaulted or robbed when 
they visited these places, Mr Wright-St Clair said. However, reports to 
police were few and far between because teenagers did not want their 
parents to know where they had been.

The other danger in teenagers visiting tinny houses was that they might be 
offered other harder drugs to try while they were there.

"Cannabis is bad enough but there is a smorgasbord of drugs around at these 
addresses," Mr Wright St-Clair said.

"We find methamphetamine at many of the tinny houses we go to now." He 
estimated less than 10 per cent of 13- to 17-year-olds in Tauranga were 
using cannabis.

School principals across Tauranga had only anecdotal evidence from students 
who had been caught with cannabis as to where they had got it.

Tauranga Boys' College deputy principal Rob Naumann said the small number 
of pupils who had been caught at school with cannabis claimed to have 
obtained it either from their own neighbourhood or from older teenagers.

He was unaware of any tinny houses near the school, although two years ago 
people had been pedalling cannabis to students around the perimeter of the 
school grounds.

So far there had been no cases of speed or pure methamphetamine use at 
Tauranga Boys', but when it was magic mushroom season they kept a close eye 
on students, he said.

Bethlehem College secondary school principal Brian Seatter said there was 
no doubt cannabis was readily available to young people in the local area, 
but he was not sure where they got it from.

Mount Maunganui College principal Terry Collett said students caught at 
school with cannabis were often just trying it and had got it from friends.

The findings of the nationwide survey, which included 13- and 14-year-olds 
for the first time, were released at the 4th International Conference on 
Drugs and Young People in Wellington.

When compared with a recent study involving adult cannabis users, where 
only 20 per cent brought from tinny houses, it showed that youth were the 
biggest market for them, said researcher Dr Chris Wilkins.

"It's much more convenient for youth (to buy from tinny houses) because 
they don't have to approach an older brother or sister or an adult to get 
it for them and risk their parents finding out. They can just bowl up with 
cash and get their cannabis," he said.

The survey also showed that other than tobacco, alcohol and cannabis, the 
most popular drugs among young people were amphetamines, hallucinogenic 
mushrooms and LSD.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager