Pubdate: Fri, 31 Aug 2012 Source: Gisborne Herald (New Zealand) Copyright: 2012 The Gisborne Herald Co. Ltd Contact: http://www.gisborneherald.co.nz/Contact/ Website: http://www.gisborneherald.co.nz/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/924 Author: Debbie Gregory THE COST OF ABUSE THE cost of drug and alcohol abuse continues to grow for the Gisborne- East Coast community, with little help available and most of that help at the "bottom of the cliff". Gisborne's only registered drug and alcohol psychotherapist, Brian Hunt, says children as young as nine are taking drugs and alcohol here - but worse than that is what the abuse costs and does to the community. Surveys show many people here spend upwards of $300 a week on grog and dope . . . sometimes much more. "Associated with this are the social costs of police intervention, court appearances, convictions for drunk driving, domestic bashings, kids going to school without breakfast, and loss of productivity to local industry because of poor performance due to hangovers and lack of sleep. Getting to bed at 4.00 a.m. and going to work three or four hours later has not allowed time for the alcohol in the body to be fully processed - and the list goes on." This list of issues does not include the maiming and death of many young people on the threshold of life, he says. "These facts are now normalised for many in our community because of generational thinking and behaviour." Mr Hunt moved from Wellington to Gisborne after coming here for a family crisis early in 2011 on his way to Australia. He got a job as a drug and counsellor with Tairawhiti District Health, and decided to stay. Eighteen months on, seeing a need to help people with their drug and alcohol issues before it becomes too late to prevent lifelong addiction, he has opened a private practice to deal specifically with drug and alcohol issues. "A lot of the work done here is bottom-of-the-cliff stuff. I want to try to help earlier." He says he is seeing a lot of issues with younger people. "The drinking and drug culture is embedded and it's generational - the staggering thing is they just don't know the damage they are doing to themselves and the risks they are taking." Children here are starting into drugs and alcohol as young as nine and 10, he says. "If the family drink, they see it and pinch it, and before long their young bodies are addicted." The brain is not fully developed until the age of 25 and a lot of damage is caused to the underdeveloped brain. "The thing they fail to understand is the chemical in alcohol is ethanol . . . ethanol is blended with petrol and is used in many countries to run cars. It damages the neural paths in the brain and can cause permanent damage." Mr Hunt says if drugs and alcohol use is prolonged and not addressed, it causes all sorts of social problems. "Many end up in the hospital with psychosis. "Drug use certainly causes emotional blunting and the inability to connect on an intimate basis with others." Mr Hunt says it is frustrating to see all this going on and it could be addressed if the community took notice. "When are we going to start looking after our kids? My perception is drinking, cigarette smoking and drug taking here is more obvious than anywhere I have ever seen. Alongside the community taking ownership, education around the damage caused by drugs and alcohol will help a lot, Mr Hunt says. "We also need to look at the many underlying issues to heavy drinking and drug use. "The country needs to take hold and teach these people. "Drug and alcohol issues here are not going to go away. If we don't do something more, all we will see is more seeking mental health treatment; more people getting maimed and killed; and more social dysfunction - that is what we will be looking at." He says the increased potency of both drugs and alcohol is a big problem now. "In my day it was a fraction of what it is now." The biggest problem here is marijuana. It is easily accessible and the skills in growing it have advanced -it is 50 times more potent now than in the 1960s. Alcohol used to be 3 percent - alcopops are now 8, 9 and one brand is 10 percent. It's the potency that is the biggest problem and the way young people have been encouraged to normalise heavy drinking as a way of life, he says. There is a lot of violence involved now with alcohol. "In our day we had a bit of a rumble and then got up and got on with it. There were always older male mentors or role models around to keep things in control. "Access was much more difficult and our biggest fear was getting caught and our bums kicked by the local copper. It was a big enough deterrent then, but not now." The workplace was another area where Mr Hunt wanted to help. Industry here was suffering productivity loss all the time from the fallout of excessive drinking. "Young fellas say to me they have spent the weekend guzzling two boxes of beer - one on Friday and one on Saturday. They are not fit for work on Monday. Their body and head is one step behind. "It takes one hour to process 15/30mls of alcohol - there are not enough hours in a day to process it. They might feel OK but are behind in their ability to function properly." At the end of the day it all came back to the strength of the community. "If it is ripped apart by alcohol and drugs, we need to fight that. People in the community can't live outside the community." He urges parents to communicate. "Keep talking to your kids. Ask questions. Sit around the meal table. Know what they are doing and where they are all the time. "It's hard but parents need to remain vigilant. There are ways to address the problems. Ask for help and work as a community." Facts from an institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) study: * New Zealand has one of the highest rates of addiction/alcoholism in the world. * Almost half of all vehicle fatalities between June 2004 and July 2009 might have involved an impaired driver. * Of these potentially impaired drivers, 27 percent were positive for alcohol, 19 percent were positive only for cannabis and an additional 28 percent were positive for both. * Around 89 percent of serious offences were committed under the influence of alcohol and drugs. A urine drug test of 200 consenting police detainees found the majority (68 percent) were positive for at least one illicit drug, with 65 percent positive for cannabis. * The drugs detainees most commonly reported being under the influence of while physically aggressive were alcohol, 81 percent; cannabis, 36 percent; and methamphetamine, 11 percent. * Supply and demand for cannabis in New Zealand is entrenched and unlikely to change significantly in the foreseeable future. * There was a 20 percent increase in hospital admission for methamphetamine-related disorders in 2009-2010. * Primary hospital admissions for methamphetamine were largely due to psychotic disorder, 48 percent; poisoning, 17 percent; harmful use, 13 percent; and dependence, 13 percent. * Tairawhiti, Auckland, Northland and Waikato had the most methamphetamine-related hospital admissions per head of population. * Most methamphetamine-related health problems are in the 20-39 age group, with 30-34 being the largest group. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom