Allegations coming out of the Rimutaka Prison corruption scandal reflect a reality that has been going on for years, a former prisoner says. "I'm just surprised anyone is surprised," he told The Dominion Post yesterday. Corrections need only look at items seized in past prison searches to see there was a problem. "Prisoners had DVD players. How did they think something like that got in there?" He said he could easily imagine how convicted rapist Peter McNamara got sperm out of the prison for his wife to be artificially inseminated. Searches were rigorous for people entering the prison, but lax when staff and workgangs were going out. [continues 489 words]
A stunned police officer listened in disbelief as a distraught Napier woman called to request police help in investigating a burglary. The 45-year-old woman rang police yesterday morning to report the overnight theft of three cannabis plants she had been growing at her home. The woman became so upset during the call she broke down in tears. Senior Sergeant Mal Lochrie said the police communications officer who took the call found it difficult to stop smiling as the women gave details of the theft over the phone. [continues 102 words]
This morning, in his Lower Hutt home, Richard will heat and inhale a few drops of cannabis oil. The thick smoke carries delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), an active ingredient that helps him relax, reducing muscle tension and therefore pain. In Levin, Billy McKee will today smoke five joints, each containing about a gram of the dried plant. His supply at the moment is "garbage", so he needs larger amounts than usual. Often he will smoke only five small balls of weed each day in a pipe. When he gets top-quality cannabis, he'll eat the "beautiful, herby" plant fresh. [continues 1321 words]
Party pill overdoses have increased sharply, but are rare compared with other drug overdoses and tend to happen when mixed with alcohol or other narcotics, new research suggests. A study in today's New Zealand Medical Journal analysing three years of overdose data from Auckland City Hospital comes as the anxious parents of a Greymouth DJ who collapsed after taking party pills at a dance party wait to see if he will be left with permanent damage. Ben Rodden, 23, is in an induced coma in Christchurch Hospital. [continues 337 words]
Health authorities admit there is enough evidence to support use of cannabis on compassionate grounds. In an October briefing paper to Health Minister Pete Hodgson, the ministry says there is "sufficient evidence of safety and efficacy of cannabis in some medical conditions" to support consideration of compassionate, controlled use. This could include use when conventional treatments have failed. The Government has been accused of dragging its feet on reform to allow medicinal use of cannabis. Health Ministry documents obtained by The Dominion Post under the Official Information Act show the debate has raged for six years without progress. [continues 482 words]
Prime Minister Helen Clark has dampened down expectations of an immediate change to medicinal cannabis laws, saying Health Ministry advice should not be read as a "major endorsement" of its use. Miss Clark also made it clear that the ministry came down against the use of leaf cannabis to ease pain, as the release of new papers raises fresh debate over what has become a politically contentious issue. She said there "may be something" to the use of a special nasal spray containing THC and other extracts from the cannabis plant, which is being tested in Britain. But, while the British pharmaceutical company testing the spray Sativex was happy to supply it for clinical trials in New Zealand, "they've never applied for approval of it". [continues 270 words]
2006 Was a Bumper Year for the Drug Trade, With the Crooks Getting Smarter, and Authorities Having to Move Fast to Keep Ahead. IT CAME wrapped in plastic and hidden at the bottom of tins of apple-green paint: 95 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine and 150kg of pseudoephedrine - the largest drug bust to date in New Zealand. Worth $135 million, the haul was enough for over four million "hits" - - enough for every man, woman and child in the country. The May bust - codenamed Operation Major - was the result of months of police and customs work, involving international cooperation with Chinese and Hong Kong police. [continues 713 words]
METHAMPHETAMINE Cost $800-$1000 a gram. In 2006, 116kg was seized, up from 16.5kg in 2005. Most was imported from China, but distribution and local manufacture is controlled by gangs. Local theft from pharmacies has waned as Asian gangs get supply from overseas. Significant seizures in 2006: Operation Major, in May, netted 95kg hidden in paint tins imported from China; Operation Fiona, in January, 8.1kg of crystal meth hidden in water filters destined for a Wellington address; Operation Pulse, in September, 5kg of methamphetamine hidden in ceramic picture frames being carried by two passengers travelling on Canadian passports. [continues 764 words]
WASHINGTON: US growers produce nearly $US35 billion worth of marijuana annually, making the illegal drug the country's largest cash crop, bigger than corn and wheat combined, an advocate of medical marijuana use said in a study released today. The report, conducted by Jon Gettman, a public policy analyst and former head of the National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, also concluded that five US states produce more than $1 billion worth of marijuana apiece: California, Tennessee, Kentucky, Hawaii and Washington. [continues 396 words]
New Zealand is increasingly being targeted as both a staging post and final destination for shipments of illicit drugs, pornography and pirated goods. There has been a steady rise in criminal activity at the borders by organised international crime groups, according to the New Zealand Customs Service annual report. The 2005-06 report, issued yesterday, says terrorism is still a serious threat to the security and safety of both New Zealand and our key international partners. Global public health threats such as bird flu also pose risks to New Zealand citizens, and economic and political instability affecting Pacific Island nations could undermine domestic border protection. [continues 212 words]
Why do drug cheating athletes think they can get away with it? Will sport ever be clean? Cannabis is not performance enhancing, so what's the big deal? What image do drug cheats send to the influential minds of young athletes striving to be the best? The questions just keep coming. As soon as one is answered, more arise. Basketballer Mark Dickel tested positive for cannabis after the Tall Blacks' match against Australia in Napier last month. He admitted the offence and awaits punishment. [continues 674 words]
Twenty people have been arrested and cannabis plants and methamphetamine seized in drug raids in Hawke's Bay. Yesterday's sting - the result of 10 months of detective and undercover work - has been hailed as a blow to organised crime in the region. From dawn more than 60 police executed search warrants on 18 addresses in Hastings, Napier, Waipukurau and Wairoa, believed to be involved in a drug ring. Detective Inspector Sam Aberehama said police found two hydroponic growing operations and seized methamphetamine, ecstacy, three kilograms of cannabis, money and a sawn-off shotgun. [continues 116 words]
Michael, 14, cannot remember the exact moment when he had his first cigarette puff, but is fairly confident he was smoking at age three. From then, till he started school, he smoked with his siblings intermittently. When their mum threw parties, they would steal cigarettes and smoke them later. It was only a matter of time before they were stealing and smoking marijuana. Teen drug counselling service WellTrust says Wellington children like Michael are developing full-blown drug or alcohol habits before they leave primary school. [continues 504 words]
Murder victim Tony Stanlake was a long-serving fireman but after a conviction for cannabis cultivation blighted his career he turned to property development. Kim Ruscoe and Nikki Macdonald report. Stunned firefighters say the brutal Owhiro Bay murder has robbed them of a friend they once trusted with their lives. Tony Stanlake had worked at several Wellington and Hutt Valley fire stations before being medically discharged in 1995 because of a back injury. His last posting was as station officer of the Northland station. [continues 456 words]
A life-saving Wairarapa hero-turned-cannabis dealer has failed in a bid for home detention. Stephen Trevor Wilmshurst, who was decorated for bravery for being one of two men who clung to the hands of a suicidal patient in 2001 as he dangled over the side of a rail bridge 18 metres above the ground, is serving a jail term of one year and nine months after pleading guilty to charges of possessing cannabis for supply, supplying cannabis and offering to supply cannabis. He did not appeal against the length of the term, but appealed against the High Court judge's refusal to let him ask to serve at least part of the sentence on home detention. His appeal was dismissed. [end]
Doctors and most people who took part in a survey on party pills want a crackdown on the "legal highs" after the study revealed their popularity is booming. The findings of the Massey University survey have taken the Government by surprise, with one in five young people saying they have tried party pills. Heaviest use is among those aged 20 to 24 - 38 per cent report using the pills in the past year. The pills, which typically contain benzylpiperazine and mimic the effects of low-strength amphetamine, or speed, have been available in New Zealand since about 2000. The industry estimates 20 million pills have been sold since then and the sector is worth $24 million a year. [continues 387 words]
Camp cannabis has been uncovered in bush south of Levin. The elaborate campsite, surrounded by 200 mature cannabis plants, had two dome-shaped tents, a picnic table and chairs, gas barbecue, quad bike and trailer, food supplies and a sound system. An air rifle and crossbow were among weapons found at the site, which had evidence of babies and children living there. The "drug camp" was hidden in dense bush about two kilometres from the bushline. One of the tents was serving as living quarters and the other as a cannabis-drying room, Sergeant Brian Yanko said. [continues 144 words]
China has emerged as the biggest source of illicit drugs to New Zealand, boosted by demand for substances used to make methamphetamine. Figures released by Customs Minister Nanaia Mahuta show that 33 of the 73 big drug seizures in the past year came from China. The next biggest source was Malaysia, with six. Other big hauls came from Britain, Romania, the Netherlands and Australia. The number of major drug seizures has more than doubled from the previous financial year, when 33 were intercepted. Only three of those came from China. Customs opened an office in China last month. [continues 265 words]
Two suspected members of an organised crime ring with links to Asian syndicates have been arrested getting off a ferry in Wellington. Detective Senior Sergeant Tom Fitzgerald, of Christchurch, said the ring was broken yesterday after months of investigation by police and Customs into methamphetamine dealing. "There are links to Asian organised crime syndicates throughout New Zealand, and distribution has been through local, well-established organised crime syndicates, a number of whom are long-term organised crime associates," he said. Search warrants were executed in Wellington, Christchurch, and Auckland. Police had detected methamphetamine dealing "well in excess of $100,000 a week" and had found pure methamphetamine, or P, valued at more than $400,000. [continues 86 words]
How strange that a party which set out to avoid the cult of leadership personality - and once even contemplated making leaders of all its members - should witness such an outpouring of public grief and sympathy on the death of its co-leader, Rod Donald. From the party's perspective, his loss is, of course, a huge body blow. But it is not the curtain call for the Greens that, say, the death of Winston Peters would be to NZ First or the death knell it would be for United Future if Peter Dunne no longer provided the Ohariu-Belmont life raft. [continues 827 words]
Nearly one in five workers tested for drugs after workplace accidents in the past year returned positive results. Testing of staff for drug use has doubled compared with two years ago, and there has been a 50 per cent increase in the number of companies signing up for the service, Environmental Science and Research said. Though cannabis remained the most common drug, making up 73 per cent of all positive tests, amphetamine use was increasing, ESR programme manager Shelli Turner said. [continues 342 words]
Cannabis Link To Maori Cancer Heavy cannabis use could be a cause of Maori having the world's highest lung cancer rate, groundbreaking research suggests. Many Maori from children to kaumatua use cannabis in "epidemic proportions", says a study by Richard Beasley of the Medical Research Institute in Wellington. But cannabis might not be as safe as the proponents of its legalisation say. A paper by Professor Beasley on the health effects of cannabis was among the research that prompted Wellington coroner Garry Evans to urge last week that government policy on illicit drugs be changed from "harm minimisation" to campaigning against drug use. [continues 360 words]
Drug education and policy need to shift from minimising the danger of substance abuse by young people to stopping it, Wellington coroner Garry Evans says. Mr Evans has issued his findings into the deaths of six young people, aged 15 to 27, from solvent abuse. Three had inhaled butane; the others lpg, propane gas and air freshener. None of the deaths were intentional. Mr Evans has made six recommendations to Associate Health Minister Jim Anderton, who chairs the ministerial committee on drug policy, and to Health Minister Annette King, several government ministries and health experts. [continues 426 words]
Young nightclubbers appear to be more at danger from party pills and alcohol than "high end" illegal drugs such as ecstasy. A Victoria University study into Wellington's clubbing scene has found that young clubbers are attracted to the more affordable drugs such as herbal highs, also known as party pills, and the rapidly acting central nervous system depressant known as GHB. "Though the higher-end drugs are certainly destructive, the clubbers highlighted other drugs with which they encountered more frequent risk-taking behaviour," criminology lecturer Fiona Hutton said. [continues 306 words]
The Greens launched a bill today to partially legalise cannabis saying they were confident it would get support - but National and United Future won't be backing it. Green MP Nandor Tanczos says his member's bill would allow users and growers of small amounts of cannabis to be fined rather than face criminal conviction. "It doesn't go as far as I personally would like but it deals to the greatest problem which is the criminalisation of huge numbers of New Zealanders for something that around 80 per cent of under-25-year-olds have done." [continues 699 words]
Tim Shadbolt rues the increasing popularity of cannabis - all it has done is increase the price for other users such as himself. The Invercargill mayor's observation is one of many from prominent people in a three-part television documentary examining the history of New Zealand's illicit drug scene. High Times, the brainchild of director and researcher David Herkt, starts with the arrest of Anna Hoffman for selling marijuana to an undercover policeman in Auckland about 1960. It was the first such arrest in New Zealand. [continues 439 words]
The Defence Force's drug policy has been condemned as "a joke" and "toothless" by staff who say drug users get repeated warnings before dismissal because of problems recruiting new personnel. Its elimination and zero-tolerance drug policy has come under fire in a confidential survey of 1000 army, navy and air force members. "Drug users are constantly given four or five chances before they are dismissed which is due to small unit numbers and unit staff not wishing to lose any further members. The policy is a joke and soldiers are neither worried about being caught or tested regularly enough to deter them," an army junior cadet says. [continues 380 words]
Researchers are looking for hard-core dope smokers to complete a study on the effects of marijuana use. The team at the Medical Research Institute in Wellington is in the final phase of its study on the effects of marijuana smoking on the lungs. They need to talk to about 20 users who have been smoking marijuana heavily for several years. They wanted to find out if the effects on the lungs changed depending on the dose of marijuana, but so far the team had recruited mainly light users, senior researcher Sarah Aldington said. The study aims to compare lung function tests from those who smoke just marijuana, those who smoke marijuana and tobacco, those who smoke only tobacco, and non-smokers. The team also needs more cigarette smokers and non-smokers. [end]
The family of a Kapiti Coast methadone addict fears she won't make it to her 40th birthday without a second chance and reinstatement on a methadone programme. Their calls are backed by drug assessor Trevor Grice, who says 35-year-old Julie Stamper, of Paraparaumu, has ingested so much illegal methadone - often mixed with petrol - that she is slowly dying. Mrs Stamper is one of 41 people waiting for up to 11 months for a place at Wellington's only dedicated opoid addiction clinic. [continues 312 words]
In its first substantive criminal decision, the Supreme Court has upheld a Court of Appeal ruling that a Wellington man failed to convince a jury 100 marijuana plants he possessed were not for the purpose of selling. Fiso Tovio Siloata, 28, was found guilty of possessing cannabis for supply by a jury in Wellington District Court in October 2003. Siloata admitted possessing more than 28 grams of cannabis but maintained it was for his own use and to give to his friends. [continues 260 words]
Solvent abuse incidents have increased by almost 50 per cent in the past six years, new figures show. The number of incidents recorded by police increased from 570 in 1998 to 837 last year. There were significant increases in the past three years, from 697 in 2001 and 763 in 2002. The figures were included in a joint submission from the ministries of health, education and youth development to Wellington coroner Garry Evans' inquest into substance abuse and what the government is doing about it. The hearing was sparked by the deaths of six people from solvent abuse. [continues 322 words]
A plan to strip crime syndicates and drug barons of their assets will proceed, despite the Government's own justice officials warning it risks giving police a "perverse incentive" to chase cash instead of criminals. Justice Minister Phil Goff has unveiled a bill that would allow the Crown to freeze and seize criminals' assets where there is insufficient evidence to lay criminal charges. The move follows frustration with the Proceeds of Crime Act, which requires a criminal conviction to seize criminals' assets and has netted only $8.3 million since 1995. [continues 431 words]
Legal party pills are being touted by dairies, liquor outlets, petrol stations and even a cart, wheeled into Wellington city on party nights. Sophie Neville investigates. It's 7.30pm, Wednesday, and a brightly lit cart has set up shop on Wellington's Courtenay Place selling an array of legal drugs all promising a good time. With names like Charge, Bliss, Jet, Frenzy, Jump and Rapture, the pills sell for about $39.95 for a pack of six. They are becoming the drug of choice for partygoers of all ages. The Grunter, which packs the punch of three pills in one, is the latest release. [continues 1126 words]
The concept of legal and illegal drugs would disappear under a new Greens policy that would make it easier to decriminalise cannabis. The policy, which will be announced tomorrow, would also bring alcohol, tobacco, drugs, medicines and food supplements under one law, with medical experts given a much greater say in how they are classified. The idea of illegal substances under the current Misuse of Drugs Act would be replaced with restrictions. Drugs such as P would be highly restricted, and others, such as tobacco and alcohol, restricted on the basis of age. [continues 370 words]
One of New Zealand's biggest illegal drug hauls - worth $9 million - has been found concealed in lava lamps imported from China. Nine kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, known as P, was found in 30 lava lamps in Auckland. The lamps were couriered from China in early July, Customs Service drug investigations manager Simon Williamson said. Customs officers, whose suspicions were raised by the packaging of the lamps, searched four cartons. The drug was in liquid suspension form within the lamps' brightly coloured ethanol filling. Highly flammable, the ethanol would have to be boiled off to extract the drug. [continues 153 words]
A Hutt Valley Rastafarian has failed to legally justify his cannabis use on religious grounds. Mathew Thomas Anderson is serving 31/2 years' jail for growing cannabis, having the drug for supply and taking part in a criminal group. Police had found more than 20kg of cannabis drying at a Mongrel Mob "safe house", at Naenae, in November 2002. Anderson, 33, appealed against conviction on grounds that included that the drug was for his own use. He said his Rastafarian beliefs permitted him to use cannabis, as part of his religious rights protected under the Bill of Rights Act and the Human Rights Act. [continues 144 words]
Police today arrested eight people, froze bank accounts and put a restraining order on a hydroponics company after uncovering a major cannabis growing operation in Wellington. More than 60 police searched a hydroponics supply business in Wellington's eastern suburbs, and houses in suburban Lyall Bay, Hataitai and Tawa, in Porirua and Otaihanga, on the Kapiti coast. Police put restraining orders on the business, its directors' bank accounts, and the Otaihanga house, alleging the operation had generated about $350,000. Seven men and a woman are to appear in Wellington District Court tomorrow on charges relating to growing and trafficking cannabis. [continues 213 words]
A bumper cannabis crop is being blamed for a Wairarapa school recording one of the highest suspension rates in New Zealand. Makoura College handed out the punishment 62 times last year, with 24 students suspended for drugs in February and March when a surplus of cannabis flooded the market, Education Ministry student support manager Peter Norton said. As a proportion of its 402 students, Makoura recorded its highest ever suspension rate last year and the fourth highest rate in New Zealand. [continues 336 words]
The price of democracy is more than the arduous chore of finding a spare five minutes once every three years to cast a ballot, The Dominion Post writes in an editorial. Most people were reminded of that this week when first, the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party, and then Peter Wakeman, a man who takes his democratic responsibilities more personally than most, proposed standing in Te Tai Hauauru. That is the Maori seat held by Tariana Turia, who quit Labour over the foreshore and seabed issue. She is standing for her seat again and, if no one stands against her, will be re-elected unopposed and without the $500,000 cost of a by-election. As taxpayers, and with every indication that Mrs Turia would easily win against allcomers, most New Zealanders would consider the money well saved. As citizens in a democracy, however, there is an acknowledgment that if anyone else stands, the financial cost simply must be borne. [continues 423 words]
A particularly potent crop of cannabis has been putting pressure on Hawke's Bay Hospital's psychiatric unit, with unexpected numbers of young men admitted after smoking the drug. Hawke's Bay District Health Board chief executive Chris Clarke told a meeting yesterday that the sudden influx of patients was almost entirely due to cannabis use. "Apparently this year's Hawke's Bay crop is particularly potent," he said. The 22-bed mental health unit has a history of overcrowding, with patients in the past often required to sleep on mattresses on the floor. With improved staffing and clinical practice during the past nine months, the average number of patients had dropped to 16. [continues 195 words]
The Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party is threatening to force a $500,000 election it will almost certainly lose if former MP Tariana Turia does not commit to legalising cannabis. Mrs Turia has confirmed she will contest the Te Tai Hauauru seat she vacated officially yesterday not as an independent, but as co-leader of the new Maori Party. Nominations for election to the seat close on June 15. Any by-election, which could be triggered by ALCP or any voter who is nominated by two others, will be held on July 10. [continues 268 words]
The Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party might reconsider its plans to contest the Te Tai Hauauru by-election after a pledge from Labour defector Tariana Turia to support the decriminalisation of cannabis. Mrs Turia made the pledge after ALCP president Michael Appleby said his party would stand in the by-election unless Mrs Turia backed the legalisation of cannabis. A change of mind by the ALCP could spare taxpayers some of the $500,000 cost of a by-election that none of the parties represented in Parliament intend to contest. [continues 152 words]
The "taxing" of drug associates for perceived losses on deals had become more common and should be deplored, a High Court judge says. In Wellington yesterday, Justice Goddard sent two Nomad gang members to jail, one for four years and the other for 18 months. Wera Henare, 42, a driver, of Otaki, received the longer sentence on charges of offering to supply and supplying the methamphetamine drug P for $8400, and robbing a drug associate of $260. With Wayne Anthony Weston, 35, unemployed, of Feilding, he was also found guilty of threatening to kill, being unlawfully in the victim's home intending to commit a crime, demanding car keys with menaces and kidnapping. [continues 181 words]
Police will alert Child, Youth and Family Services to Hawke's Bay properties where children might be smoking "P" or might be exposed to it. Undercover police saw children smoking P at two addresses during the early stages of Operation Pickles, targeting known methamphetamine and cannabis dealers in the wider Hastings area. Detective Sergeant Luke Shadbolt said they also reported children sitting with adults smoking P and cannabis. One child was just two weeks old. Mr Shadbolt said he would be providing 10 addresses to Child, Youth and Family so social workers could check on the welfare of children living there in the future. [continues 190 words]
It was a simple request made to Child, Youth and Family Services: "Please help our 14-year-old daughter overcome her drug and alcohol problem." But the department has done nothing to get the Wellington girl help for her problem despite months of meetings, her parents say. CYF will not answer questions about the girl, citing privacy reasons. Her mother, Sharon, (not her real name), said she bluntly told CYF in November her daughter was a risk to herself. An official at her daughter's school shared her concerns, she said. [continues 440 words]
A woman who imported khat into New Zealand on her way home from a trip to Ethiopia has pleaded guilty to bringing the unusual drug into the country. The woman, whose name was suppressed, 24, unemployed of Newtown, pleaded guilty to importing and possession of the drug for supply. Khat is a class C drug, like cannabis. It is usually found as a leaf, is chewed and has a mildly narcotic effect. Police prosecutor Sergeant Graeme Burr said on November 5 last year the woman came through Auckland International Airport. A random search turned up 173.9 grams of Khat packed in a plastic bag in her luggage. [continues 81 words]
Police are to begin learning how to detect drugged drivers - part of a a year-long project to determine the scope of the problem in New Zealand. About 32 frontline officers will undergo three days of training this month on drug recognition and "field impairment" tests, a series of balance tests used by neurologists on motorists thought to be on drugs. The training would later be given to other frontline staff and would eventually be included in police recruits' initial training, national road safety manager Superintendent Steve Fitzgerald said yesterday. [continues 206 words]
Kelly Makoari could have been a professional rugby league player but he turned down the opportunity in order to be with his family - and turned to drugs instead. Aged 22 he moved from Hawke's Bay to Wellington to pursue a promising rugby league career. He was offered a contract with an Australian club but could not take it because of family commitments. Yesterday, in the High Court at Napier, the "family man" was jailed for 2-1/2 years for attempting to manufacture methamphetamine and possession of cannabis for supply. He had earlier pleaded guilty to both charges. [continues 223 words]
Health officials are pushing to have some legal party drugs reclassified as alarm over their use spreads. The pills, marketed as a legal alternative to amphetamines, landed five students in Dunedin Hospital last week and have been blamed for the severe hallucinations three other students experienced at the weekend. Sold over the counter in clubs, bars, liquor stores and some dairies - and available 24 hours a day at a Wellington party supply store - they contain the chemicals benzylpiperazine, or BZP, and trifluromethylphenylpiperazine (TFMPP). They are outlawed in the United States and some of Australia. [continues 318 words]
Police are to call on a senior lawyer to investigate claims of widespread perjury and drug use in the police undercover programme. The move came after Prime Minister Helen Clark ruled out a Government inquiry into the long-standing claims made by six former undercover officers on the Holmes programme on Wednesday night. They alleged they were trained to perjure themselves by claiming they only pretended to smoke cannabis while undercover, when in fact they were often stoned for long periods during operations. [continues 410 words]
