Many of the party pill poppers on the West Coast are respectable seniors, including shift workers who use them to stay awake. The Government is expected to outlaw or restrict the sale of herbal pills because of concerns at the effect they are having on young people. One Greymouth supplier, who declined to be named, today said his regular customers came from a wide range of ages and occupations including truck drivers and farmers, who used the pills as a "pick up" during long shift work. [continues 321 words]
Methamphetamine march organiser Marie Cotter believes more than ever, after the first day of her march to Parliament, the country needs to be told of the dangers of P. She led 100 marchers out of Auckland yesterday in a hikoi to Parliament where she said they would appeal to the compassion of MPs to help stop the P scourge and the damage the drug was doing to young New Zealanders. However, she said after comments from the side of the road as they passed, she was more determined than ever the hikoi would succeed. [continues 185 words]
A study linking cannabis use to lung cancer is further proof that New Zealand is long overdue for a change in its liberal approach to drug abuse, a Wellington drug educator says. But the claim has further highlighted the gap in stance between drug and substance abuse hardliners and organisations such as the New Zealand Drug Foundation. The study, being completed by Richard Beasley of the Medical Research Institute, said smoking three cannabis cigarettes a day was equivalent to smoking 20 tobacco cigarettes and may be a reason behind Maori having the world's highest lung cancer rate. [continues 402 words]
Education and enforcement of existing laws are the way to prevent drug use causing workplace accidents, says the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU). Far North coroner Robin Fountain has called for a law change to ban anyone from smoking cannabis before using boats, vehicles, aircraft or machinery. On Monday, Mr Fountain reported on the deaths of skipper Gregory Thirkettle and crew member Mark Scott when their fishing boat Iron Maiden sank southwest of Cape Reinga last August. Mr Fountain said the only cause he could find for the boat foundering was Mr Thirkettle's cannabis-influenced decision to carry on in stormy weather. [continues 256 words]
Multi-millionaire property developer David Henderson will know today if he has won a bid to avoid a conviction on a drug charge. Henderson, 51, named in this year's National Business Review Rich List, admitted a charge of attempting to procure the class A drug cocaine when he appeared in the Auckland District Court earlier this month. However, he asked the court for a discharge without conviction saying the impact on him and his company, the Kitchener Group, would be disproportionate to the crime. [continues 263 words]
Loaded semi-automatic rifles, $20,000 cash in a freezer, cannabis plants, and a room hidden in a wood stack were found when police searched the property of a man accused of drug dealing and money laundering, a jury has been told. At the start of the month-long trial in Nelson District Court, the Crown also alleged that analysis of Graham Donald Sturgeon's finances indicated more than $100,000 of unexplained money. Sturgeon, 47, a wood merchant, of Orinoco, near Motueka, has denied 14 charges - three of cultivating cannabis, two of selling cannabis, a charge of possessing cannabis for sale, two charges of possessing offensive weapons, and six charges of money laundering, involving a total of $62,658. [continues 175 words]
Children as young as 10 are dealing and smoking cannabis at school, and boards of trustees are being told to call police to deal with the growing playground drug culture. The School Trustees Association annual conference in Auckland yesterday heard there was a "worrying trend" of increased disciplinary action against primary school children using cannabis. Ron Mulligan, the association's trusteeship adviser, said the evidence was anecdotal, "but we are hearing about it because it's a shock to primary schools. [continues 283 words]
Attacks on Nelson Hospital staff by cannabis smoking mental health patients has raised concerns about staff safety. A group of young male patients in the hospital's mental health admission unit assaulted staff in May after smoking cannabis, Nelson Marlborough District Health board's hospital advisory committee was told this week. "One staff member had a computer keyboard smashed over his head," hospital and health services general manager Keith Rusholme told the committee. The health board may now consider whether it is necessary to build an intensive psychiatric care unit to accommodate such patients. It was estimated the unit would cost $388,000. [continues 204 words]
The law covering the sale of "herbal party pills" and possession of methamphetamine has been toughened. Under the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Act, which MPs passed yesterday, the sale of pills containing benzylpiperazine (BZP) will be restricted to buyers over 18 years old. BZP contains properties resembling amphetamines and Ecstasy. The law also: * Lowers from 56g to 5g the amount of methamphetamine someone must hold before it is presumed to be for dealing. * Creates new offences relating to the importing and exporting of substances used to make methamphetamine, such as ephedrine and pseudoephedrine. [continues 352 words]
Some drug addicts and alcoholics receiving a benefit would be forced into community work under a National Government, the party's welfare spokeswoman Judith Collins says. Ms Collins said there were 3500 addicts assessed as unable to work because of sickness or disability, costing taxpayers $800,000 a week - -- a 50 per cent rise on four years ago. "The cost to the taxpayer of supporting substance abusers has risen dramatically. Obviously the current system is not working," Ms Collins said. More needed to be done to monitor addicts' progress and help them back into work. [continues 90 words]
More than 20 per cent of soldiers, sailors and airmen in the defence forces have admitted they have experimented with drugs, mostly marijuana. In an anonymous survey across all three services 20.5 per cent of those surveyed said they had tried illicit drugs since they enlisted. The survey by army Major Andrena Patterson as part of her master of public policy degree was sent to more than 2100 service people, a quarter of those serving in all three branches of the military. [continues 326 words]
A Great Barrier Island radio station announcer who abused police officers after they sprayed some of the island's cannabis crop has been ordered to apologise on air. The Broadcasting Standards Authority upheld complaints that The Beach 94.6FM breached two principles of the Radio Code of Broadcasting Practice. On March 19 this year Beach 94.6FM announcer Tony Storey, who was arrested in the police operation, referred to police in disparaging terms and broadcast songs with offensive lyrics. The complaints were lodged by two police officers' wives. [continues 70 words]
The government has been urged to step up its efforts to tackle drug use after research showed levels of use in English cities to be higher than previously thought. A study published today revealed that as many as one in 50 young people and adults in three major English cities were injecting drugs. This statistic is higher than previous Home Office figures, which estimated that in 2001, 0.3% of the population between 15 and 64 years old were injecting drug users. [continues 401 words]
Families are being urged to look for signs of depression and cannabis use among their loved ones after a surge in the number of Bay of Plenty people killing themselves with the drug in their blood. The warning from Tauranga psychologist Hans Laven comes as the city's coroner and a police prosecutor voice concerns about the trend. All three suicide cases before the Coroner's Court last month tested positive for cannabis use, and there was at least one case in each of two earlier sittings. [continues 299 words]
Suicide prevention and protecting the victims of drugs have attracted funding of $20.5 million in the budget, Associate Health Minister Jim Anderton announced today. Mr Anderton, leader of the Progressive Party, said nearly $15m over four years had been allocated for drug-related health initiatives and $5.5m over four years to support suicide prevention measures. "I believe our current programmes to reduce suicide and suicide attempts are having a positive effect and officials believe the general trend in our suicide rates is starting to decline," he said. [continues 260 words]
A speeding driver who killed an Auckland policeman in a head-on smash near Taupo last year had been smoking cannabis, a coroner has heard. The driver, Daniel Max Ruru, 28, who also died in the crash, has been described by the dead policeman's brother as irresponsible and selfish. Taupo district coroner Morna McFarlane was hearing evidence at an inquest into the deaths of Auckland policeman and volunteer fireman Floyd Richmond Frederick Roscoe, 45; Hamilton freezing worker Daniel Max Ruru, 28, and Hamilton teenager Michael Kenneth Bruce Morrison-Ruru, 14. All three died when the northbound Honda CRX driven by Daniel Ruru crossed the centre line on SH 1 near Waitahanui on November 23, hitting Mr Roscoe's Toyota Starlet head on. [continues 248 words]
Hamilton: Police plan to trial drug testing of drivers at checkpoints by June. Police national road safety manager Superintendent Steve Fitzgerald said the trial would run in several districts at once for between three and six months. People found driving while on drugs would be charged, but the trial's purpose was mainly to assess how bad the problem was. "We would likely go to areas where we thought the problem [with drugs and driving] was bad like Northland and the Bay of Plenty . . . then we might also go to areas where we think the problem isn't as bad to get a good idea of how big the problem is," Supt Fitzgerald said. [continues 308 words]
Parents selling drugs prescribed for their behaviourally troubled children are fuelling the black market trade in Ritalin, the Press newspaper reported today. Use of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) drugs such as Ritalin is spiralling. Figures from government drug-buying agency Pharmac show 17 per cent more methylphenidate -- commonly known at Ritalin and Rubifen -- was dispensed in the 12 months to July than in the previous year. Thirty-three times more methylphenidate is now dispensed to treat children with ADHD than a decade ago when estimates suggested only 242 patients were receiving the drug. [continues 345 words]
Calls by Green MP Nandor Tanczos for police to ease up on cannabis law enforcement to concentrate on P (methamphetamine) are a new height in hypocrisy, United Future leader Peter Dunne says. "Are there no depths to which he will not stoop to promote his pro-cannabis obsession?" Mr Dunne said. "He's suddenly concerned about P? Where was his concern, and that of his Green colleagues, when they alone block-voted to oppose P being reclassified as a Class A drug earlier this year? [continues 241 words]
Ten inpatients at the alcohol and drug addiction centre in Hanmer Springs will be placed in the care of the Christchurch-based mental health charity Richmond Fellowship, after the Hanmer Clinics shut up shop today. Last week the contract between Hanmer and the Health Ministry for provision of treatment for people with drug and alcohol addictions ended 14 months early. The ministry said the end of the contract was mutual and was decided due to Hanmer's financial issues. Hanmer has 339 outpatients and 10 inpatients. [continues 447 words]
