Pure Fear: Worse than Heroin, this drug’s addictive power was terrifying. People under its influence didn’t drift off to Elysium. Nor did it persuade inadequate individuals that they could conquer the world. No, this drug – pure crystal methamphetamine, “P” for short – unlocked the gates of Hell itself. It conducted its users not to God, but straight to the Devil.
IT MUST BE 20 years, now, since the old hippie’s prophecy.
Labour and the Alliance had just formed a government – with the Greens in tow.
Nandor Tanczos, wearing his green hemp suit, had skateboarded into Parliament
to cries of “Decriminalise Dope!” from his shaggy supporters. All things seemed
possible. It was a hopeful time.
But, the old hippie, who looked like Gandalf: long white
hair and beard to match; wasn’t hopeful.
New Zealand, he said, was about to be overwhelmed by a drug
more terrible than any he had ever before encountered. Worse than Heroin, its
addictive power was terrifying. People under its influence didn’t drift off to
Elysium. Nor did it persuade inadequate individuals that they could conquer the
world. No, this drug – pure crystal methamphetamine, “P” for short – unlocked
the gates of Hell itself. It conducted its users not to God, but straight to
the Devil.
The old hippie could not see how P could be stopped. The
same ingenious Kiwis who had infused plain old New Zealand Green with near-psychedelic
potency would be “cooking” methamphetamine before you could say “Breaking Bad”.
And, after just one taste, their customers would be back for more, and more,
and more, and more. No need to wait upon the seasons. No more trimming resinous
heads. No more bulky packages to transport. P could be sold in fractions of a
gram. According to “Gandalf”, the P-dealers’ biggest problem was going to be coming
up with a way to clean all that dirty money!
He saw it all. The ruthlessness that would follow the
introduction of P to New Zealand’s illegal drug market. Serious money, he said,
attracts serious people. If you are sitting on hundreds-of-thousands of dollars
in used banknotes, then you’re instantly an irresistible target. Arming
yourself with something designed to win arguments quickly and decisively makes
perfect sense. Your bosses, as unforgiving as they are uninsured, are not the
sort of people you want to trouble with tales of loss.
And, twenty years later, here we are – right where “Gandalf”
said we would be. Awash with methamphetamine. Awash with “serious people”.
Awash with dirty money. Awash with addicts. Awash with the awful social misery
serious drug addiction leaves churning in its wake.
New Zealand, like Tolkien’s Shire, has begun to attract
attention. We are now on the international drug suppliers’ maps. A small but
vigorous market, well worth investing in. And just look at the “investors” who have
come a-calling!
Time was when our Kiwi “cooks” got their pseudoephedrine
from cold remedies. When these became harder to get, Chinese “triads” took up
the slack. Then the Aussies started exporting their worst Kiwi-born criminals
across the Tasman. These new gangsters turned out to be linked-in to the
supply-chains of the Central and South American drug cartels.
Very serious people indeed!
What to do? Who wants to mess with “the men from Sinaloa”?
Is New Zealand big enough to win this fight? On the other hand, can we afford
to lose it?
The answer is, we have to win this fight – because the
scourge of methamphetamine is relentless. Yes, it is well established in our
big cities, but it is also taking hold in those rural and provincial
communities from which all who can have already fled. Looking at these dwindling
country towns, all the gangsters see are captive markets waiting to be bled
dry: economically, physically, emotionally and spiritually. They don’t care –
which means we must.
So, let’s have a great deal less political grand-standing,
and a great deal more cross-party co-operation and consensus. Rather than put
the boot into National for declaring war on the gangs – who are, when all is
said and done, the people who make the illegal drug market work – why not
invite the Opposition to join with the governing parties in formulating a
long-term and unflinching bi-partisan strategy to combat the scourge of
methamphetamine from top to bottom?
Yes, Simon Bridges has borrowed a silly Australian name for
his task force, but the “broken windows” strategy of not letting even
small-scale criminal offending go unchallenged is a bloody good one. Make this
country such a difficult environment in which to operate that the gangs’
international suppliers decide that our methamphetamine game is no longer worth
their candle.
Prove my old hippie friend wrong – by X-ing P.
This essay was originally published in The Otago
Daily Times and The Greymouth Star of Friday, 29 November 2019.
