Organised crime programme targets causes of drug use in communities
Photo:
French Customs
A programme attempting to get people off meth and away from crime has been launched in Porirua, as part of a multi-million dollar government drive.
The strategy aims to prevent organised crime taking hold in communities by reducing the demand for drugs.
National co-ordinator of meth support group 'P' Pull Rowena Wiki said she knew firsthand the destruction done by meth.
She took on full-time care for her grandchildren, because of her children's addictions.
"Not still fully understanding how a parent could, I guess, not want their children, I think it's just their so absorbed and trapped in this addiction that they don't even know what they are doing, to be honest," Wiki said.
She is based in Canons Creek, where the group runs walk-ins and advice, including directing people to the social services they need, when in the throws of addiction.
"It's not just addiction," Wiki said. "It could be housing, it could be kai.
"They might need help with their benefit or jobseeking, and we will find the correct people to send them to."
Tania Carr is the founder of Real Talk, an organisation trying to prevent youth suicide. She said Porirua needed help to break the entrenched patterns of addiction and crime.
"I say he waka eke noa, we are all in this together. We were all in this together.
"The things that I experienced with my Dad being in the Mongrel Mob - the abuse, the drugs - it's the same situation our community is exposed to."
The two community organisations have received funding as part of the Resilience to Organised Crime in Community Programme (ROCC), which aims to stop the drivers of crime, the demand for meth and to prevent young people from getting involved in gangs.
The government has committed $36.7 million to the programme since 2022.
The police allocate the funding to communities and have given $2.6 million to Porirua.
Police Kāpiti-Mana area commander Renee Perkins said enforcement wouldn't eliminate the drug trade, when demand still existed.
"We're in people's homes, we're in people's lives, often in the hardest moment of their lives, and we often leave with an offender, because they are under arrest.
"We see what is left behind."
Latest statistics show meth use has doubled throughout the country, and has increased significantly in Wellington and Porirua.
"One of the key measures that we will be watching is that wastewater testing, so we know that it's doubled," Perkins said, "We want to see that going down."
In Ōpōtiki last year, the police targeted high-level members of the local Mongrel Mob in Operation Highwater.
Associate Police Minister Casey Costello said the ROCC programme had worked well in the town since then, with wastewater results for meth dropping after the operation.
"When you've taken key parts of the community out, whether it's through arrests or removing people out of those communities, you need the social services to come in behind and that's where ROCC comes in."
Costello said she wanted to see the programme expanded and a ministerial advisory group will look at the issue next month.
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