Mattersof Substance. November 2016 Volume 27 Issue No.4 www.drugfoundation.org.nz

Gangs trial new ways Police, researchers, politicians and even gang members themselves will tell you that gangs play a significant role in the drug trade in this country, but the focus and reputations of some of New Zealand’s infamous ethnic street gangs seem to be changing. CONTENTS

DRUG HISTORY IN NEW ZEALAND FEATURE: Gangs trial THERE’S 28 SOMETHING new ways WRONG WITH THE SENTENCES COVER: Some gangs are reinventing themselves as contributing members of society, for good reason. 14

WORLD 06 04 NEWS COVER STORY

NZ NEWS 02

FEATURES Become 14 22 26 28 a member There’s something Hepatitis C – new Colorado: free P: New Zealand’s P wrong with the hope on the horizon market in pot history The New Zealand Drug Foundation has sentences PHARMAC funding of booming, health Prior to WWII, a form of been at the heart of major alcohol and Convictions for minor new medicines to treat impacts unknown methamphetamine could other drug policy debates for over 20 years. cannabis possession hepatitis C is already The stats on cannabis be bought over the counter During that time, we have demonstrated and use offences just helping many. However, supply and use show until the medical fraternity a strong commitment to advocating don’t add up. the wait continues for a mixed picture since it shouted “addiction, policies and practices based on the those for whom the was legalised in Colorado. madness and murder”. best evidence available. drugs are not suitable. You can help us. A key strength of the Drug Foundation lies in its diverse membership REGULARS base. As a member of the Drug Foundation, you will receive information about major The Director’s Cut 01 alcohol and other drug policy challenges. You can also get involved in our work to 30 34 36 Events 01 find solutions to those challenges. Guest editorial: How Duterte’s drug Q&A: Lizzie McMillan- News 02 Sorry... but we just war taps into the Makalio Our membership includes health promoters, primary health and community organisations, can’t wait around Philippines’ zeitgeist Venturing into new Viewpoints 32 researchers, students, schools and boards Community-based With his first 100 days in territory when the need of trustees, policy makers, and addiction organisations working power over, Philippines arises is all part of the treatment agencies and workers. in mental health President Rodrigo Duterte job for the manager of and addictions are shows no sign of easing Wesley Community Membership and subscription enquiries getting serious up his unhinged War on Action Waitangirua site. [email protected] about collaboratively Drugs. Why? or visit our website. transforming this vital landscape. www.drugfoundation.org.nz

matters of substance is published matters of substance invites Brand development/ NZ Drug Foundation by the New Zealand Drug feedback and contributions. graphic design 4th Floor, 265 Wakefield Street Foundation. All rights reserved. If you’re interested in Insight +64 4 801 6644 PO Box 3082, Wellington, Neither this publication nor any contributing a guest editorial [email protected] New Zealand part of it may be reproduced or article, please contact us: www.insightcreative.co.nz p +64 4 801 6303 matters of substance without prior permission of the [email protected] November 2016 Drug Foundation. p +64 4 801 6303 Vol 27 No. 4 ISSN 1177-200X

This report is printed on Advance Laser, an environmentally responsible paper produced using Elemental Chlorine Free (EFC) pulp sourced from sustainable and legally harvested farmed trees. Advance Laser is manufactured under the strict ISO 14001 environmental management system. The ink used in the production of this report is 100% vegetable based, mineral oil free and manufactured from 100% renewable resources. THE DIRECTOR’S CUT SOCIAL

@johniadarola Florida now has medicinal marijuana [sic]. It needs it, I think. ... NOV 9

@papanahi The scientists and Ministry of Health have called it, now it’s time for Housing New Zealand to get up with the play ... OCT 27

@JustSpeakNZ Another 1800 prison beds is a perpetuation of a racist justice system, not a solution. Moana Jackson #racepowerprisons ... OCT 25

@ssekaran Trump thinks his crazy border wall t’s easy to say that 2016 has been a horrible will stop the drugs. Um... prisons have pretty year. Ali, Baker, Bowie, Cohen, Prince, Wilder and our own Helen Kelly all passed. big ass walls & drugs still get in. #debate The Philippines’ President Duterte should #facepalm ... OCT 20 be condemned and condemned again for his obscene approach to people who use @scoutriver Easy solutions to overflowing prisons: drugs and to drug crime (the New Zealand I Government needs a stronger diplomatic Stop locking people up for poverty, mental response to that madman). And then health issues or health issues such as drug use. there’s Trump. ROSS BELL #nzqt ... OCT 18 Yes, there is a lot to lament about this Executive Director year. But there’s also much to celebrate and acknowledge. @DeborahMTNZ Politicians who suggest drug law The overdose reversal medicine Naloxone reform can’t happen because young ppl wd hv is being made more widely available. access to drugs, ignore the fact they already hv UNGASS, while not perfect, has continued global momentum towards understanding that the world’s drug problem is first and that access. ... OCT 18 foremost a health and human rights issue that requires responses that support rather than punish people. KEY EVENTS & DATES Our government is taking practical health-based actions under its national drug policy. Witness most recently the new funding for methamphetamine treatment. 60th Session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, And we’ve certainly been busy this year. We’ve distributed 12,000 Vienna, Austria copies of this magazine, we had tens of thousands of people respond to MARCH 2017 our social media “Support. Don’t punish.” campaign, 300,000 people accessed drug information and health promotion materials on our 15th World Congress on Public Health, website, we distributed 35,000 alcohol and other drug resources Melbourne, Australia throughout the community, our Living Sober recovery community now has more than 4000 members, videos we produced for parents wcph2017.com 3–7 APRIL 2017 on how to talk to young people about drugs have received more than 7000 views, our other videos have been watched the equivalent of 480 hours and I clocked 100 media interviews. 8th Australasian Drug and Alcohol Strategy Conference 2017, What can we expect for 2017? Wellington How will a Trump presidency affect global drug policy, and how event.icebergevents.com.au/adasc2017 might our own politicians react to the Brexit/Trump phenomenon? 2–5 MAY 2017 We reckon people should look objectively at the law reforms taking place in the US and be willing to apply any positive lessons back here. 25th International Harm Reduction Conference, And all eyes will be on Canada as its government fulfils its election Montreal, Canada pledge for strict, government-run public health regulations over cannabis. hri.global/conference-2017

We’re expecting 2017 to be a big year for the Drug Foundation. 14–17 MAY 2017 Look out as we ramp up our efforts on drug prevention programmes in schools and across the wider education sector. 4th Australian and New Zealand Addiction Conference, We will continue our work supporting Mäori to identify new Gold Coast, Australia health interventions and drug law changes that would benefit them addictionaustralia.org.au and remove the burden of the criminal justice approach to drugs. 15–17 MAY 2017 While we’ve applauded the government’s response to methamphetamine, make no mistake, there is still a lot we need to do. A strong consensus is forming, including within Police, that our 11th International Society for the Study of Drug Policy (ISSDP) collective focus must be on providing treatment to people and their Conference, Aarhus, Denmark families struggling with meth. We can’t arrest our way out of this www.issdp.org problem, but we can and should do a lot more to eliminate treatment 17–19 MAY 2017 waiting lists. Let’s make it a bold vision that, in 2017, we have zero waiting lists; that we provide help right at the moment someone Follow us puts their hand up asking for it. Join us online I look forward to working with you on these challenges. drugfoundation.org.nz/connect

www.drugfoundation.org.nz 01 NEWS NZ.

02 Some drinking 03 Alcohol ads on 04 Drug dog plan starts young Auckland buses under way

13 14 15

A RECENT report ALCOHOL ADS recently IN AN EFFORT to disrupt commissioned by the spotted on the back of drug trafficking within Wanaka Alcohol Group Auckland buses may New Zealand, the looking at youth alcohol seem out of place. government is considering consumption shows Despite Auckland using drug detection dogs there are gaps in the Transport having a at domestic airports. 01 BOOZE SELLERS REPEAT APPEAL knowledge surrounding policy disallowing ads The move is proposed drinking behaviour, that promote alcohol, as part of a wider plan A legal battle over a local specifically amongst it doesn’t own the to prevent the movement alcohol policy in Dunedin has adults within the advertising space on the of drugs and was community. The report backs of buses operated presented to Minister of begun. The two New Zealand Harming Me, Harming by the privately owned Police Judith Collins in supermarket chains, Foodstuffs You was based on a NZ Bus so it hasn’t been August. Allowing dogs survey of year 9–11 able to remove them. to sniff bags at terminals and Progressive Enterprises, students in Wanaka. This will change with would require a law and a handful of smaller liquor It showed that over a new contracts coming change as currently drug quarter of the students into effect between dogs are only permitted retailers are appealing the Dunedin surveyed are drinking October this year to prowl at international regularly, and a small and March 2018 that terminals. City Council’s provisional local group are binge drinking. will give Auckland Opinion is divided over alcohol policy through the Following the report’s Transport ownership introducing the dogs to Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing release, social workers of all advertising the domestic terminals and youth living in the space on the buses. given potential breaches Authority (ARLA). This could region have indicated of civil liberties as well take months or more if the High they want parents as the cost and time and included in the disruption involved. Court becomes involved. conversation around drinking and that The policy reduces the timeframe during they see them as an which supermarkets and off-licences can important part of sell alcohol from 7am–11pm to 9am–9pm. the solution to 05 (NZ Olympian) Nick Willis encourages unhealthy drinking. teenagers to be alcohol free Inner city bars would also be required to Rather than blaming have a one-way door policy from 2.30am any one portion of that don’t include alcohol. with closing time at 3am unless they were society, it has been He spoke about his a live entertainment venue. suggested by Wanaka experience of the Alcohol Group challenges that can Those against the policy claim there is chairwoman Rachel come from going alcohol no evidence to support a link between Brown that more open, free but insisted youth closing times and alcohol-related harm nor fearless conversations could create their own 2016 OLYMPIC Games any evidence of harm caused by excessive about alcohol alternatives. Aware of the consumption need bronze medallist Nick peer pressure surrounding or inappropriate consumption in Dunedin to take place. Willis has taken to Twitter in general. Supporters include the National to encourage teenage alcohol, Willis urged Addiction Centre and Otago University. athletes to avoid drinking. teenagers to plan ahead To help achieve sporting and stay strong, revealing Mayor Dave Cull described those presenting success, he suggested they he had stopped drinking the appeal as “flying in the face of reality”. plan their own activities in 2004.

02 matters of substance November 16 07 Grandparents 08 Kevin Hague off raising to new shade of grandchildren green 45% 03 07 RESEARCH RELEASED AFTER EIGHT years in in September indicates Parliament, Green MP that half the 1,300 Kevin Hague has resigned children being cared from his list seat. He gave for by grandparents his valedictory statement were removed due to to Parliament in September. their parents’ involvement Hague compared his with drugs. The survey eight years as part of the was commissioned by Opposition to battling the support group against the wind while Grandparents Raising sailing during cyclone Grandchildren, which Bola. He spoke of the is based in Auckland. achievements he had The top six causes for found most satisfying 04 05 06 children being cared for but also pointed out areas, by their grandparents which included drug law 08 09 (with many experiencing reform, “where successive more than one) were governments have taken parental drug addiction no action because of … (45 percent), domestic political timidity”. violence (42 percent), Hague began his new role family breakdown as Chief Executive of (41 percent), neglect Forest & Bird in October. (41 percent), parent 02 unable to cope (40 percent) and alcohol 01 abuse (26 percent).

09 Red Ribbon Award for NZ-based HIV foundation

The Kaupapa Mäori organisation was amongst 06 Plain packed law passed nearly 1,000 nominees across the five Red Ribbon New Zealand First and the names will still appear, Award categories. It was ACT Party were the only restrictions will dictate presented in July at the parties to oppose the bill. where and how they 21st International AIDS Once the amended are included. THE INA FOUNDATION Conference in Durban, South Africa. Smoke-free Environments Regulations required has recently been awarded Act is enforced, cigarette a Red Ribbon by the The non-profit Foundation prior to the Bill coming packaging will be UNAIDS organisation. has been working with A NEW LAW to regulate into effect are still being restricted to being green It was awarded under Mäori, indigenous and developed. Those who tobacco packaging was or brown in colour the global partnership Pacific communities to passed by MPs in with three quarters support the Bill see it as category in recognition improve the quality of life September despite a of the packet covered a positive step towards of the Foundation’s and information given to challenge from tobacco in mandatory health New Zealand’s Smokefree community-based whänau living with and companies last year. warnings. Although brand 2025 goal. approach to HIV/AIDS. impacted by HIV.

www.drugfoundation.org.nz 03

NEWSNEWS

World. 04 01 03 02 New UN Secretary- General

THE NEXT UN Secretary- General António Guterres knows a thing or two about drug policy. As Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002, he was at the helm when the country shifted to a new USA: 1 IN 5 NOW LIVE WITH LEGAL POT 01 approach to drug policy. Central to the new policy Voters along the entire West Coast of was decriminalisation of 08 the United States have voted to permit possession for personal legal cannabis. After the 8 November use and the introduction of a range of social and 2016 elections, California and Nevada health supports. join Alaska, Oregon and Washington At the time of the law’s 03 No cap on alcohol content for beer states allowing legal use and sale introduction, Portugal was experiencing its borders. A 12 percent of cannabis. very high rates of alcohol by volume limit drug-related overdoses had been in place since On the East Coast, Question 4 allowing legal and HIV infections. the 1930s and was an cannabis in Massachusetts was approved, The controversial attempt to control with a very slim majority voting to legalise new approach is drunkenness during widely hailed as cannabis in Maine. The latter ballot is subject Prohibition. The law a model for other OHIO HAS now joined change is predominantly to a recount, as requested by opponents of countries to follow. other US states in intended for the craft beer the initiative. Voters in Arizona rejected a Guterres takes over as scrapping a legal cap on industry. Craft beer was change, with provisional figures showing UN Secretary General the alcohol content of beer a $22 billion industry 52% voted for status quo. on 1 January 2017. brewed and sold within last year in the US. Medical cannabis will be extended to a further four states: Arkansas, Florida, 04 Crowdfunding a drug-checking machine Montana and North Dakota. festival participants about sophisticated drug-testing Almost five million people (56% of ballots) their drug use since the machine called a voted for Proposition 64 in California. The festival began 14 years miniature mobile mass full regulations have yet to be determined, ago. At Shambhala, they spectrometer. The but with passage of the measure, anyone distribute pamphlets organisers weren’t 21 years or older can grow up to six plants about deadly substances able to get government and help participants by funding for the purchase at home and possess one ounce of cannabis THE ORGANISERS of testing their recreational so have turned to for non-medical uses. The government can a huge electronic drugs prior to consumption. crowdfunding instead. tax cannabis sales and allow sales at licensed music festival in British Now they want to go a There has been a surge in businesses. It is expected criminal penalties Columbia have been step further and supply opioid overdose deaths in will be reduced. supporting and educating festival goers with a British Columbia recently.

04 matters of substance November 16

09 Drug charity 09 working via 06 the dark web 07

02

AN ADDICTION charity, A-Clinic Foundation based in Finland, is keeping itself up to date by moving into the same anonymous online circles as the people they’re trying to reach out to, via the so-called dark web. The Muunto (or Transformation) project 05 will incorporate anonymous and confidential e-services 05 Alcohol-free and a database of Indonesia 06 Largest drug 07 Drug-testing substances circulating consumption service at UK online. The possibility room opens festival a first of starting an anonymous lab testing service for new psychoactive substances, which will be a first for Finland, is being investigated. “As far as possible, we try A BILL is being proposed and approach people as in Indonesia outlawing equals, and as a result, the production, sale and DENMARK’S FIRST drug THE SECRET Garden we’ve had very positive consumption of alcohol. consumption room (DCR) Party Festival became the interactions so far,” the The penalty for breaking opened in 2012 following first in the UK to offer a project’s coordinator the new law would be the passing of legislation service testing drugs prior Miina Kajos said. 10 years in prison, and to prevent Danish Police to consumption. Freddie proponents of the Bill from searching and Fellows, who started the are from two influential prosecuting people with Cambridgeshire-based Muslim parties. 08 Argentinian legal professionals small amounts of drugs festival 12 years ago, demand drug law reform Previous attempts at either in or near the DCR. said, “Harm reduction banning alcohol have In August this year, a new, and welfare are a vital The declaration was been unsuccessful, but 1,000 square metre DCR part of hosting any event, published by the Asociación opened in Copenhagen. this time, the law change and it’s an area that for Pensamiento Penal (APP) is being advocated It is the largest in the world. too long has seen little on the 30th anniversary on health rather than The nurses and social development.” of the Bazterrica Ruling religious grounds, given workers on hand minimise Pill testing was carried in which the Supreme the 453 alcohol-related drug harm by teaching out by UK charity The Court declared it deaths that have occurred correct injection Loop in agreement with MORE THAN 250 legal unconstitutional to since 2012. techniques, helping to the local Police and professionals, including prosecute someone for Experts have indicated clean wounds, screening judges, prosecutors and council. The Loop possessing drugs intended these deaths were attributed for HIV and hepatitis public defenders, have co-founder Fiona Mesham for their own use. to illegally distilled and are on hand to treat said the testing service was made a public declaration or counterfeit alcohol overdoses if necessary. not only about the contents that includes a series There have been similar findings since then, but sometimes containing Copenhagen Police, who of pills. On site, a team of of recommendations for lethal substances like were initially opposed experienced drug workers reforming Argentina’s Argentina is yet to write methanol or battery fluid. to this sort of service, “can help people make drug laws. They advocate drug decriminalisation Opponents of the Bill have come around to see informed choices, raising for decriminalising drug into law. Between 2002 claim it will be the death that people using drugs awareness of particularly possession for personal and 2013, incarceration of the tourism industry need help and treatment dangerous substances in use, developing harm- numbers for drug-related in Indonesia. Others have rather than punishment circulation and reducing reduction policies and offences more than called it an assault on and that DCRs allow that the chance of drug-related exploring regulation of doubled in the South civil rights. help to be administered. problems occurring.” currently illicit substances. American country.

www.drugfoundation.org.nz 05 COVER STORY

Gangs trial new ways

Police, researchers, politicians and even gang members themselves will tell you that gangs play a significant role in the drug trade in this country, but the focus and reputations of some of New Zealand’s infamous ethnic street gangs seem to be changing. Some sparks will fly as these and other gangs come up against the government’s

Gang Action Plan. Keri Welham reports. KERI WELHAM

06 matters of substance November 16 www.drugfoundation.org.nz 07 COVER STORY

The controversial good deeds by Jamie Pink and the Tribal Huk started with the gang making school lunches.

Photo credit: Fairfax Media NZ.

n 1980s P dealers 24 hours to get out of Ngaruawahia, followed by international heavyweights New Zealand, gang with mixed results. the Hell’s Angels and the Bandidos from culture was visible, And there’s Te Kai Po Ahuriri, the US. Smaller clubs, such as the Greasy intimidating and of Palmerston North’s Stormtroopers Dogs and the Native Sons, have established fiercely violent. gang, whose community spirit was deep roots in regional communities across The predominantly discovered when he was filmed by his New Zealand. And then there’s the newest Mäori street gangs wife Missy feeding the homeless on presence – the LA-style street gangs, I rode around in simple home-cooked meals created which are gaining high profiles and large Fords, displaying patches and extensive from his own leftovers. followings in urban centres. tattooing, locked in seemingly endless And there’s senior Mongrel Mob The film festival, the sandwiches in battles with rival gangs. leader Dennis Makalio who launched the schools and the Facebook campaign all There are still gangs in New Zealand, Facebook New Zealand ‘P’ Pull campaign suggest a changing emphasis for some and it appears the violence among newer to draw together those who want to lobby New Zealand gangs. Gilbert says the gangs is even fiercer, but the scene has for better rehab and detox facilities for indigenous ethnic gangs – which he certainly changed in the last 30 years. meth users. calls the “patched gangs” – started to In 2016, many among the formerly These initiatives are happening against move away from the violent crime that fearsome indigenous ethnic gangs the backdrop of a government-run Gang had defined them after the last of the big are rewriting the rules around what Action Plan, which, in part, aims to turf battles in the 1990s. it means to belong. support those living in gang communities. Three factors have led to the change. There’s Wellington Black Power, which But in many instances, the gangs are not Firstly, many gangs were moving is proudly P-free and has secured naming waiting for government support – they are into more profit-driven crime and wanted rights for a November film festival as a way taking control of their own makeover. to keep a low profile. Secondly, it was of building relationships with the capital ———— likely all available gang territory had community. The first film will be 2013 US Canterbury University academic and been allocated as a result of the turf wars, documentary How to Make Money Selling author Dr Jarrod Gilbert is an authority and gang boundaries had stabilised. Drugs. There’ll be wine, appetisers and a on the lifestyle of the roughly 4,000 people But Gilbert says both those moderated discussion of the film. who belong to gangs in New Zealand. explanations pale in comparison to the Then there’s Waikato’s Tribal Huk When considering gangs, many third explanation: age. gang, which started making sandwiches New Zealanders’ first thought will be “It’s simply the fact the guys had aged, for hungry schoolchildren in 2011. of the country’s indigenous ethnic gangs and there are now old men in the gangs,” By 2015, it was providing free lunches such as the Mongrel Mob and Black Power. he says. at 31 schools and had launched the Next up are the outlaw motorcycle gangs “Old men don’t tend to be as violent Kai 4 the Future Foundation. Last month, such as Australia’s Rebels, whose foray or involved in as much crime after 40. the Tribal Huk announced it would give into New Zealand in recent years was Their criminality tends to reduce.”

08 matters of substance November 16 Detective Superintendent Virginia Le Bas, NZ Police.

We have a system that does reasonably well in meeting the needs of 80 to 90 percent … But it can struggle in dealing with the most vulnerable New Zealanders.

HON BILL ENGLISH

The community-minded efforts of sentenced to more than a decade behind clubs are among those Police say are gangs such as the sandwich-making Tribal bars in 2012 for drug-related offences. heavily pursuing a drug-dealing agenda. Huk illustrate “the maturing of the scene”. With the traditional patched gangs In a Police Association column in May, And it’s precisely this ageing gang fading in prominence, these new gangs long-time president Greg O’Connor said, population that has led to the birth of the are stepping forward unchallenged. And “The Head Hunters and Hell(s) Angels latest generation of New Zealand gangs. they look set to prove more violent, more are applying business models in new “A lot of rebellious teenagers don’t visible and more heavily engaged with “markets” around the country and want to join a gang where the membership profit-driven crime than ever before. divvying up the spoils. Specifically, it looks like their father,” Gilbert says. If that’s the case, why does the Gang involves moving in an advanced guard, The LA-style gangs have flourished Action Plan seem so focused on the identifying key local crime figures and in response to a demand for gangs that indigenous ethnic gangs? groups, and training them.” fitted a 21st century definition of cool. Gilbert says, “We’re always a step In January, Le Bas told Fairfax Media: Rather than the scruffy appearance of the behind, aren’t we? There’s a revolution “The Head Hunters have one strategy: patched gangs, whose desire was to drop on the streets, and we are missing it.” They all report back to Auckland. They out of society, the LA-style gangs seek a ———— are organised. fashion-conscious, ostentatious place The woman responsible for steering “They are disproportionately in society. the multi-agency Gang Action Plan effort is represented in the manufacturing and Gilbert says New Zealand’s LA-style Detective Superintendent Virginia Le Bas distribution of methamphetamine around gangs appear willing to utilise extreme of New Zealand Police. A small multi- New Zealand. The Head Hunters come up violence to make a name for themselves. agency team has been working on the plan. regularly in many of our operations where Those inclinations are not tempered by The team reached the key milestone of we are investigating methamphetamine paternalistic older members as they establishing a Gang Intelligence Centre distribution throughout New Zealand.” might have been if they’d joined the last December. She went on to say: “It is obvious patched gangs. Le Bas says the Gang Action Plan is that the Head Hunters have connections The LA-style gangs are also hyper- a tool in the fight against the drug trade. with Asians involved in organised crime. materialistic – they want to emulate the “Drugs require a network. We know We believe this is how the gang is getting flashy cars, clothes and accessories of their gangs provide a network … That’s the precursors to methamphetamine gangsta heroes. To access that kind of cash, something they’ve always done, or do.” from Asia.” gangs will pursue profit-driven crime with At a New Zealand Drug Foundation In implementing the plan, Le Bas greater vigour. Gilbert points to the Killer Speaker & Soup session in August 2016, takes her lead from a speech Finance Beez – the country’s best-known LA-style Le Bas said, “By no means do I say that Minister Bill English gave on social street gang – which was founded by Josh every single gang member is involved investment in September 2015. In it, Masters, a part-time rapper with his own with that [drug dealing], but there is a … he said roughly 1 percent of all five-year- record company. The gang boss was number that are.” The outlaw motorcycle olds – about 600 Kiwi kids each year –

www.drugfoundation.org.nz 09 COVER STORY

Eugene Ryder says his chapter of Black Power want to be contributors to society.

Photo credit: Adrian Heke. were statistically likely to cost taxpayers “We’ve always said we need to look an average of $320,000 each by the time at supply and demand. Every time we A lot of rebellious teenagers they were 35. Some would cost more take out a seizure, it’s a positive.” than $1 million each. Just two community programmes don’t want to join a gang “We have a system that does have been launched under the plan. where the membership looks reasonably well in meeting the needs The first involves the Ministry of Social like their father. of 80 to 90 percent … But it can struggle Development (MSD) trialling approaches in dealing with the most vulnerable with gang-associated whänau, such as JARROD GILBERT New Zealanders,” the Deputy Prime focusing on the wider social issues that Minister said at the time. impact young people and increasing The government committed to the educational achievement. The pilot is Gang Action Plan with a cabinet paper in based in the Bay of Plenty and East Coast October 2014. The paper had a clear focus and will cost $1.1 million and last two reintegration at top US universities on the families of gang members: “Almost and a half years. The pilot was announced and held a number of high-ranking half of the serious offences committed by on 1 March 2016 – the same day MSD New Zealand public service roles such gang members are family violence related. released a report that estimated the as Assistant Secretary (Penal Institutions) A high proportion of gang members’ long-term cost to the taxpayer of gang with the Justice Ministry. children experience multiple incidents members and their children through their He says gangs “will respond really well of abuse or neglect.” contact with MSD and Child, Youth and to opportunities to legitimise themselves”. The plan brings together 10 government Family (CYF) was $714 million. He has been a keen observer of growing agencies. Like the relentless campaign In October 2016, the government moves towards that legitimate lifestyle. to change attitudes to smoking tobacco, announced a $50,000 youth leadership He points to the Notorious Mongrel Mob Le Bas warns it may take 25 years to and mentoring programme to help steer chapter, which in the past decade has effect real change. up to 20 young Hawke’s Bay people away helped quell street violence, build So far, the action plan is most from gang life. preschool centres and, with the Salvation recognisable for a marked spike in drug Kim Workman says he’s seen Police-led Army, run drug treatment programmes seizures in 2016, such as the $17 million strategies with the dual enforcement and for gang members using meth. of methamphetamine – 17 kilograms – support focus fail before. The problem, And he recalls the three-day hui in seized by Police and Customs following he says, is an imbalance in favour of the January 2011 at the Otatara Pa Reserve, a seven-month investigation involving enforcement side of the equation while the near Taradale. The topic was Fatherhood, a member of the Thailand chapter of social strategy is never properly resourced, Gangs, Drugs and Choices. The attendees the Bandidos. prioritised or coordinated. included 40 affiliates of Black Power and Le Bas is unapologetic for the plan’s Workman is a one-time Police officer the Mongrel Mob. It became known at early focus on drug seizures. who has studied delinquency and offender The Otatara Awakening.

10 matters of substance November 16 “The hui was highly successful,” a climate where government departments he wrote in a blogpost, “with a number We’re always a step behind, are reluctant to support any programme to of those attending being inspired to do with gangs. Ryder claims gang offers to persist with making changes in their aren’t we? There’s a revolution help Corrections rehabilitate their members own lives, and those of their whänau on the streets, and we are behind bars have been refused because that and community.” missing it. would require an admission that gangs ———— could be helpful. Eugene Ryder is 45 years old. He grew JARROD GILBERT “When they say wrap services around up as a ward of the state in West Auckland. our families, we – the patched members By 15, he’d run away to Wellington and – support those goals,” Ryder says. was attempting to join Black Power. He got “We want [gang members’ families] his patch at 21 and has been a member for to be contributors to society.” 29 years. a community numbering 75–100 people, But he says gangs will not support He also has a management degree including members, partners and children. a Gang Action Plan that they believe and is in the final month of a social work Other chapters around New Zealand aims to sever their ties with family. degree. Ryder helped establish a new are following suit with the hängï and “The whole kaupapa is not about Black Power chapter in the capital two the meth bans, although Ryder admits getting us in a better place. It’s about years ago, based around a common desire Wellington was initially not particularly isolating us from the rest of society,” to be meth-free. popular in the wider gang. “Because of Ryder says. “We saw what meth was doing to our stance, we were one of the most “I don’t think it’s a tool for gangs. our bros.” hated chapters.” It’s a tool for government agencies.” He says members of his chapter don’t Ryder is aware many people may be ———— sell meth, and they don’t use it. cynical about just how crime-free gang Harry Tam has been in the Mongrel “We don’t engage in anything around members want to be. Mob for 43 years. For 20 years, he worked meth. I know of people who are making “It won’t be easy. There’s some people in the public service, rising to senior a profit from selling meth. My challenge on both sides – government and gangs – positions. He worked for the Youth Affairs to them [is] stop selling that shit to us.” [who believe] this is impossible. I remind Ministry, the Corrections Department and Ryder runs randomised drug tests on them that’s what they said about women Te Puni Kökiri (TPK). every member of the chapter; utilising the getting the vote. It will take ups and He believes the Gang Action Plan has gang’s considerable knowledge of drug- downs, but I can see it happening.” no intention of reaching gang members. testing work-arounds to ensure no-one can So what has happened here? What’s Rather, he says it’s been developed around cheat. Only one man has left as a result of with the hängï trade and the tears of joy the belief men are criminals in need of the hard line on meth – he was struggling and the drug-free pledges? Ryder echoes increased punishment, women are victims to kick the drug and told his ‘brothers’ Gilbert’s comments: gang leaders in the of violence, children are vulnerable and he didn’t want to damage the meth-free indigenous ethnic gangs have mellowed information on all three groups can be reputation of the chapter. with age. Many of the established gang collated to increase effectiveness of law Ryder says there’s an old saying that leaders would now be happy to see the and order efforts. Black Power don’t cry. Yet, as he talks one-time criminals among their ranks He says this “negative” approach about his chapter, he describes a gang reinvented as taxpayers. Rule number 6 has criminalised families, pushing them where men quietly pad the hallways of the Wellington Black Power chapter away from the rest of society and knitting outside club meetings with their babies is: “No self-defeating behaviours”. This the individual families and the gangs in prams, gently coaxing them to sleep. includes any act that would warrant arrest. they affiliate with even closer together. He says he’s seen gang members freely In two years, Ryder claims not a single Harry says New Zealand’s ethnic street weep at tangi and shed tears of joy at member of this chapter has been arrested. gang culture can trace its genesis back their own weddings, the births of He laughingly calls himself Black Power to the boys’ homes and borstals where their children or when their kids get Wellington’s Crime Reduction Manager. young Mäori men first developed the a certificate at school. All of this is such a significant brotherhoods to fulfil a desire for family. “We do paint this picture of being deviation from the indigenous ethnic gang With that history in mind, attempts to tough, but in reality, we’re all human.” norm of the 1970s and 1980s that one of isolate members from their families will And members of his chapter regularly the members of Ryder’s chapter recently serve only to reinforce their bonds. don hairnets and gloves on weeknights felt the need to underline that he had no “Hey kids, keep away from your Dad. to prepare hängï meals for fundraising. intention of becoming a Christian. What’s pro-family about that?” He laughs. The gang’s wares still come ———— Harry says New Zealand’s indigenous wrapped in tinfoil, but the product of In 2010, when Police Minister Judith ethnic gangs are now into their third choice is now a hot meal. Collins addressed the New Zealand generation. In many cases, he says, that “Selling drugs kinda gets you in the Police Leadership Conference, she said, equates to three generations of people shit and hurts everyone,” Ryder says. “As Minister, I have a policy of not who don’t know how to work. If it’s “So, let’s sell hängï!” engaging with gangs. I won’t even social wellbeing and transformation the The chapter bought a large hängï knowingly meet with anyone who government wants, job offers alone are cooker, which perfectly steams 140 meals I know to be a gang member.” no longer the answer. Today’s social issues at a time. The gang uses its collective Eugene Ryder believes hardline are too complex for such a simple solution. might – the goodwill and manpower of politicians like Collins have created “[There’s] so much to unpack.”

www.drugfoundation.org.nz 11 COVER STORY

Senior member of the Mongrel Mob’s Rogue chapter Dennis Makalio wants more done to help people struggling with methamphetamine.

Photo credit: Adrian Heke.

The jobs gang members would be “After 43 years being in the Mob, I’ve All of this is such a competing for are at the lower end of a never seen a rich bloody gang member.” low-wage, low-skill economy. Many gang Jarrod Gilbert agrees. He says gang significant deviation from members have never worked before and members are much more likely to be the indigenous ethnic gang could lose their jobs in the first three involved in drugs than other members of norm of the 1970s and 1980s months because of unfamiliarity with society and are “important players” in the that one of the members of work practices and policies such as drug trade. “There’s no doubt about it.” drug testing. But most gangs are not organised Ryder’s chapter recently felt Rather, Harry believes the focus should around profit-driven crime. the need to underline that be on investment in training and education “The drug trade does not prop up gangs.” he had no intention of so gang members can set their sights on Gilbert says that, in his field research, becoming a Christian. roles paying something closer to a ‘living he found gang members hail from the wage’. Unless jobseekers have the toughest sectors of poor society. Their lives equivalent of NCEA level 4, Harry says are characterised by intergenerational they’re unlikely to earn over $45,000 – unemployment, poor health, drug and a threshold he says would encourage alcohol abuse, family violence and long-term beneficiaries to walk away overcrowded homes. Gangs offer children from the certainty of a benefit. of these circumstances a family to belong But even education isn’t enough. Harry to and status. says the entire welfare environment needs Harry has been working with MSD’s to change. Hardline benefit reforms have E Tu Whänau programme to deliver pushed people into crime. What happens support to gang communities through a when someone loses their benefit but values approach. By the end of September, can’t achieve employment? “Use your there had been eight local hui and one imagination,” he says. national hui, each attracting an average of Children at the edges of society will, 50 people drawn from 30 different groups. he says, grow up knowing how to dabble The hui promote Mäori concepts such in the black economy and how to hold as whanaungatanga or relationship yourself in a prison visit. But they won’t building, knowledge of whakapapa and know how to ace a job interview. the building of mana and nurturing of Harry says the poverty that is inherent others. Discussions range from education in gang life challenges the stereotype to drugs to violence. Harry feels the term that gang members are involved in ‘hard-to-reach Mäori communities’ is a dealing drugs. more accurate description of why these

12 matters of substance November 16 groups exist than the term ‘gangs’. People QUOTE OF SUBSTANCE in hard-to-reach Mäori communities are in The problem is an poor physical, mental and spiritual health, have low health literacy and die younger imbalance in favour of the than other Mäori. enforcement side of the Even with the Gang Action Plan in equation while the social place, progress to achieve improvements strategy is never properly for gang communities is glacial. Harry says it took four months to get an application resourced, prioritised for a parenting programme through or coordinated. government funding processes. Harry is hopeful E Tu Whänau’s KIM WORKMAN work will be given wider support. “There’s a growing appetite within Drugs are pouring in. these communities to try to do something I’m going to create borders. for themselves,” he says. No drugs are coming in. “You’ve got to believe these communities to his own. He adhered to the rules – some We’re going to build a want to change.” of them “bullshit”, some of them based on Change is exactly what Porirua-based good values – and today he is tasked with wall, you know what I’m Mob member Dennis Makalio is enforcing a rule his chapter takes very talking about. You have campaigning for. seriously: the pledge to be P-free. confidence in me. Believe The senior member of the Mongrel Like Harry Tam, Ryder is working with me, I will solve the Mob’s Rogue chapter is sick of waiting the E Tu Whänau programme. Ryder is for the government to provide help employed by a not-for-profit called CART problem. They will stop for communities impacted by meth. (Consulting, Advocacy and Research Trust), coming to New Hampshire. In desperation, Dennis and his wife and it’s this organisation that is running They’ll stop coming to Lizzie McMillan-Makalio (manager of the Black Power-supported film festival. Wesley Community Action in Waitangirua) One of the focuses CART outlines on our country. have established New Zealand ‘P’ Pull – its website is work with gangs: “We see US President elect Donald Trump a Facebook page aimed at drawing together them as gatherings of citizens who want echoes a little Dutch boy putting a community concerned about meth to to make a difference. We share the his finger in the dyke. collectively demand better detox and knowledge and insight that taps into rehab services. the underlying urge to realise their full Dennis Makalio hopes New Zealand potential, make real and lasting difference ‘P’ Pull will create enough political energy [in] the lives of their whänau, contribute It’s very different to influence government to focus on the to the community, and win acceptance than what we’ve been “clean up” of the social mess P has created. as productive tax-paying citizens.” “It left addicts everywhere, it left While Ryder attends and supports experiencing, you know, broken families … When one person is on the multi-community E Tu Whänau hui for the last 50 years. P, it affects the whole family and whänau.” organised by Harry, some in his gang are In late September, New Zealand ‘P’ Pull not comfortable sharing a meeting space The overnight change to the legal staged town hall-style meetings to make with Mongrel Mob. status of cannabis in California is mayoral candidates aware of the fallout Black Power-focused hui are under a shock to many, including Attorney from meth in their communities. At one way so those long-held rivalries don’t get Eric Shevin. such meeting in Porirua on September 28, in the way of people accessing support. heavily tattooed Dennis Makalio addressed Jarrod Gilbert says many in the ageing the crowd wearing a t-shirt that said patched gangs are working hard to reinvent “Don’t Meth Around”. People affected themselves as contributing members of Thank God I have by addiction spoke and politicians cried. society. As part of that, they’ve developed another way, aside from “It’s been right under their noses for a keen awareness of the ravages of drugs alcohol, to anaesthetize 16 years,” Makalio says. The New Zealand such as P and – as part of their new focus ‘P’ Pull campaign’s next target will be the on gang wellbeing – are taking steps myself for the next four 2017 general election. to support their members. years (or at least until ———— Given all they’ve seen in their gang I can come to terms It’s almost 30 years since Eugene careers, Gilbert says society should with what happened). Ryder earned his patch. He remembers probably take heed when gang leaders the motivations clearly. like Dennis Makalio decide it’s time Shari O’Connell of Santa Monica “When I joined Black Power, I wasn’t to launch a campaign against P. finds a silver lining following the going to something, I was getting away “When Mongrel Mob is starting 2016 elections. from something.” to say something is not good for you,” In the gang, he found men with Gilbert says, “we should all stand up backgrounds that were remarkably similar and take notice.”

www.drugfoundation.org.nz 13 FEATURE

Photo credit: www.flickr.com/photos/robertpaulyoung

14 matters of substance November 16 There’s something wrong with the sentences

Under the irrelevant and outdated Misuse of Drugs Act, cannabis penalties and convictions in New Zealand remain inconsistent, disproportionate, unjust and largely ineffective, especially for Ma¯ori. Catriona MacLennan looks at the facts and at why it’s seriously time to start afresh. CATRIONA MACLENNAN

iremu* was 15 She says only one employer in more appropriateness of the sentence when the Police than 14 years has been prepared to give imposed on van Gaalen, it would have first caught him her son a chance. Wiremu worked for quashed the jail term and imposed home with a tinnie. him for nine months before the boss detention instead. His age and the had a heart attack. The new employer When the case returned to the small amount of immediately sacked him. District Court, van Gaalen pleaded guilty W cannabis involved “He gets frustrated with job seeking. to possession for sale, having run out of meant he did some He has to go above and beyond to prove money and being so distraught by her community work and the matter was he can be a labourer, then he has to go experience that she wanted finality as resolved without him getting a conviction. and do drug testing on a regular basis. speedily as possible. The second time The outcome of his second encounter It’s like he’s caught and doesn’t know round, she was sentenced to 300 hours with drugs charges was vastly different. how to get out [of his situation]. of community work and five months’ Wiremu was 18 by that time, and the The worst thing is, he’s not on drugs. home detention. quantity of cannabis he had in his He learned his lesson.” The case ignited a furious public debate possession was presumed to be for supply, The case that has really galvanised on two issues. How could someone making so he was dealt with in the District Court public debate about drug laws and such a big contribution to the community and sentenced to two years’ jail. That was sentences over the past year is that of be tossed into jail without being given a 16 years ago, and his mother, Anahera,* New Zealander of the Year nominee, chance, and why had van Gaalen received says the conviction is still blighting community leader and mother of three, such a harsh penalty when others whose his life. Kelly van Gaalen. Police were called to offending appeared more serious had been “He did his time, and he came home. her home to investigate a home invasion given lighter sentences? I don’t know how many times he’s been and found 650 grams of cannabis in a Comparisons were made with other turned down for jobs because he’s got bucket and 29 grams in a plastic bag. cannabis cases in which people had drug convictions and people think he’s on Van Gaalen was convicted and avoided jail terms (see sidebar), and the drugs. He’s 34 now and he tells me, ‘Mum, sentenced to two years’ jail. She served inconsistency in punishments makes it would be better to go back to jail.’ He’s three months in prison before her it easy to understand the public outcry. been dragged through the system, and they conviction was quashed by the Court All of the examples in the sidebar clearly just won’t let it go. He’s repeatedly gone of Appeal and a retrial was ordered. involved commercial cannabis operations, back to jail because it’s the only place he The Court of Appeal said that, if it but in the van Gaalen case, the Police can get the freedom he’s looking for.” had been required to consider the admitted they were unable to find any

www.drugfoundation.org.nz 15 FEATURE

Barrister Michael Bott.

How could someone making such a big contribution to the community be tossed into jail without being given a chance, and why had van Gaalen received such a harsh penalty ...

Photo credit: Fairfax Media NZ. of the hallmarks of a cannabis operation “Dealers are not discouraged by these arrested and convicted and are less such as texts and a stash of cash. laws. They are thoroughly encouraged, likely to benefit from Police discretion. Barrister Michael Bott says there because they keep prices up. They are She describes this as discrimination that is “without doubt” a difference in what we need to maintain the drug breaches civil and human rights laws as sentencing outcomes in different parts economy. Denunciation doesn’t work. well as the Treaty of Waitangi. It also of New Zealand and that this can be Prohibition has never worked. We need to reinforces the social exclusion and attributed in part to the views of resident have a common-sense approach to this.” marginalisation of Mäori into “submerged judges in different locations. She says most people could obtain citizenship”, reducing their ability to Bott recently acted for a 21-year-old methamphetamine if they wanted to but participate fully in society. who was seeking a discharge without do not do so because they are educated “The big issue is either it’s an offence conviction for possession of equipment about its effects. She says criminalising on the books that’s prosecuted and applied used in the production or cultivation drugs glamorises them. equally to all citizens or it’s not. Being in of controlled drugs. The lawyer had “If we treated drugs as a health issue, the state of quasi-decriminalisation means we would not be branding children as there is room for discretion.” a “real battle” to obtain a discharge drug criminals. Decriminalisation would Quince, who is a Drug Foundation as that particular judge regards cannabis just completely depower it. It kills the board member, says it is at the point of as a gateway drug. black market dead. It would be the most discretion that racism and the negatives “A conviction would have affected incredible thing that could happen to associated with low socioeconomic [the defendant’s] whole life.” New Zealand. It would reduce burglaries status impact. Bott says harsh approaches to drug and violence, and Police would have the “I know numerous young Mäori and offending can break up families, and jail resources to deal with more serious issues Pasifika people who want to migrate to sentences ultimately increase the risk like domestic violence.” Australia to work in the mines, but they’re of reoffending. He acted for a couple New Zealand’s current cannabis prohibited because of historical drugs sentenced to jail in 2010. Their children regime impacts particularly – and convictions. That’s the convergence of had to be passed around to other family disproportionately – severely on Mäori. race and class issues.” members, and one child dropped out Mäori are more likely to be arrested and Quince’s views are echoed by of school, meaning that the parents’ convicted of cannabis offences than University of Auckland Associate Professor convictions had a lifelong impact on non-Mäori, with 34 percent of those of Sociology Tracey McIntosh of Ngäi that child. prosecuted in relation to cannabis Tühoe, who says differences in policing Whangarei barrister Kelly Ellis says being Mäori. and enforcement mean the impact of New Zealand’s drug problem has become University of Auckland Senior Law cannabis laws is felt disproportionately far worse since this country followed the Lecturer Khylee Quince of Te Roroa/ by Mäori. United States and launched its own war Ngäpuhi and Ngäti Porou says Mäori “The criminalisation of Class C drugs on drugs. are more likely to be stopped, searched, (which are legally determined to have a

16 matters of substance November 16 Kylee Quince, Senior Law Lecturer, University of Auckland

Decriminalisation ... would be the most incredible thing that could happen to New Zealand. It would reduce burglaries and violence, and Police would have the resources to deal with more serious issues like domestic violence.

KELLY ELLIS

moderate risk of harm) criminalises young Rotorua lawyer Annette Sykes would be to follow the UK lead, where if users and can mean they are more likely of Ngäti Pikiao says the current the defence can raise a reasonable doubt when accessing the drug to come in criminalisation of cannabis places about the purpose of possession, then it is contact with distribution networks young people who engage in low-level for the Crown to prove that the defendant including gang-associated networks offending on a conveyor belt towards intended to supply others.” and criminal networks that can put the more serious crime. She points to high Bott says the rebuttable presumption young person at greater levels of risk. imprisonment rates for Mäori women was introduced to secure more convictions. “Harm-reduction strategies are and says there is a failure to recognise “The difficulty is that you have people compromised by current legislation. the correlation between their drug use and with chronic pain who use significant I have met young people who have poverty, single parenting and other issues. amounts of cannabis. As a matter of first grown up in conditions of scarcity Our law has as its foundation a principle, everything should be beyond and deprivation where one of the presumption that people are innocent reasonable doubt. I can’t see as a matter only things in abundance is marijuana until proved guilty. In criminal cases, of principle that we should have a because homes are part of drug it is the state’s role to prove that guilt reverse onus.” distribution networks. Legalisation beyond reasonable doubt. But our drug Former Attorney-General Michael would reduce the black market and the laws turn those basic notions on their head. Cullen and current Attorney-General criminal networks associated with the The Misuse of Drugs Act provides Christopher Finlayson have both reported present illicit trade and the considerable that, if someone is found in possession to Parliament that the Misuse of Drugs profits it generates.” of 28 grams or more of cannabis, it is Act reverse onus is inconsistent and Dr McIntosh says the younger the age presumed that the cannabis is for supply. unjustifiable under the New Zealand at which people enter the prison system The onus then switches to the defendant Bill of Rights Act. the longer the negative impacts last. to try and counter that presumption. The Supreme Court in the 2007 case “The inability to secure employment University of Otago Professor of Law of Hansen v R considered the reverse due to a conviction that has resulted in Andrew Geddis describes the reverse onus in detail, handing down a 123-page a custodial sentence is likely to lead to presumption as an unjustifiable limit on judgment. A full court of five judges sat cumulative disadvantage and possible a person’s right to be presumed innocent on the case and concluded that it created long-term state benefit dependence. until proved guilty. an unjustified limit on the presumption Moreover, given that cannabis sentences “Requiring someone to show that they of innocence. A majority of the judges are often significantly less than two years, are not a criminal just because they have decided that the reverse onus was not the individual may not be eligible for any “too much” of a drug is an affront to basic rationally connected to the drug trafficking programme while they are incarcerated, principles of our criminal justice system. harm it was designed to cure or was not meaning that an opportunity for At the least, the threshold for any such a proportionate response to the problem. meaningful intervention and presumption ought to be much, much Chief Justice Sian Elias said making engagement is lost.” higher than at present. But even better it easier to secure convictions was not a

www.drugfoundation.org.nz 17 FEATURE

Chief Justice Sian Elias has been critical of the reverse onus of proof in the Misuse of Drugs Act.

Photo credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Nick-D principled basis for imposing a reverse should be created for personal possession onus of proof. …there’s not a single, and use offences. “It is difficult to see that evidential This would involve Police issuing a difficulties for the prosecution in the solitary chance that as long caution notice when a personal possession present case could not have been as I’m the Minister of Justice, and use offence was detected. The drugs sufficiently addressed by a presumption we’ll be relaxing drug laws would be confiscated, educational material of fact, which leaves the onus of proof in New Zealand. would be provided and details of support on the prosecution. It is not at all clear services and treatment providers would be that there is any principled basis upon given. Caution notices would only be issued EX MINISTER SIMON POWER which the risk of non-persuasion and when users acknowledged responsibility therefore the risk of wrongful conviction for their offences. Users would receive a is properly transferred to someone specified number of caution notices, accused of drug dealing.” depending on the class of drug. It was the reverse onus that caught The paper recommended a statutory van Gaalen and led to her receiving presumption against imprisonment in such a heavy sentence after her first trial. – A Review of the Misuse of Drugs Act cases of social dealing, provided the The amount of cannabis found was more 1975. It noted the Misuse of Drugs Act was offending was not motivated by profit. than 28 grams, and it was accordingly 35 years old and had been developed in the The presumption should apply to all presumed that it was not for personal use. 1970s when the hippie counterculture was dealing offences and all drug classes Evidence supporting van Gaalen’s at its height and the illegal drugs of choice but should not apply when the dealing version of events emerged during the were cannabis, cocaine, opiates and was to persons under 18. Crown case, including admissions by the psychedelics like LSD. The Commission In relation to the reverse onus of proof, Police that there was no evidence either said far more was known now about how the Commission suggested the offence of of text messages normally associated with drug harms could be reduced, but the Act possession for supply should be replaced cannabis dealing or of instruments such as continued to treat drug use mainly as a with an aggravated possession offence. scales used to weigh cannabis. However, matter of criminal policy rather than as This should be defined by reference to the the trial judge made repeated mistakes in a health issue. quantity of drugs possessed, which should explaining the law to the jury. He did not The Commission recommended be set on a drug-by-drug basis. An expert properly explain the reverse onus of proof, repealing the Misuse of Drugs Act and advisory committee should advise the and he said van Gaalen could not rely on replacing it with a new law administered government on the quantities of drugs cross-examination showing a lack of direct by the Ministry of Health. It proposed that would comprise aggravated and evidence of her having sold cannabis. that it should no longer be an offence to simple possession. In 2011, the Law Commission released possess utensils for the purpose of using The National Drug Policy 2015 to 2020 a report, Controlling and Regulating Drugs drugs. A mandatory cautioning scheme sets out the government’s approach to

18 matters of substance November 16 Andrew Geddis, Professor of Law, University of Otago. Minister of Justice, we’ll be relaxing drug New Zealand’s three-yearly laws in New Zealand”. electoral cycle and the desire Current Justice Minister Amy Adams declined to provide any response at all by politicians to outbid each to a detailed list of questions submitted other to appear tough on law to her for this story. and order weigh heavily JustSpeak spokesperson Julia against major moves to adopt Whaipooti of Ngäti Porou supports the Law Commission’s recommendations a more constructive approach and says cannabis should be treated as a to cannabis. health issue rather than a criminal justice matter. She says the current regime has long-term impacts on people’s lives and is ineffective at preventing harm. In particular, the stigma of cannabis convictions impacts on young people’s ability to obtain jobs for the rest of their lives. alcohol and other drug issues, with the “It actually does nothing to deter goal of minimising harm and promoting harm and create safety for the community. and protecting health and wellbeing. The purposes of going through the criminal It is supposed to be the guiding document justice system are not served by convicting for policies and practices responding to people for minor drug use.” drug issues, with the government using JustSpeak points out that, between it to prioritise resources and assess the 1994 and 2011, the rate of prosecution for effectiveness of actions taken by agencies young people caught with drugs almost and frontline services. However, its health doubled. In 1994, the figure was 5.5 percent, and harm-minimisation approaches run while in 2011, it was 10.5 percent. Of the directly counter to the Misuse of Drugs 1,019 drug possession or use offences in Act’s focus on crime and punishment. 2011 for 10 to 16-year-olds, 989 (97 percent) The policy requires the government related to cannabis. JustSpeak says the in 2017/18 to “develop options for further data points towards the exercise of Police minimising harm in relation to the offence discretion changing. and penalty regime for personal possession Those outcomes for young people run within the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975”. counter to the general trend of reduced The Law Commission’s report was arrests and convictions for minor drug published five and a half years ago, but offending. Between 2011 and 2015, the its core recommendations have not been number of people convicted of possession implemented. The government has acted or use of illicit drugs or drug utensils fell on the suggestions relating to psychoactive from 4,997 to 3,140. substances, and the Ministry of Health is The figures for young people are currently reviewing the law relating to particularly disturbing because the impact drug utensils. A July 2016 discussion of drug convictions stays with them for document suggests there could in future the rest of their lives. The Clean Slate either be an “enhanced status quo”, which law applies only if people have not had would continue the prohibition on utensils convictions in the past seven years, have but reduce criminal penalties, or the ban not been sentenced to jail and are within could be replaced by regulations aimed New Zealand, so young people planning at informing and reducing harm. to travel to Australia for a fresh start still However, New Zealand’s three-yearly have to declare their drug convictions. electoral cycle and the desire by politicians Quince is calling for a full review to outbid each other to appear tough on of the Misuse of Drugs Act. law and order weigh heavily against major “Martin Crowe was not prosecuted moves to adopt a more constructive [for using cannabis]. The elephant in the approach to cannabis. room is that certain people are never going Then Justice Minister Simon Power to be stopped, prosecuted, convicted or could not move speedily enough to pour punished. The harm to Mäori communities cold water on the Law Commission’s is huge. I don’t know whether we want suggestions and rule out any relaxation to decriminalise. We want to review, of drug laws, saying “there’s not a single, but there has to be a holistic approach. solitary chance that as long as I’m the The hundreds of millions of dollars spent

www.drugfoundation.org.nz 19 FEATURE

“The use (and abuse) of drugs is first the approach: not being soft on crime but Criminalising drug taking and foremost a public health issue with doing something that works rather than which the criminal law ought to have criminalising young people for the rest of to stop the problem of very little to do. Criminalising drug taking their lives at an early age … I’ve had cases addiction is like making sex to stop the problem of addiction is like again and again where people lose jobs illegal for under 20-year-olds making sex illegal for under 20-year-olds because of drug convictions even if they in order to prevent teenagers in order to prevent teenagers getting STDs.” are just for cannabis. If we decriminalise, Geddis says the social harm done by that takes the stigma away and you can getting STDs. stigmatising drug users as “criminals” look at what actually works. I see so many and burdening them with convictions young people who use cannabis socially ANDREW GEDDIS that radically limit their future options and get convictions and then become is far greater than any benefit gained from almost unemployable.” reducing harmful drug taking. Community Law Centres see many “We also need to be aware that lots and people suffering discrimination years or lots of New Zealanders (myself included) decades after receiving drug convictions. have possessed and used drugs without Te Tai Tokerau Community Law Centre suffering any harm from doing so. The state manager Dr Carol Peters says people with has no more justification labelling such drug convictions face major difficulties people “criminals” than it does in obtaining jobs. She would like to see criminalising mountain climbing on the alternatives to criminalisation more widely basis that this is a risky pastime that kills available, particularly Iwi or Community some of those who engage in it. If there Justice Panels, which address the causes on trying to control cannabis needs to be are dangers associated with taking drugs, of behaviour and provide an element of spent on education and harm reduction.” then minimise those dangers (by letting restorative justice. Sykes says cannabis-related offending people know what they are taking) and A Community Justice Panel was set should be treated as a health issue, and concentrate on providing help and care up in Christchurch in 2010, and three there should be a change of focus away for those who become addicted to them.” Iwi Justice Panels have subsequently been from criminal justice and towards Bott supports implementation of the established in other locations. The panels providing psychological and psychiatric Law Commission’s recommendations are a joint initiative between Police and services, whänau support and education. and is another who believes cannabis local communities, which aims to hold Geddis emphatically states that the should be regarded as a health issue. people to account and produce positive Misuse of Drugs Act is no longer fit for “The trouble is there is not the political outcomes. Community Law Canterbury purpose and the whole focus of drug law will at the moment to do that. You are seen Manager Paul O’Neill has been heavily is misconceived. as soft on law and order. It’s a question of involved with the Christchurch panel

20 matters of substance November 16 Commercial cannabis convictions punished more lightly than van Gaalen

■ In December 2012, Neil Phillips, who was caught in an undercover Police sting targeting drug dealers and pleaded guilty to six charges of selling cannabis and six of possessing cannabis for supply, was sentenced to 12 months’ home detention.

■ In May 2013, Anthony Blair was sentenced to three months’ community detention and 100 hours’ community work after being convicted of one charge of selling cannabis and one charge of possessing it for supply.

■ In June 2013, Israeli tourists Daniel and Hadas Surdri were discharged without conviction after being found with 54 harvested cannabis plants, a master and says the results have been impressive, change looks like, particularly from plant and six kilograms of dried particularly in terms of reducing a Mäori community perspective, is going cannabis and pleading guilty to recidivism. More than 600 cases have to be part of our challenge.” cultivation charges. been dealt with in Christchurch, with He points to Portugal where people three community representatives sitting caught with a small quantity of an illegal ■ In October 2013, Sheryl Kingi was on each panel. The panels can be tailored drug for personal use are referred to a sentenced to nine months’ home to provide the expertise required in each local Commission for Dissuasion of Drug detention after being caught running case, for example, mental health or Addiction. The commissions consist of a commercial cannabis operation with drug knowledge. a lawyer, a doctor and a social worker. $108,000 worth of cannabis plants. A shift away from locking people up Sanctions can be applied, but the main is something Gilbert Taurua says will aim is to explore the need for treatment ■ In November 2014, Thomas O’Hara, overturn what can be the lifelong impacts and to promote healthy recovery. one of eight people arrested for drug of drug convictions. Taurua, who started Whatever route things take, change dealing over five months, was sentenced at the Drug Foundation earlier in 2016 can’t come soon enough for those who to seven months’ home detention and as Senior Adviser, Mäori Liaison and have witnessed the debilitating aftermath 150 hours’ community work following of a conviction. Wiremu’s mother, Advocacy, looks at the high rates of convictions for offering to supply cannabis Anahera, who has seen the impact of a Mäori incarceration for minor drug and possessing cannabis for supply. offences and queries what they mean drug conviction last more than a decade after the sentence was completed, says for people’s future employment prospects. ■ In 2015, Ian Cole was sentenced to radical change is needed. He says jail sentences for Mäori do not nine months’ home detention and appear to reduce the prevalence of drugs. “They’re living in a dream world 150 hours’ community work on charges Taurua, of Ngäpuhi, Ngäti Kawa/Te if they think their laws are working at of possessing cannabis for supply, Atihaunui Päpärangi and Ngäti Pämoana, ground level. Anyone at the Beehive possessing LSD and cannabis cultivation. is leading an advocacy campaign called should come up here and see what’s “Tautäwhihia. Kaua e whiu” (Support. happening. They need to do something ■ In September 2016, Bridget Smith Don’t Punish). because we’ve got strong, healthy men pleaded guilty to three charges of Instead of using the strong arm of rotting in our jails. Where’s the justice supplying or offering to supply Class A the law, Taurua says we need to look at in it?” drugs, Class B ecstasy and Class C international developments for models. *Names have been changed to protect identities. “I think we need to learn about what cannabis and was sentenced to five is happening overseas to inform what we Catriona MacLennan is an Auckland-based month’s home detention and 200 need to do in New Zealand. It’s like the journalist and author who has practised in hours’ community work. momentum is growing, and we know a broad range of legal fields. change needs to happen, but what that

www.drugfoundation.org.nz 21 FEATURE

Hepatitis C – new hope on the horizon

PHARMAC has recently started funding new drugs that have amazing curative effects for more than half of people in New Zealand with hepatitis C. The wait continues for those for whom the drugs are not suitable, but there may

be good news on the horizon. Russell Brown reports. RUSSELL BROWN

Photo credit: prx.org

22 matters of substance November 16 Ed Gane, Deputy Director of the Liver Transplant Unit at Auckland City Hospital.

It’s one of the things that stops them coming into hospitals because people make punitive judgements. People catch hep C predominantly through intravenous drug use, and there’s a lot of stigma around that.

Photo credit: Auckland District Health Board.

n 10 August last to the genotype of the virus with which “We’ve gone from treating around year, PHARMAC patients were infected. 250 patients a year to 500 in the first two published an RFP It’s safe to conclude that PHARMAC months,” says Gane. “On current numbers, seeking feedback was unable to agree an acceptable deal we’re likely to treat about 3,000 a year, on a plan to with Gilead, which has opted for a which is a 12 to 15-fold increase in the fund hepatitis C high-price strategy on its DAAs in an first year.” O treatment with attempt to recoup its development cost Part of the reason for the uptake is that a new generation before they are outmoded. It turned the safety and relatively low monitoring of direct-acting antiviral drugs (DAAs) instead to another supplier, AbbVie, and requirements of the DAAs allow for care in in the year to come. Given that patients is now fully funding treatment with the the community rather than hospital clinics. experience DAAs functionally as a miracle AbbVie drug combination VIEKIRA PAK. “We’ve had about 120 patients with cure with few side-effects – but at the But VIEKIRA PAK can only treat genotype 1 come forward for treatment same time they cost at least $80,000 for genotypes 1 and 1a of the virus, which here at the liver unit,” says Gane. a 12-week course of pills – it was an account for about 55 percent of the “Of those, because we attract the exciting step. 50,000 New Zealanders with hep C. sickest patients, around half have cirrhosis The agency noted the clear It will not cure patients with genotypes or other significant complications where it recommendation of its Pharmacology 2–6. Treatment for the latter group wouldn’t be safe to treat them in the and Therapeutics Advisory Committee with Gilead’s Harvoni (ledipasvir with community. Everyone else, the other half, that two medicines containing Gilead sofosbuvir) will only be funded if they we’ve said ‘Would you like to go back to Sciences’ sofosbuvir should be funded are in the final stages of liver disease with your GP?’, and every one of them has said with a “high priority” for the most fully decompensated cirrhosis. At that yes. So we have not treated them – we’ve seriously ill hep C patients, including stage, their life expectancy is short. sent them back to their GPs to be treated. those either side of a liver transplant. “How many people would meet those “So we’ve made a decision early on The committee had recommended only criteria? I’d say about 50 people a year,” that, if we’re going to eliminate hepatitis C, a “low priority” for the rest of the 50,000 says Ed Gane, Deputy Director of the Liver we need to get GP input, we need to get New Zealanders infected with hep C – Transplant Unit at Auckland City Hospital. them to endorse us. And the best way to a decision it said was “based solely “You’re talking about 0.1 percent. do that is to send them back some easy on fiscal risk”. It’s pretty small. But if PHARMAC hadn’t patients to treat so they can see it can be What actually happened was done this deal with AbbVie, I think we’d done. It’s a wonderful thing to be able to completely different. still be treating only a tiny percentage.” offer somebody who has a chronic disease PHARMAC subsequently announced Gane is not alone. Dunedin-based a cure. It provides satisfaction for them, it would allocate funding priority not peer advocate Hazel Heal describes but it also provides satisfaction for the on the basis of the severity or stage of the PHARMAC’s decision as “morally right”. GP so he or she will look for other people liver disease hep C causes but according And it is already showing results. to treat.”

www.drugfoundation.org.nz 23 FEATURE

Australians can access fully funded hepatitis C medicines, following an inquiry by the Federal Parliament’s Standing Committee on Health.

Photo credit: Steve Irons, MP.

GPs have been allowed to prescribe A pilot staged this year in Auckland practitioner – if you’re working in an DAAs since 1 October 2016, but the has achieved very different results. Nurse isolated area of the country, provided process of bringing them up to speed Victoria Oliver, who had been working in you’ve been accredited through training, on the use of the new drugs continues. opioid substitution services, was recruited you can prescribe. Gane and Catherine Stedman of the by Gane to run a clinic room at the East “What their government has said is, University of Otago have created an Street needle exchange. if you want to get rid of hep C, you have explanatory document for doctors’ “There’s a plinth, a bed to lie on and to remove all the barriers to treatment professional bodies, the medical a washbasin. We take the portable fibre – and one of the biggest barriers is still information service bpacnz recently scanner down there two days a week. having to come to hospital. There are published a step-by-step guide for GPs And over the few months she’s been there, many populations who have high rates and Gane wrote a detailed guide for Victoria has already had 60 people come of hep C who are marginalised from the most recent Hepatitis Foundation in and be diagnosed. She’s interviewed treatment because they either can’t newsletter. Gane expects to continue a lot more than that.” or won’t come to hospital clinics. talking to doctors in person. Oliver describes the pilot as “a service “And if you are ever going to eliminate But the most significant step – one within the client’s setting, where they hep C, you should prioritise for treatment specifically allowed for in the Ministry feel comfortable. They’re people who the people who are still transmitting the of Health’s rollout – may yet be delivery are often stigmatised and ostracised virus. You shouldn’t be marginalising through needle exchanges and community because of health professionals’ belief and not treating them. They should be alcohol and drug services, and that and subsequently their own perceptions. amongst the first lot you treat.” requires the engagement and support of It’s one of the things that stops them peer workers. Gane said that lesson was coming into hospitals because people The problem, at least for the next year learned in pilots run via district health make punitive judgements. People or two, when new drugs are expected, boards in the Bay of Plenty and the catch hep C predominantly through is that there is no PHARMAC-funded Wellington region from 2011 to 2014. intravenous drug use, and there’s a treatment for the very large majority of “Over three years, they tried to engage lot of stigma around that.” the 22,000 people infected with genotypes at needle exchanges – and they couldn’t. Gane says the outreach was 2–6. The option for them is to import far They went in as an external organisation inspired by the approach of the cheaper generic medicines, but there are without any engagement with peer workers Australian Government. problems with that in some parts of the who worked there, and over the three years, “They’ve done a fantastic job in getting country (see sidebar), and many people the number of people they managed to treatment outside the hospitals. And that’s in the infected cohort cannot afford even enrol and test – not treat – could be based on a lot of work that several NGOs the $1,500–2,000 cost of generics. Oliver counted on one hand across the two have done in Australia, previously for says around a quarter of the patients regions. It was an abject failure.” HIV. You don’t even have to be a general she has diagnosed are in that category.

24 matters of substance November 16 It’s a wonderful thing to Generic DAAs are okay be able to offer somebody who has a chronic disease a has not changed” and “Southern DHB cure. It provides satisfaction clinicians do not write prescriptions for for them, but it also provides the hepatitis C treatments you refer to as they are unlicensed medications”. satisfaction for the GP so he He described the medications sourced or she will look for other by Fix Hep C, which are manufactured people to treat. under licence from Gilead and others in India, as “copycat generics”. ED GANE The disagreement centres largely on the standard letter Medsafe provides for importation of unapproved medicines, Photo credit: Otago Daily Times / Peter McIntosh. which includes a boilerplate warning that The country’s leading hepatitis C unapproved medicines could be counterfeit specialist, the Society of or contain harmful substances. Whether Gastroenterology, the Hepatitis that warning applies to the Fix Hep C Foundation and Europe’s leading liver process, which is associated with the study organisation endorse the use of ‘Redemption’ trial operated by Freeman and generic DAAs for hep C patients not supported by the European Association for eligible for PHARMAC-funded treatment. the Study of the Liver, is another matter. So why is the Southern District Health “I can’t understand that,” says Ed Gane of Board (DHB) refusing to tell its patients the Southern DHB’s stance. generics are even an option? “We certainly prescribe plenty here. If you –––– have genotypes other than genotype 1, A year ago, Hazel Heal was told her liver was you should at least have the option of deteriorating rapidly. The hepatitis C-related paying for your own treatment, which “They can’t even borrow it, it’s cirrhosis she’d borne for 18 years – and includes generic. And I think the only just not in the realm of possibility,” through two punishing and unsuccessful ethical thing to do if you are testing for Heal agrees. “There has to be an option courses of interferon – was on the verge hep C is to have that discussion. for those people. There are people I can’t of decompensation, and she needed “If we see someone diagnosed with help who, for want of $1,500, are going treatment urgently. genotype 3, we’ll say, ‘Sorry, but VIEKIRA to remain unproductive and unable She had already called a real estate agent PAK will not work for you, we expect that to work. about selling her house to pay for DAA PHARMAC will have a treatment funded “The Ministry of Health can’t buy treatment when she heard about the Fix for you within the next one to two years. these generics, but in the meantime, Hep C Buyers Club, the generics-importing But in the interim, if you really want to be I really think that the Ministry of Social scheme founded by Tasmanian Greg Jefferys. treated, you can import your own generics.’ Development could pay for people. It would She sought a prescription from Tasmanian And I would refer them to the Fix Hep C be a huge saving for the government in the doctor James Freeman, travelled to Australia Buyers Club.” long run. It addresses genotypes 2–6 in a to pick up her medication – and was cured. Although the monitoring requirements really cheap way. They’re just paying the She now helps Jefferys with club for DAAs are relatively low, Gane says a patient back for their treatment in the way administration and does “a lot of letter local prescription (which Medsafe requires that they might for counselling. writing and media interviews”. anyway) is important. He has written a “$1,500 is the cost of a life – and every This year, she wrote to Southern DHB Chief detailed guide to importing DAAs via Fix day of a life from this moment forward.” Executive Carol Heatly urging the Southern Hep C, including recommendations on Oliver describes the experience of DHB to amend its policy of not presenting the best drug combinations for different offering infected people such an effective generics as an option for patients not genotypes, in the latest Hepatitis treatment as “fantastic, amazing. It’s lovely covered by PHARMAC. Heatly replied that, Foundation newsletter. to be able to provide people with hope – if the DHB “were to promote a drug that Gane is far more wary of generics and a cure. To be able to cure a virus like was unlicensed, was not manufactured by manufactured in China and Bangladesh, this – I graduated in 1986, and it’s the current patent holder (and so therefore which lack the facilities to make the something you hardly ever hear of.” completely unable to be registered in ledipasvir component of Gilead’s Harvoni There is more to come in this story. New Zealand)”, it would be in breach of product, which helps absorption from Gane says there are two or three drug its obligations. In a subsequent letter to the gut. But he says the 11 manufacturers combinations in trials that will hopefully Heal, she wrote that it would be “futile” producing under licence in India, where be funded by PHARMAC and will be to discuss the issue further. Fix Hep C sources, are a different matter. “the same medicine, the same duration Heatly has since left her role, but her “These are the same medicines that for everyone, regardless of genotype successor Chris Fleming confirmed to Gilead is making in the States. They’re or stage of disease. And that’s going Matters of Substance that “our position good medicines.” to make things so much easier.”

www.drugfoundation.org.nz 25 NEW APPROACHES TO DRUGS

Cannabis-based lotions, patches, bath salts, jelly babies, chocolates, acne treatments, lip balms, toothpastes and toothpicks are all now on sale in Colorado dispensaries. This wild-west reborn offering to meet every conceivable consumer choice has grown rapidly since cannabis was legalised in 2014. It’s seen as an economic bonanza by many and as an unhinged experiment Population 2016: by others. It’s too soon to say what the long-term health 5.4m effects will be. The situation In 2000, Colorado voters approved a ballot allowing cannabis to be used for medical purposes. Registered patients were permitted to grow and possess the drug. Twelve years later, Amendment 64 allowing legal access to recreational cannabis was passed. The yes vote gained 54.8 percent support and the no vote 45.1 percent. Legal sales were permitted from 1 January 2014 through a state-wide licensing system – 209 of Colorado’s 271 cities and towns and 42 of its 64 counties have not put in place recreational cannabis regulations.

New THC warning sign

From 1 October 2016, all cannabis products must be labelled with this warning sign.

If I had that magic wand Colorado: now, I don’t know if I would wave it. It’s beginning to Free market in pot booming, look like it might work. GOVERNOR JOHN HICKENLOOPER (REPORTEDLY, AFTER BEING OPPOSED health impacts unknown TO LEGALISATION EARLY ON)

26 matters of substance November 16 Outlets Price Cannabis use rates Licensed medical cannabis businesses $9.98 per gram (December 2015) Usage in past 30 days by high school students Dispensaries 528 Down by 31 percent from January 2014 2009 24.8 percent Cultivations 797 (starting price $14.82 per gram) 2011 22 percent Manufacturers 242 Legalisation Outcomes: Colorado two years in – presentation 2015 21.5 percent Testing facilities 14 by Adam Orens, Marijuana Policy Group Healthy Kids Colorado Survey Cannabis offences Licensed retail cannabis businesses Usage in past 30 days by 18 years and older Stores 450 Cannabis offences and offence rate in 18–25 years 26 years and over Cultivations 596 Colorado 2012–2014 2006 23 percent 6.5 percent Manufacturers 208 10,000 2014 31 percent 12 percent Testing facilities 15 9,000 8,000 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, administered 7,000 Marijuana Enforcement Division, Colorado Department of by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Revenue 6,000 5,000 Administration 4,000 Economic impacts 3,000 Past month cannabis use (percentage) 2,000 1,000 25 Tax take 0 10-17 years 18-20 years 21 years + 20 USD $135 million 2012 2013 2014 Comprising 2.5 percent sales tax, 15 Colorado Department of Public Safety, Marijuana 10 percent special cannabis sales tax, Legalization in Colorado: Early Findings, A Report Pursuant 10 15 percent excise tax on wholesale to Senate Bill 13-283 (2016) transfers plus local taxes. 5 Cannabis offences and offence rate in 0 Allocation: $20 million to regulation and Colorado 2012–2014 per 100,000 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Male Total Female National public safety, $40 million for rural schools, population $75 million youth drug prevention and National Survey on Drug Use and Health, administered treatment programmes. 550 by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services 500 Administration Sales 450 400 350 Public opinion, November 2015 350 300 300 250 Do you support or oppose the law 250 200 legalising cannabis for recreational use? 200 150 USD 100 150 50 55 percent support 100 0 White Hispanic African-American 41 percent oppose 50 2012 2013 2014 0 Quinnipiac University Poll 1st Q 2nd Q 3rd Q 4th Q 1st Q 2nd Q 3rd Q 4th Q 1st Q 2nd Q 2014 2014 2014 2014 2015 2015 2015 2015 2016 2016 Colorado Department of Public Safety, Marijuana Recreational Medical Legalization in Colorado: Early Findings, A Report Pursuant to Senate Bill 13-283 (2016) Colorado Department of Revenue The black market is still Revenue generated booming. 2014 $700 million 2015 $995 million COMMANDER JAMES HENNING, DENVER 2016 $1.35 billion (estimated) POLICE DEPARTMENT

None of the bad things The jury is still out The legalisation of that are likely to happen if as to whether this was recreational cannabis use this thing goes badly would a good idea. in the United States is a large- have happened yet. CYNTHIA COFFMAN, COLORADO’S scale public health experiment ATTORNEY GENERAL PROFESSOR MARK A R KLEIMAN whose outcomes may be unclear for a decade. WAYNE HALL AND MICHAEL LYNSKEY, ADDICTION

www.drugfoundation.org.nz 27 DRUG HISTORY IN NEW ZEALAND

REDMER YSKA

28 matters of substance November 16 ARTICLE 03

with a form of the drug known as Pervitin, Department to impose “some sort of control allowing them to stay awake (and conduct on the sale of slimming pills and that they be P: blitzkrieg) for 50 hours in a row. American made available only on medical prescription”. pilots meanwhile began to swallow ‘pep pills’ Amphetamine, now famously nicknamed New Zealand’s newly marketed as ‘methamphetamine’ by ‘speed’, meanwhile became the drug of choice global drug manufacturer Burroughs Wellcome. for disaffected post-war youth after use of P history After the war, the pharmaceutical Benzedrine inhalers appeared in books like industry ratcheted up its promotion of Jack Kerouac’s On The Road. Kiwi ‘beats’ amphetamine, at times making bizarre claims. seeking black bombers (Dexedrine) and In 1946, the weekly newspaper Truth quoted ampoules of liquid methamphetamine a drug company boss stating the drug used began appearing in doctors’ waiting rooms. by the Army during the war to “pep up” In 1960, an amendment to the Poisons Redmer Yska traces fliers on long bombing missions was an Act placed the first formal restrictions on the development of “antidote for would-be suicides”, and it amphetamine, a class of drugs increasing seen was freshly branded as the slimming drug as having no place in medicine. A conference amphetamine manufacture of post-war suburbia. of the Australian and New Zealand and its history of use in In 1949, New Zealand drug companies, Association for the Advancement of Science like their counterparts in Britain and held in Canberra heard of the drugs causing New Zealand. America, began aggressively marketing pure “addiction, madness and murder”. amphetamine as an appetite suppressant. By the mid 1960s, a moral panic about The negative consequences of prolonged drug abuse took hold in New Zealand, The current amphetamine epidemic, with its use were, however, becoming clear. Reports following a mounting number of prosecutions kitchen sink product and chaotic victims, is emerged among long-term users of “sinister for imported cannabis and LSD. An epidemic often painted as an ugly new phenomenon – voices emanating from toilet bowls” and of injecting pharmaceutical Methedrine but New Zealand’s love affair with the drug “spies following one’s every move”. among young people in America and Great dates back more than half a century. The local branch of Burroughs Wellcome Britain was also mirrored here, but it received Problems with abuse of legal began promoting Dexedrine, a ‘safe’ slimming mostly scant publicity. amphetamine first came to light after World aid that reduced a patient’s appetite by A turning point came in 1969 as a visiting War Two when a form of the drug became half. Headlines like “Dexedrine Can be British medical professor described doctors available over the counter in local chemist Dangerous”, however, appeared in local prescribing amphetamine-type drugs for shops. By the early 1970s, a full-blown newspapers, as chemists reported local patients who wished to lose weight as ‘meth’ outbreak saw the flailing authorities stocks of the tablets were quickly exhausted. guilty of malpractice. Health Department ban the drug outright, ordering national In 1950, Health Minister Hugh Watts was officials, finally conceding there was stocks destroyed. sharply questioned in Parliament after “recent evidence of misuse of Methedrine”, How could it happen here? Amphetamine chemists raised concerns about the rush insisted a crackdown was coming. had already been synthesised by 1919, but of demand for the stimulant. However, another year passed before American drug companies got cracking in the A Wellington chemist and member of Burroughs Wellcome, which had aggressively 1930s with the discovery of its decongestant the Pharmacy Board said Dexedrine had been marketed amphetamine for decades, finally properties. This was the remarkable “brain the subject of representations to the Health withdrew both Dexedrine and Methedrine. drug” that enlarged nasal passages and Department. “Certain types obviously are A senior Christchurch policeman called stimulated the central nervous system. susceptible to it and an overdose obviously Methedrine our “most abused prescription It was first marketed in the USA as the can be harmful. It is not in the public interest poisons drug”. Benzedrine Inhaler, a tube containing a strip that the drug should be sold too freely or It took two more years for the Health soaked in 325 mg of viscous amphetamine taken too freely.” Department to draw up regulations to ban base and little else. In 1939, Benzedrine was A relaxed Minister Watt confirmed that amphetamines, finally restricting their classified locally as a first schedule poison, a medical prescription was not required to supply to hospital pharmacies. Destruction available from pharmacies like Burberry obtain the drug, but if circumstances arose of the country’s remaining supplies began and Blinkhorn in Lower Hutt, sold over that made it necessary or desirable, the drug in the Auckland warehouses of Burroughs the counter for about $25. would be declared a prescription poison by Wellcome. As part of the new controls, The stimulant’s ability to promote an amendment to the Poisons Regulations. local chemists were given three months endurance and weight loss and even, Through the 1950s, local amphetamine to clear stocks. apparently, cure depression deepened use continued unchecked and virtually The extent of local prescribing and its popularity. But it was always lethal. unregulated, as new varieties such as the use may never be known. The Ministry In 1939, New Zealand author Robyn Hyde Burroughs Wellcome global brand Methedrine of Health refused to release related archival killed herself in London from a Benzedrine came on the market. This is the same product records for this article, citing privacy overdose. At the time, the coroner noted the now illegally manufactured as ‘P’ or Pure. considerations. But a clue to the scope drug “which had the effect of clearing the In 1955, the ‘pep pills’ issue came to a of our legal amphetamine story lies on mind” was “often taken by students who head with the death of a New Zealand shearer page 178 of the 1973 report of the Drug were going to sit examinations”. who’d taken Benzedrine to boost his strength Dependency and Drug Abuse Committee. World War Two saw amphetamine for an attempt at the world shearing record. The figure for those using prescribed becoming the drug of choice for combatants In 1956, the annual conference of hospital stimulant drugs on any particular day on both sides. German troops were issued matrons at Invercargill urged the Health in 1971 was put at “4800 persons”.

www.drugfoundation.org.nz 29 GUEST EDITORIAL

Sorry … but we just can’t wait around

Rethinking the mental health and addictions system and describing what success would look like is not a job for the faint hearted. Setting aside the many dramatic headlines, those working in community-based organisations are getting serious about transformation of this vital landscape. Platform Trust Chief Executive Marion Blake outlines the issues and the NGO sector response. MARION BLAKE

e know that the Stories are almost weekly now about organisations or NGOs. In fact, more number of people system failures, underfunding of services people are seen by addiction NGOs than accessing mental resulting in closures or service reductions by district health board (DHB) services, health and and the rising suicide statistics that put yet with the majority of their funding addiction services New Zealand in the international spotlight. coming from government, community increases year on In response, there have been calls for a organisations have continued to W year. In 2014, national review of the mental health and experience turbulent times. there were 158,313 addictions system by MPs, the media and One of the most recent organisations (nearly 4 percent of the population), but many others. to speak out was a mental health and that number doesn’t include the people It is true that demand pressures and addictions community provider that on long waiting lists or those who don’t underfunding are affecting the ability of is looking at a deficit of hundreds of meet the criteria to receive services, and non-government organisations (NGOs) thousands dollars, citing increasing it doesn’t tell the stories of those who to support New Zealanders. Much of the day-to-day costs, additional contracts received services but for whom the mental health and addictions support and a lack of funding. NGOs have come system failed. services provided are through community and gone in New Zealand society since

30 matters of substance November 16 early colonial days and have had to be to operate. Almost one year on, a second “Hauora Tairäwhiti launched a process flexible and resilient over the years. Tahatü Rangi symposium is being held in September 2015 to work with other The population NGOs work with is in Wellington to take the ideas presented community health partners, focusing on often poorly served by the education, in On Track and at the first symposium how to create health care services closer medical and social welfare systems and from concept to practice. The themes of to people’s homes and closer to a model overserved by the criminal justice system the 2016 symposium are co-design and that meets people’s needs. – 40 percent of people charged in court collaboration, signalling that, despite “The co-design process will involve receive mental health services. Inequality growing pressure for NGOs to perform patients, families, staff, health providers, and poverty are increasingly being and report as competitive businesses in government agencies, council, iwi and understood as insidious issues that have a market, this strongly values-driven sector community exploring new models of how a long-term impact on people’s lives and needs to join the system up to provide the health care is provided for our people. wellbeing as well as on the productivity services New Zealanders require. The aim is to improve the patient and reputation of the country. The social While redesigning a system seems experience and achieve better health cost of drug-related harms and daunting, the culminated ideas expressed outcomes. There will always be a hospital interventions in 2014/15 was estimated at in On Track address priority areas for in Gisborne but the focus is on moving $1.8 billion according to the New Zealand action that can be undertaken at a personal, away from hospital-based care towards Drug Harm Index, and according to the organisational, regional and system-wide care closer to home.” World Health Organization, depression is level. One of the authors describes her It would be easy for other districts to the leading cause of disability in the world. hope that the document is the metaphorical put this example to one side as a model Addiction and mental health are no longer stone going into a pond and that the that works in a smaller regional community confined to being ‘health’ issues and are actions ripple out from it in all directions. but one that can’t translate in a larger or increasingly viewed as symptomatic of This is not another document to sit on a more urban area. However, the international a system that is failing to show up. shelf, it is a plan for how to collectively evidence confirms that place-based supports These issues straddle all government move towards a better system. and co-design in community development agencies – education, corrections, child create sustainable results. It is the horizon and youth, and aged care. Government imagined in On Track – one where agencies have committed to work together, co-production becomes the default model and many of the new national initiatives of service delivery for those commissioning have collaboration as criteria. However, services and for the organisation and it is the experience of many people who The Tahatu¯ Rangi workforce delivering the services. work in and of those who use the system symposium brings together The other fundamental principle in that reviews, reports and strategies so often On Track is collaboration. In the document fail to result in change. Despite promises organisations that are already Closing the Loop, four primary health of transformation, strategies and plans genuinely collaborating and organisations (PHOs) have expressed their from multiple government agencies don’t co-designing to share their agreement. The document suggests it is always join up, and if things do happen, lessons learned. time to take a broader look at the types progress can be very slow. of supports people need at different stages Within this complex environment, or levels of need, and Platform Trust has Platform Trust and Te Pou o te Whakaaro signed a joint statement with the PHOs decided it was time to work with mental to convey their support for a more health and addiction NGOs to rethink the collaborative approach between system and describe what success would traditionally siloed sectors. look like. To do this,, providers would With the government calling for a need to make alterations to their models The ripples have already begun. The social investment approach that invests of service delivery that would accelerate Tahatü Rangi symposium brings together in prevention and early intervention to system-wide changes. After extensive organisations that are already genuinely reduce the significant cost of clinical consultation across the sector, the changes collaborating and co-designing to share interventions at a later stage, the time needed according to the NGO sector were their lessons learned. Among the speakers is ripe for the medical community to collated and are described in the document at this year’s symposium are a collaborative acknowledge the vital role of the On Track: Knowing where we are going – from the Gisborne area, headed by the community sector. Like the previous wave co-creating a mental health and addiction rebranded Tairäwhiti DHB. The DHB, of change in mental health and addictions system New Zealanders want and need. now known as Hauora Tairäwhiti, has service delivery, this next wave makes both On Track has been discussed and acknowledged that the impact it can economic and ethical sense. There is no workshopped around the country and have on the community is amplified by one solution to transforming the mental was the catalyst for the sector’s symposium involving the community and that hospital health and addictions landscape to become Tahatü Rangi to bring together leaders from care is only one element of place-based the system that serves New Zealanders the mental health and addictions sector. community health and wellbeing service when and how they need it to. However, The symposium was essentially the delivery. The DHB also understands that, it seems there is growing consensus that sector’s declaration that it would not wait through the process of co-design with there is a need for change to occur on a for solutions to come from others but that service users and others, it will achieve a system-wide level so that New Zealanders it would proactively seek out and take better quality of outcomes for the people get access to the right types of support steps towards a better way for the system it serves. It articulates this on its website: when they need it.

www.drugfoundation.org.nz 31 VIEWPOINTS

Is it for the New Zealand Police to interpret drug laws as they please, or does this sabotage the sanctity of law in general?

Police prosecutions for cannabis The decrease in prosecutions was OKpossession are in decline, with offences a response to a government dictum The majority of halving in the last two decades. In 2015, to reduce the number of people going New Zealanders support there were 1,105 convictions, which adds through the criminal justice system as change to our cannabis up to about 0.25 percent of the estimated a whole, O’Connor said. 400,000 users. But statistics also show “In the past, if you got arrested with laws, but the political that those who are penalised for using cannabis, you’d go to court, end of story.” appetite for this is low. cannabis are predominantly Mäori A drop in prosecutions should not or Pacific Islander, young and have be confused with a drop in arrests. Meanwhile, a drop in previous convictions. “Police are still arresting people, Police prosecutions for Last year, Police Commissioner they’re just not charging them. That’s Mike Bush admitted Police have an the difference. The only thing that has cannabis offences points “unconscious bias” against Mäori changed is now they are giving more to a silent relaxation of when it comes to how officers apply pre-charge warnings.” their discretion with charging people. If you are thinking of smoking a joint, drug policy. Is this the Discrimination aside, legal experts the thought of being arrested is still going right way to go, or is it are also raising concerns that allowing to be a deterrent, O’Connor said. Police to interpret the law as it suits is “Don’t look at these figures and think inherently discriminatory unconstitutional and serves to undermine Police have turned a blind eye to people and unconstitutional? law making in general. Has the gap smoking cannabis on a Friday night. between the criminal law and the way They have not.” it is enforced become so large that the What about the statistics that show Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 is just a joke? there is bias in those who are prosecuted? Or is it fine to keep turning a blind eye? O’Connor says these decisions are not In August, a Drug Foundation poll made on the spot but will be weighed showed 64 percent of Kiwis thought Police are doing a good job up against guidelines after arrest. Some having a small amount of cannabis for “Does the current law allow Police to people will not qualify for pre-charge personal use should either be legal (33 reduce the amount of cannabis that’s warnings – for example, if they have percent) or decriminalised (31 percent). being used? I would say the answer previous convictions – meaning they That same week, Prime Minister John Key is yes,” said Police Association will have to be prosecuted. Mäori will told Radio New Zealand change was not President Greg O’Connor. be more likely to fall into this category. necessary because the Police were not For O’Connor, this is a measure “These decisions are not being made really pushing prosecutions. to show the law’s working as intended. on the street, they are being made at the “In the case of drugs, I think if we “If you ask any group of 18-year-olds station on policy.” were as Parliament to decriminalise, if they would use more if it was legal, the O’Connor points to an Independent then one of the messages we’d be sending answer would be ‘no doubt’. In making it Police Conduct Authority report into the is that increased drug use is OK,” he told illegal you’re reducing the harm to society.” use of pre-charge warnings, released last Guyon Espiner on Morning Report. Prosecutions might be down, but this is month, which found no evidence to “And I know that people would say, because Police are giving more pre-charge suggest any differential treatment was we, you know, that seems a bit silly given warnings, O’Connor said. And seizures being given on the basis of ethnicity. that there’s widespread recreational use, of cannabis are rising year on year – from “It’s all being done under policy, and we know that. But I don’t think the 150,448 plants confiscated from 1,637 it’s being recorded. On the surface of it, Police really for the most part do prosecute different incidents in 2014 to 180,915 [it] may look racist, but when you look in this case.” seizures from 1,700 incidents in 2015. into it, it’s not.”

32 matters of substance November 16 However, while O’Connor is right “What is the position of the Police in It made 144 recommendations, in that the report says there is no clear this society if they choose not to enforce advising a focus on high-level drug evidence to demonstrate differential laws that Parliament has passed? Doesn’t offences and outlining a formal series treatment on the basis of ethnicity was that just lead to a disrespect of laws of warnings. It said these solutions happening, enquiry head Judge Sir David generally in the wider population? If laws would be unlikely to increase drug use. Carruthers also noted that “… the are passed that in effect are not enforced, “Most studies in this area have possibility that it could happen is enough then what is the point of them? concluded that changes in use levels to reinforce the need for more guidance “The current laws frankly are a waste are independent of the regulatory on the exercise of Police discretion in of time and money, and they don’t achieve approach in place – that is, the regulatory this area”. what they set out to achieve, which I imagine approach itself neither increases or The Independent Police Conduct was to lower cannabis use.” decreases drug use.” Authority also found there were Police had varied views towards the Six years on, Wellington lawyer and “substantial and undesirable” laws themselves, Abbott said. former ACT Party list MP Stephen Franks inconsistencies between Police districts “There are those who would like to see says Parliament has ducked the issue, in the extent to which pre-charge them removed or abolished, and there are which has served to “encourage Police warnings were used and the types of those who like them because they are quite to effectively act as if they make the law”. offenders to whom they were given. handy – at present, you can enter Franks left Parliament in 2005 and someone’s house without a warrant if you It’s discriminatory and unfair is now Principal at Franks Ogilvie, the think they have cannabis or instruments Wellington-based specialist public and Auckland University of Technology to smoke it on their property, so that helps commercial law firm. Professor Max Abbott, who is also them get around the Bill of Rights.” He thinks this government has a Co-director of the National Institute However, as it stands and if the worrying trend of avoiding contentious for Public Health and Mental Health law isn’t repealed, Abbott does believe issues, giving Police powers that they Research, has closely studied cannabis it is a good thing that Police are not shouldn’t be allowed. use and addiction as part of his work. prosecuting everyone they arrest for “Police administration of liquor law, He says no matter which way you look cannabis possession. and their attempts to play politics on at it, Police not enforcing legislation is in opening hours, [is a] recent illustration effect informal decriminalisation. This has of decay in that kind of constitutional been happening in other countries safeguard from executive abuses of power worldwide, including Britain. Police prosecutions for and ultimately corrupt preferences,” And yes, he argues, it is discriminatory. cannabis possession are in Franks said. Abbott’s latest problem gambling research “Constitutionally, it is extraordinary involving more than 6,000 New Zealanders decline, with offences halving for our kind of democracy to deliberately found 13 percent of people had smoked in the last two decades. confer a law [giving] power to Police cannabis in the past year. These people officers. Our forebears insisted that state included a varied demographic – from officers be subordinate to the law and young and old to rich and poor, among enforce it impartially, whatever they all races. Yet research shows Mäori are “I’m a bit torn, because it’s good thought about it. It is a fundamental arrested at a disproportionally higher rate news that people are not being needlessly feature of the rule of law.” than non-Mäori. arrested and all the costs that go with It was fair that society should know the “The fact is, if all these people were that for the person and the taxpayer and legal consequences of actions in advance. arrested, the courts and Police would be wider society, with policing and the “That was seen as the major element flooded, so what they do instead is they are cost to the criminal justice system. that distinguished British law and justice selective in who they prosecute. So you’re That’s better than them being hell-bent from continental despotism, where people much more likely if you’re young, you’re on prosecuting everything.” in power could make up the rules as they Mäori or a Pacific Islander or have any It isn’t the role of the Police went along.” other convictions, whereas our research In practice, this means Police must shows usage is spread across the In 2010, the Law Commission released serve the law, not the government of population,” Abbott said. a long-awaited report into the Misuse the day, Franks said. “The profile of people being arrested is of Drugs Act 1975. The Controlling “Most lawyers would be anxious very different from the general population and Regulating Drugs review led by that we are abandoning a core element smoking cannabis. How often do you see a Sir Geoffrey Palmer found there was of our protection of liberty, if Parliament lawyer charged and convicted? How often “scope for a range of different approaches” ducks deciding.” do you see a medical professional? How to drug laws in New Zealand. often do you see anyone from the upper The report found there should be less The Drug Foundation favours the removal middle class?” emphasis on convictions for low-level of criminal penalties for drug use, possession If the law doesn’t change, the Police drug users and recommended a more and social supply, the development of a could also change the way they interpret it health-focused law administered by the strictly regulated cannabis market and at any time depending on the government Ministry of Health. greater resourcing for prevention, education, or mood of the moment, Abbott says. In his “Simply punishing a drug user, without treatment and other health and social opinion, the current loose interpretation of taking steps to address their drug use, is a interventions for people who use drugs. the law serves to undermine it. wasted opportunity.”

www.drugfoundation.org.nz 33 OPINION

Photo credit: AP Photo/Bullit Marquez How Duterte’s drug war taps into the Philippines’ zeitgeist

The violence and mayhem being unleashed in a brutal War on Drugs in the Philippines shows no sign of abating. Mark R Thompson outlines what has been happening and the historical backdrop. Story courtesy of The Conversation. MARK R THOMPSON

hilippines President around their necks, saying “pusher” crucified Jesus. A cardboard sign next Rodrigo Duterte or “drug lord” or dumped under a to his body carried the chilling message has attracted bridge or in a neighbouring town. “Pusher ako, wag tularan” (I’m a pusher, international The guilt of victims is assumed – don’t do what I did). condemnation never proven, seriously investigated President Duterte dismissed this with his violent or even questioned. case as “overdramatised”, suggesting crackdown on one had to be hard hearted to “win” P alleged drug takers The sad, the bizarre and a war against drugs. and his dismissive attitude towards his the misguided There have been bizarre incidents country’s traditional allies. But his Not surprisingly, there have been reports among the bloodshed as well. One case popularity at home remains incredibly of many heart-wrenching cases of violent saw a suspected drug taker who “rose from high – he seems to have his finger on death. A five-year-old girl was killed in the dead” become inevitably associated the nation’s pulse. late September after gunmen aiming to with the TV zombie craze. The Philippine Every day during the first 100 days kill her grandfather opened fire. A father media reported that a man found lying in of Duterte’s administration, an average and son caught smoking shabu, the most his own pool of blood stood up once he felt of 36 Filipinos have been killed. About widely available methamphetamine in the safe in the presence of reporters who came half of these extrajudicial killing are in country, were beaten and then shot dead to cover the apparent killing. the country’s capital Manila. while in Police custody. Crime has been linked to illicit drug In the Philippines’ so-called War Photos taken by Raffy Lerma on use in the Philippines, but the country is on Drugs, suspects die in “encounters” 23 July of Jennilyn Olayres embracing certainly not about to degenerate into a with Police, are shot by motorcycle-riding her murdered partner, peddycab driver “narco state”. No drug gangs are directly vigilante gunmen or are killed by trained Michael Siaron, on the street became challenging the authority of the state, as in and unofficial Police death squads. iconic as Filipinos immediately associated Mexico or Colombia before that. Even so, Their taped up bodies are left with a then with Michelangelo’s famous Pietà there’s a growing fascination with such cardboard confessional sign strapped sculpture showing Mary cradling the states in the country.

34 matters of substance November 16 Filipinos have become obsessed with Academic Nicole Curato has applied the Netflix series Narcos about Colombia’s the term “penal populism” – appealing to This ‘politics of anger’ drug lord Pablo Escobar. Showing death can voters who feel threatened by crime and leaves little room for imitate fiction, one Philippine commentator not protected by the Police or the courts surmised that Police chief Ronald “Bato” – to the Philippines to describe a fantasy treating drugs as a health dela Rosa, who is responsible for the “that sets apart the virtuous public from problem … anti-drug campaign, was inspired by the the degenerates who do not deserve television programme to fly to Colombia due process”. recently to find out how that South American This ‘politics of anger’ leaves little country had “won” the War on Drugs. room for treating drugs as a health problem had become her lover, a double sin in He found the country’s President Juan and as a symptom of social problems starkly class-divided patriarchal society. Manuel Santos has been advocating a rather than its cause. The latter approach De Lima has received death threats more humane solution to the problem. would allow for the rule of law and for and has been forced to leave her home. rehabilitation to deal with the problem, War on the poor? thereby avoiding the criminalisation of Dissolving democracy? Since becoming president in late June, the poor. The more than 3,600 people killed in Duterte has implemented his “Davao But the fact that there’s been so little the anti-drug war already exceeds the model” of giving Police and vigilantes a protest against Duterte’s War on Drugs 3,240 people Amnesty International licence to kill drug suspects nationwide. is a sad indicator of the expendability of estimates were “salvaged” (a Filipino The name comes from the town where life at the bottom of the social hierarchy term for extrajudicial killings) during he was twice vice mayor (1986–1987 and in the Philippines. the nearly 14 years of dictatorship under Ferdinand Marcos. 2010–2013) and thrice mayor (1988–1998, Silencing opponents 2001–2010 and 2013–2016) before he There’s a discrepancy between Duterte became president. Davao is the largest Duterte has also mobilised nationalist and his Police chief’s claim that there are antipathy against foreign interference, city in the conflict-torn southern island more than three million drug addicts in and that of the US in particular, to deflect of Mindanao, and Duterte’s anti-drug the Philippines. The government’s own criticism from his violent drug crackdown. policy left over 1,400 people dead there. Dangerous Drugs Board estimates there Indeed, his popularity seems part of Duterte used his ‘tough on crime’ are in fact 1.24 million illegal drug takers the national zeitgeist. Last year, Filipinos approach to win the May 2016 presidential in the country. flocked to the local film Heneral Luna, election as a political outsider, promising Meanwhile, Duterte’s defence of which celebrates the life and death of to restore law and order with strongman his anti-drug campaign has become the strong-willed General Juan Luna. rule. Columbia University academic Sheila increasingly unhinged. In a recent Commander of the revolutionary army, Coronel has called Duterte the “bastard outburst, he compared his campaign he fought against US occupation in 1898 to the Nazi holocaust against the Jews. child of Philippine democracy”. but was betrayed by his compatriots. He later apologised. In a report about the widow of a When running for the country’s The reasons for Duterte’s rise victim of the anti-drug drive, reporter highest elected office, Duterte said a to power and the silence, if not Jamela Alindogan of Al Jazeera, who president must be willing to risk his life acceptance, from Philippine society has been a leader in the international to defend the people, tapping into the about his violent crackdown on coverage of the killings, summed up the mood created by the film. He pledged drug takers has historical roots. view of many critics, noting there were his willingness to die in carrying out Not even modest steps towards fears that “the War on Drugs is a war his promise to eradicate drugs. transitional justice were attempted during against the poor”. Given Duterte’s super-majority in the early post-Marcos period, which was Foreign human rights groups and Congress from The Conversation, only marred by repeated military coup attempts, most Western governments have been a handful of politicians have spoken and this established a pattern of informal outspoken in their criticism as have some out against the killings. One who has immunity from prosecution that, with few Philippine activist groups. But protest has consistently criticised Duterte’s bloodbath exceptions, has continued since then. been limited in the face of Police terror is former Commission on Human Rights Democracy has not yet died in the directed primarily at the poor. chairperson, former Justice Secretary and Philippines; the press remains uncensored, Duterte has played to the deep now Senator, Leila de Lima. and opposition criticism is still tolerated. resentments of those marginally better off She has paid for her outspokenness. But civil liberties, particularly the right after 15 years of solid economic growth. She was removed as head of the Senate to life, lie buried beneath the corpses of And he’s done so despite the ‘straight path’ committee investigating the killings, and thousands of victims of Duterte’s 100-day anti-corruption platform of the previous Duterte’s congressional allies retaliated War on Drugs. administration of President Benigno with hearings in the lower house that ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III. saw former convicts testify that she Mark R Thompson is Professor of Politics “Dutertismo” as the Philippine had granted them privileged conditions and Head of the Department of Asian sociologist Randy David has termed it, in prison while she was Secretary and International Studies, City University has been driven by middle-class worries of Justice in return for drug money Hong Kong. about rising crime and a broken justice contributions to her senatorial campaign. system as well as crumbling infrastructure Duterte claimed de Lima has drug This article was originally published on and continued corruption. connections through her driver who The Conversation – theconversation.com

www.drugfoundation.org.nz 35 Q&A

Q What has been your journey into food, clothing, housing and education. community work? Drugs and alcohol can be a way for them A I first began working with Wesley to forget the reality of their daily struggles. Community Action’s residential youth Some are born into it, and it’s the only home about 18 years ago where I spent lifestyle they’ve known. And then there 10 years In 2009 an opportunity for me are those who are unmotivated or to work in my hometown came up, a place unwilling and lack the support to move to start a whole new service based on our out of this. Any kind of hangover can be community needs. It’s a great thing to be demotivating, so when you drink or take able to work in your own community, you drugs daily, you get your highs but you know the gaps, the issues, the needs & the always go back to the lows. Some locals people trust you. People have been really have said, “It’s just easier to buy a box of engaged, and we’ll always invite the locals piss than it is to worry about the bills,’’ to shape, design and run the events, which and that’s their reality. have been pretty successful. Meth has Alcohol used to be the main problem, been here in our community since the then pot, but now it’s meth that’s taking late 1990’s and more families are affected a real toll on the community. People are by it now than anything else. There is a suffering more than ever from that habit, huge gap in access to detoxing from meth and families on it don’t realise the long- Photo credit: Adrian Heke. or getting into rehab, and there’s a lot of term effects. So many kiddies are going frustration around the lack of services without because their parents are putting and support for those who use or are their addictions first. impacted by meth. Lizzie Q What are you doing at the moment Q Have you found change can happen in around meth? communities where drugs and alcohol A We are not AOD workers or counsellors, McMillan- are a problem? and though not being able to help people A Absolutely. Our current centre in is frustrating, doing nothing just isn’t an the Waitangirua Mall is a great example. option any more. I had a woman in her Makalio It was a real dump, and we needed help 30s who’d been taking meth for five days, to get it up to scratch. The amount of and I wasn’t sure what to do. I called the people who contributed brought a lovely hospital, people who work with meth Trained social worker feeling back to the mall. There had been users, various 0800 numbers, but all I got a lot of drinking there, which meant there was advice. There were so many barriers Lizzie McMillan-Makalio was a lot of broken glass, rubbish, used to getting real assistance, and I realised is manager of the site condoms and urine around. Children I was on my own with her. Narrow rehab shouldn’t be walking through that to get admission criteria and waitlist numbers known as Wesley Community to school every morning. But people could mean so many people who use P are left Action-Waitangirua, where see the potential for something positive. to detox without professional assistance. The graffiti was removed, and murals were So we created ‘Walk-in Mondays’ where six community services painted that people stop now to look at. people can just come in and talk to are run. Venturing into At the same time, a Tranzformus gym, someone face to face and get information owned by well known locals, started up about managing withdrawal and detoxing next door, and all summer training occurs new territory and speaking at home. We’ve created a booklet that has outside. It was very visible. All this had an been endorsed by a wide cross-section, up for her local community impact and encouraged people to engage including people who use or have used, and come together. Since then, we’ve held are all become part of and a doctor who works across the rehab a lot of community events, family days centres nationally. For parents coming in the job. and broom days to clean up, and maintain the door, it’s having someone to listen, these certain areas. understand and acknowledge the feeling Q Why do you think people become of helplessness. That alone brings some dependent on alcohol and drugs kind of peace. in the first place? It’s been amazing to see people from all A There is no easy answer to that, and walks of life supporting one another, like not everyone’s story is the same. Many someone from the gang community giving different cultures make up our community. advice to someone from an upper class Some people can’t find employment and community on how to support their child may feel they have no skills or potential through detox. We have a Facebook page and lack self-worth. A lot of things called New Zealand ‘P’ Pull with more contribute towards someone using drugs than 1,000 members across the country or becoming dependent, like the cost of helping each other.

36 matters of substance November 16 SPECIAL FEATURE

Since being spruced up 10 years ago, Matters of Substance has been reliably outspoken. In 2007, the Drug February 2007 Foundation committed to using the Déjà vu! In the first issue magazine to fearlessly advocate for drug of Matters of Substance, Sarah Daniell looked at the policy and practice based on the best pros and cons of legalising medical cannabis. Stories on evidence available to promote harm FASD, party pills and needle minimisation and reduce inequalities. exchanges sat alongside a feature on the Healing Our A decade later, this ethos remains the Spirit Worldwide Gathering. guiding light.

Over the years, we’ve been fortunate to publish work by many talented writers, journalists and commentators, as well as by a slew of committed advocates. The stunning and ever-evolving November 2010 design is courtesy of Insight Creative, with Rob Zorn and Mary Soldiers are known to use Bennett keeping a close eye on all the words. A big thank you alcohol and other drugs, but to everyone who has helped us reach this hardcopy milestone. we asked just how prepared is the military to deal with the fallout, both internationally and in New Zealand? This is a slightly different take on the War on Drugs, which has much traversed the magazine’s pages.

August 2011 With welfare beneficiaries February 2008 who use alcohol and other The big whoppers about cannabis drugs becoming the target were challenged: “Now, more of a tough regime proposed than ever, rational, balanced and by the Welfare Working Group, informed debate on cannabis use some robust questioning must is needed, so that legislation and take place. After hearing the cultural attitudes can be shaped replies, the Drug Foundation by right understanding instead remained unconvinced by the of panic and misinformation.” WWG’s recommendations.

August 2009 August 2012 With stage one of its liquor review Drug testing in workplaces complete, the Law Commission has been ramping up over the discussion paper outlined New years. In this 2012 cover story, Zealand’s alcohol problems and Sean Gillespie examined how posed key questions. Asking how things could go wrong, for both much can we rely on law to workers and bosses. Emergency change our drinking culture response to overdoses was also remains relevant to this day. addressed in this issue.

www.drugfoundation.org.nz 37 40TH ISSUE

August 2013 Harm reduction is about saving lives and treating August 2015 people with respect. Four leading Mäori public While New Zealand led health advocates shared their the world with the first views on what approaches government-sanctioned were working, whether things needle exchange 20 years ago, are improving and what more what is the current state of needed to be done. Coverage harm reduction services and of the UNGASS on the world how can they be scaled up drug (policy) problem began for greater impact? in this issue.

November 2016 August 2014 When you see some gang S/he who knows only his/ members getting tough on her own generation remains meth, it’s a sign that the drug always a child, so the saying is causing a lot of damage to goes. In this issue, we looked families and communities. at New Zealand’s history of Three gang members singing drugs and the laws to control a different tune feature in them, scandals included. this issue’s cover story.

Mattersof Substance.

Fold the corner Subscribe to Matters of Substance, and you can do all these things as well as read it. In 2017, subscribers will be posted a hardcopy magazine every four months, plus in of a page. between, we’ll share breaking stories via our website. Sign up now to get a complimentary copy of the new About a drug booklet. Scribble on it. Subscribe now! nzdrug.org/MoS-subscriptions

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www.drugfoundation.org.nz 38

DID YOU KNOW? A series of short drug information videos and posters are now available to help health professionals, youth workers and family members have conversations with young people about substance use and substance-related harm.

While no use is safest, use these videos to explore the facts before discussing options.

HOW TO USE THE VIDEOS ALCOHOL: KEY TIPS

Watch them together

CANNABIS: KEY TIPS

to create conversations, ask open questions like

What do you think about these substances? What stood out to you? What was in these videos that you would want your friends to know?

SOLVENTS: KEY TIPS

LISTEN TO WHAT THEY HAVE TO SAY View the videos & order resources: aodcollaborative.org.nz/didyouknow

AND OFFER ANY SUPPORT they need