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Methamphetamine - Source: ONE News
Drug experts claim methamphetamine has ''had its day'' in New Zealand despite seizures of the Class A drug at our borders increasing by more than a third last year.
According to figures released by the National Drug Intelligence Bureau, 19.5kgs of methamphetamine, also known as P, was stopped at our borders, mostly at Auckland International Airport, in 2010 and a further 11.4kgs was found domestically.
In 2009 a total of 20kgs was found - 10.8kgs at our borders.
Dr Chris Wilkins, the co-author of Massey University's annual Illicit Drug Monitoring System study, said P had largely ''had its day'' and drug users were searching for an alternative high.
New Zealand Drug Foundation spokesman Ross Bell said P's destructive reputation was turning people off but users were still searching for that ''speedy, fast stimulant drug''.
Methcon director Dale Kirk believes methamphetamine pills, potentially sold under the guise of ecstasy, would be the ''next big thing to come into New Zealand'' - something that was already a major problem in Thailand.
Drug dealers would continue to experiment with new drugs to find something users would crave.
''It's all about supply and demand and if they can create a demand for the product then they're going to supply that demand," Kirk said.
Bell said main party-pill ingredient BZP wasn't cutting it as a P replacement, but cocaine fitted the bill when available.
Between 2009 and 2010 seizures of cocaine worth around $357 a gram - more than tripled from 3kgs to 10kgs.
Most of that was found in passenger luggage while around 2.5kg was discovered in the mail centre and the same amount was stored internally.
Ecstasy is rising in popularity, but the quality of the drug, was hit and miss and often contained a cocktail of substances rather than its chief ingredient, MDMA.
Wilkins believed one of these Ecstasy concoctions could also take off.
''There's a chance that maybe one of these substances could gain its own market. There's an opportunity for a new product to be introduced."
Between 2009 and 2010, police seized 12kgs of ecstasy.
The haul was split evenly between passenger luggage and the Auckland Mail Centre which was also the avenue that most of the imported cannabis, LSD and heroin was smuggled into New Zealand, according to seizure figures.
Asia is the biggest exporter of P into New Zealand while South America smuggles in the most cocaine, according to the drug bureau.
The figures come after ten Malaysian drug mules were sentenced last month after being caught smuggling $8.5 million-worth of P in their shoes at Auckland International Airport, and the death in September of Columbian woman Sorlinda Arirtizabal Vega after smuggling cocaine in her stomach into the country.
Last week, Ka Wing Lam was sentenced to eight and a half years prison for the importation and possession for supply of P.
In sentencing Lam, the judge said the former Hong Kong resident had come to New Zealand for the sole purpose of importing drugs and facilitating their sale here.
Police have only recorded the source country of seized drugs for the past two years but the figures show Indonesia was the worst for smuggling in P between 2009 and 2010. More than 2kgs of P was seized in transit from there last year alone. South Africa was second and Hong Kong third, followed by Malaysia and China.
Of the 30kgs of P seized at New Zealand's border in the past two years, 15.5kg was discovered in passenger luggage, 7.9kg at the Auckland mail centre, 4.6kg on a passenger, while mules stored 2kg internally.
According to police estimates, the P market is worth $1.2 billion annually in New Zealand. A gram of P costs $1000.
Customs estimates they pick up between 40 and 50 per cent of controlled drugs coming through the border.
The manufacture and distribution of P is dominated by gangs, with 104 of 133 clan labs discovered here in 2008 linked to them.
Last year alone, more than 9000 people were arrested for cannabis seizures, 1280 for methamphetamine and 141 relating to ecstasy.
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