Kerre Woodham: Why put money back in the pockets of users?

So the government's Sunday sessions this year have involved announcements of all sorts of policies, ranging from ho-hum to meaningful.The announcement yesterday of the action plan against organised crime comes under the meaningful. Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith released what he called a bold and comprehensive action plan that aimed to disrupt supply, go after those who profit from the drug trade and rebuild communities afflicted by meth, as he outlined to Mike Hosking on the Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning.

This is a scourge on society that we need to keep on battling against every day, finding new ways to combat the organised criminals who are doing this, but also dealing with the you know, better rehabilitation and actually for the first time sending a clear message through a hard-hitting media campaign, this is not a good idea to get involved with in any way, shape or form.

Paul, in all honesty, is a hard-hitting media campaign to your average, you know, dare I suggest unemployed, go nowhere meth addict. Is that going to make one jot of difference?

No, but it may stop some people taking the risk. And no single thing on its own is going to solve the problem. Of course, a campaign's not going to deal with a hardened sort of meth addict, but there may be a young person who's thinking about it, who if they get a clear message, this is not something you could use moderately, it's not something just to have a bit of a dabble with, it's something to avoid at all costs because some people, just one shot's enough to lead to a decade-long spiral of chaos and destruction, and that's what we want to send a clear message about.

I don't know how you can not know that there's a very high chance that dabbling in meth can bring about ruin. Of course, not everybody who tries meth will see their life fall apart, but the odds are not great. Any drug, any misuse of a drug can bring about ruin. But meth seems to be particularly high in terms of getting its claws into people and consuming them, taking them over completely. You're not consuming the drug, it's consuming you.

And it's not, your no-hopers that Mike Hosking referred to that end up destroyed by meth. It's all strata of society. You might end up a no-hoper, but you started off with jobs and businesses and companies and families and friends and a great lifestyle, gone.

How can you not know that? I mean, in the early, early, early days, maybe what, 20 odd years ago, you might have thought, oh, okay, it's a new drug, I'll give it a try. I've tried other drugs and I'm on top of that and, you know, all the go-ask-gala scare campaigns that people try to use - I'm sophisticated, I know what I'm doing, you know, and then people come a cropper because they didn't know what they were dealing with. Now you do. You know exactly what harm it can cause and you're still going to give it a try? Really? The media campaign, while it will probably bolster our coffers, seems a waste of time.  

The rest of it, well, it makes sense. Policing, border security and addiction services will join forces to combat importation, distribution and demand. Customs, Defence and the GCSB will run a series of maritime operations across the Pacific, partnering to collect intelligence and identify drug smugglers on the water.They'll try to find, deter and disrupt shipments before they reach New Zealand. Well, good luck with that, because the drugs come in from Central and South America in a corridor down through the South Pacific where traffickers will use tiny atolls and islands that are part of the Cooks or Tonga or Samoa as refuelling and staging points.

Back in 2019, I talked about this with Jose Suza Santos and he talked about the corridor that was well established in 2019 and about the damage being done to Pacific nations with this drugs corridor because of course they'll try it too. They will take the drugs, they'll take their cut, everybody takes a cut along the way, and drugs are apparently a huge problem in Fiji, taking a hold in Samoa, Tonga and the like.

So six years later, this government is finally doing something in an attempt to disrupt the drug smugglers.The more aggressive stance will be supported by plans to strengthen search and surveillance powers. There'll be the expansion of electronic interception (hello GCSB), and speed up asset seizures under the Criminal Proceeds Recovery Act.

There'll be a new police money laundering team to chase the cash behind organized crime and offshore police liaison officers looking at the syndicates logistics and banking networks.

The plan puts $30 million out of the mental health and addiction budget over four years into treatment and early intervention services in communities that are hit hardest by meth, and there'll be a nearly $6 million national prevention campaign paid for with the seized proceeds of crime.

We've seen a

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Kerrywood and Morning's podcast from News Talks,
he'd be so.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
The government's Sunday sessions this year have involved announcements of
all sorts of policies, ranging from ho hum to meaningful.
The announcement yesterday of the Action Plan against Organized Crime
comes under the meaningful Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith released what
he called a bold and comprehensive action plan that aim

(00:33):
to disrupt supply, go after those who profit from the
drug trade, and rebuild communities afflicted by meth. As the
outline to Mike Cosky on the Mike Costking Breakfast this morning.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
This is a scourge on society that we need to
keep on battling against every day, finding new ways to
combat the organized criminals who are doing this, but also
dealing with the betteryhabilitation and actually for the first time
sending a clear message through a hard hitting media campaign.
This is not a good idea to get involved with
in any way.

Speaker 4 (01:04):
In all all honesty is a hard hitting media campaign
to your average you know, dare I suggest unemployed go
no where meth addict? Is that going to make one
jot of difference?

Speaker 1 (01:16):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:16):
But it may stop some people taking the risk, and
no single thing on its own is going to solve
the problem. Of course, a campaign's not going to deal
with a hard and sort of meth adict, but there
may be a young person who's thinking about it, who
if they get a clear message, this is not something
you could use moderately. It's not something just to have
a deal of a devil with. It's something to avoid

(01:37):
at all costs, because some people, just one SHOT's enough
to lead to a decade's long spiral of chaos and destruction.
And that's what we want to send a clear message about.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
I don't know how you cannot know that there's a
very high chance that dabbling and meth can bring about ruin.
Of course, not everybody who tries meth we'll see their
life fall apart. But I mean the odds are not great.
Any drug, any misuse of a drug, can bring about ruin,

(02:06):
but myth seems to be particularly high in terms of
getting its claws into people and consuming them, taking them
over completely. You're not consuming the drug. It's consuming you,
and it's not you know hopers that Mike Costkin referred
to that end up destroyed by methods all strata of society.
You might end up a no hoper, but you started

(02:28):
off with jobs and businesses and companies and families and
friends and a great lifestyle gone. How can you not
know that? I mean, in the early early early days,
maybe what twenty odd years ago, you might have thought, oh, okay,
it's a new drug. I'll give it a try. I've
tried other drugs and I'm on top of that. And

(02:51):
you know all the go ass gallas scare campaigns that
people try to use. I'm sophisticated, I know what I'm doing,
you know, and then people come a cropper because they
didn't know what they were dealing with. Now you do,
you know exactly what harm it can cause. And you're
still going to give it a try. Really, the media campaign,

(03:12):
while it will probably bolster our coffers, seems a waste
of time. The rest of it, well, it makes sense. Policing,
Border Security and Addiction Services will join forces to combat importation,
distribution and demand. Customs Defense and the GCSB will run
a series of maritime operations across the Pacific, partnering to

(03:34):
collect intelligence and identify drug smugglers on the water. They'll
try to find, deter and disrupt shipments before they reach
New Zealand. Well, good luck with that, because the drugs
come in from Central and South America in a corridor
down through the South Pacific where traffickers will use tiny

(03:57):
atolls and islands that are part of the Cooks or
Tonga or Samoa as rear fueling and staging points. Twenty nineteen,
I talked about this with Josey Sus Santos, and he
talked about the corridor that was well established in twenty
nineteen and about the damage being done to Pacific nations

(04:19):
with this drugs corridor, because of course they know they'll
try it too, you know they will. They will take
the drugs, they'll take that cut. Everybody takes a cut
along the way, and drugs are apparently a huge problem
in Fiji, taking a hold in sar More, Tonga and
the like. So six years later, this government is finally

(04:42):
doing something in an attempt to disrupt the drug smugglers.
The more aggressive stance will be supported by plans to
strengthen search and surveillance powers. There'll be the expansion of
electronic interception hello JESSB and speed up asset seizures under
the Criminal proceeds Recovery Act. There'll be a new police

(05:02):
money laundering team to chase the cash behind organized crist
and offshore police a liaison officers looking at the syndicate's
logistics and banking networks. The plan puts thirty million dollars
out of the mental health and addiction budget over four
years into treatment and early intervention services and communities that
are hit hardest by meth, and there'll be a nearly

(05:25):
six million dollar national prevention campaign paid for with the
seized process of crime. We've seen a sharp rise and
drug harm wastewaoter testing showing meth use roughly doubled between
twenty three and twenty four, and officials estimate the social
harm from meth and other illicit drugs at one point

(05:46):
five billion dollars in twenty twenty four. We know this,
we know the harm it causes. We know that meth
is a really, really dangerous drug to dabble in. Why
are people still that risk?

Speaker 1 (06:06):
What is.

Speaker 2 (06:09):
What do you need to block out numb void from
your life with meth? Is it worry over your business,
worry over your job, worry over a relationship, just opting
out of being a parent, opting out of life. It's miserable,

(06:31):
it's hard. You can have a couple of hours of
oblivion and you'll do whatever it takes to get outside
of your own head. I don't know. I just cannot
understand why you would do it and why were you
you would put money in the pockets of these people.

(06:53):
So the recommendations come from advice received from an expert
Ministerial Advisory Group that was tasked with advising on how
New Zealand security agencies could better respond to organized crime
and work together to do so. So the recommendations such
as the maritime patrols, the greater paths to go after
the proceeds of crime, the electronic surveillance come from the

(07:16):
Ministerial Advisory Group's report. Other suggestions weren't picked up on.
A Minister of organized Crime, for example, was recommended to
coordinate the thirteen agencies that will be charged with battling
the cartels. It's a start, It's I mean, I would
almost say that the horse has bolted, that corridor is

(07:37):
well established. I don't know how you would go about
patrolling the many, many islands and atolls of the South Pacific,
and that the drug smugglers saw that and thought brilliant.
You're never going to be able to police them. You never.
If you've seen the containers at the Port of totong
Or or the Port of Auckland, you're never going to

(07:59):
be able to inspect every single one of those containers.
Not in a billion years. I would have thought the
best way would be to reduce demand. But why why
why why now? When you know what's happened to them,

(08:21):
to people who thought they could try it and control
it and just use it as a bit of harmless fun.
Why would you put money into the pockets of these people?
What is so awful about your life that you're willing
to dance with the devil?

Speaker 1 (08:40):
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