Northland might be the meth capital of New Zealand, but Hawkes Bay wouldn't be far behind. One tiny town – Waipukurau - recorded the biggest increase in meth consumption in the country in 2024. It was up more than 300 percent.

What concerns the local coppers is that the community staying schtum about who's supplying the drug as Inspector Martin James told 1News last night. 

“One of the key concerns for me here in Central Hawke's Bay is a lack of information that is coming through from the public to support us, there will be people within this community that know who are supplying this drug, this heinous drug, and we need them to come forward."

Well, there might be people who know, but locals who have spoken to by 1News said they'd never seen any evidence that their town had such a huge meth problem. And I guess you wouldn't if you if you don't do meth, it you don't know people who do meth, then you're not going to see the problem.

The police are depending on those who do know. And they might say there isn't a problem in their small town, but surely wastewater testing doesn't lie. The only reason I could think of that you'd see a spike like that would be perhaps a drug dealer has seen the light, had a road to Damascus moment and is going to turn over a new leaf and has flushed tens of thousands of dollars' worth of meth down the dunny over a period of weeks, but you know that is unlikely.

This is just the latest call from police, iwi leaders and the Police Minister for the community to play its part in thwarting the gangs and the drug dealers and in saying no, you're not dealing here, not in our town, not to our people. They want the community to be proactive in terms of stopping meth, taking a hold in their communities, but how realistic is it to expect people to dob in their relatives or friends?

It would be hard enough when you're an upstanding member of the community with no links to gangs to give police information that could lead to an arrest. You might be concerned about ramifications to your business or to your home or to your family. But imagine if the drug dealers and members of your very own family - you give information to the police that leads to a conviction for dealing, not possession, but dealing, you know that the person will be going inside for a very long time.

You might hate the crime, but loved the crim. How do you reconcile helping the police with their inquiries with the knowledge that there could be an enormous impact on your own family member?

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