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wre
Registered: 05/06/09
Posts: 370
Loc: New Zealand
Last seen: 2 years, 11 months
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Forgotten victims of drugs underworld (New Zealand)
#13956769 - 02/13/11 04:34 PM (13 years, 1 month ago) |
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http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/4652364/Children-found-in-drug-dens
Children are the forgotten victims of New Zealand's drug misery, with record numbers being found in illicit drug dens raided by police.
Police Minister Judith Collins is worried by reports from officers about rising numbers of young children growing up in clandestine P-labs and tinnie houses.
Last year more than 460 children were found in 37 per cent of all clan labs and 73 per cent of all drug-dealing houses identified by police. This is up from 26 per cent and 65 per cent in 2009.
One former drugs squad detective said children under five were especially vulnerable to dangerous, cancer-causing chemicals, which soaked into their soft toys.
Ms Collins said: "There is little doubt that a home where the kitchen is used to cook P, or a drug house with its endless parade of criminals, is not a good place to raise children.
"Even hardened police officers are shocked when they find children in houses where their parents or caregivers – I use that term very loosely – are making or selling drugs. These children ... deserve better. Their parents should be cooking tea, not cooking P."
Detective Inspector Stuart Mills, who runs the National Drug Intelligence Bureau, said dealers were not just cooking and peddling P, but dealing ecstasy and other pills, stolen property and firearms.
"You've got strangers and associates coming to and from a house all the time; it's not an environment for young people and children to develop."
Police could now test hair to see if children had been exposed to drugs, he said.
Dale Kirk, managing director of of drug consultancy MethCon and a former drugs squad officer, said children in P labs were exposed to acids, solvents and a gas called phosphine, which was "highly poisonous". "It's very similar in its nature to cyanide gas." And there was a risk of fire or explosion.
"There is also the harm from the behaviour of occupants, particularly if they are using the drug. They are very unstable, aggressive, unpredictable. The children are at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to their priorities."
Younger children were most at risk because they did not attend school, so remained in the house for longer periods.
"Toddlers or children who are still crawling, they are putting things in their mouth all the time. They are at high risk of exposure. Soft furnishing and soft toys soak up the chemicals really well."
There was also a risk of children becoming addicted, he said. "Because meth is generally smoked, it's just like passive smoking. Kids ingest that, it's a highly addictive environment."
Otago University Law Faculty dean Professor Mark Henaghan said the law allowed for parents to be charged with failing to provide the necessities of life but this generally required demonstrable injury or neglect.
He suggested the law be "tinkered" with to allow charges for other long-term effects, such as addiction or psychological trauma.
Last year's toll
December: Police found "several" children living alongside industrial chemicals at a home busted in Mt Maunganui. A 30-year-old man was charged.
November: Three pre-schoolers were found living in a P-lab in Feilding. More than $40,000 in cash and methamphetamine was seized and the children taken into state care.
September: A baby and two other children aged under eight were found in a Hamilton house with drugs and guns. Two patched gang members were at the property and police found cannabis paraphernalia warming up on the stove. A cannabis-growing operation was hidden in the garage, along with two sawn-off shotguns and ammunition. A cut-down, loaded .22 rifle was found in the house.
August: Police raid six labs in Ponsonby, Otahuhu, Glen Innes, Glenfield, and Waipu in Northland. Several children were found, including a boy, 11, where a lab was in active production, and a girl, 15, and a boy, 9, living at another address which doubled as a drug lab.
July: Three young children – from pre-school age to 14 years – were discovered in an Oropi P-lab in the Bay of Plenty. Police seized a methamphetamine lab, drugs and electronic goods.
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idunno
PinkWebBuffalo
Registered: 03/02/10
Posts: 1,087
Last seen: 12 years, 8 months
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Re: Forgotten victims of drugs underworld (New Zealand) [Re: wre]
#13956808 - 02/13/11 04:42 PM (13 years, 1 month ago) |
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Do you think that the correlation is that, Kids cost a bunch of money, so they gotta sell drugs to get their kids clothes food xbox 360 etc etc, to keep up with the jones
-------------------- The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.. Josef Stalin
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plustax
Stranger
Registered: 02/21/10
Posts: 396
Last seen: 11 years, 3 months
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Re: Forgotten victims of drugs underworld (New Zealand) [Re: wre]
#13956910 - 02/13/11 05:01 PM (13 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
There was also a risk of children becoming addicted, he said. "Because meth is generally smoked, it's just like passive smoking. Kids ingest that, it's a highly addictive environment."
Kids obviously don't need to be around meth, but god damn that sounds like Grade A bullshit to me. If you inhale it right that means the actives are in your system. Also no drug ever once exhaled (including ones with very low potency) have ever gotten me altered even if me and the other person were shotgunning.
Edited by plustax (02/13/11 05:02 PM)
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Doe Eyed
grimR's Urban Geisha
Registered: 04/14/09
Posts: 341
Last seen: 11 years, 10 months
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Re: Forgotten victims of drugs underworld (New Zealand) [Re: plustax]
#13957456 - 02/13/11 06:57 PM (13 years, 1 month ago) |
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that's sick that those poisonous chemicals seep into the little kids toys that they chew on. though it's lame that they didn't have any info on any statistics of these drug children's health or cancer statistics or something-that would have made the article a lot more solid
-------------------- "Now then it is no more I that do it; but the sin that dwelleth in me."
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Doe Eyed
grimR's Urban Geisha
Registered: 04/14/09
Posts: 341
Last seen: 11 years, 10 months
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Re: Forgotten victims of drugs underworld (New Zealand) [Re: Doe Eyed]
#13957461 - 02/13/11 06:58 PM (13 years, 1 month ago) |
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and use condoms cuz kidz r insaaaaaaaaanely expenssive
-------------------- "Now then it is no more I that do it; but the sin that dwelleth in me."
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