Drugs On The Rise

ACT New Zealand Police Spokesman Dr Muriel Newman today slammed the Labour Government for its soft-on-crime approach - an approach that has crippled the police's ability to effectively fight the war on drugs and gangs.

"Labour's inability to crackdown on crime is allowing the methamphetamine problem to explode. Reports now show that morphine-based drugs are being used to help users `come down' from methamphetamine highs," Dr Newman said.

"The question, that Police Minister George Hawkins must answer, is how can police be expected to combat the distribution of this drug, when they cannot even keep up with the methamphetamine problem? Mr Hawkins maintains that the Government is cracking down on crime. Clearly, this is untrue.

"While ACT applauds the efforts of individual communities and groups - such as Kaitaia's anti-Pure campaign - to fight against the growing drug problem, it is a core role of Government to protect the community against such insidious threats.

"With the Budget to be released in the near future, I demand to know how the Minister plans to win the drug-war. Clearly, slashing the percentage of Government spending on police - from 1.9 percent when Labour became Government, to 1.7 percent today - is not the way to go.

"It is time for Labour to discard its soft-on-crime ideology. It must fulfil its fundamental duty to law-abiding New Zealanders, to keep them safe by giving police the resources and the mandate to adopt a zero tolerance approach to crime. Only then will they be in a proper position to win the war on drugs and gangs," Dr Newman said.

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