Ngāi Te Rangi Rūnanga spokesperson Paora Stanley is calling on the Bay of Plenty District Health Board to establish a specialised rehabilitation unit for methamphetamine users in Tauranga following a rapid spread of the drug in the region. He says the community needs to get serious about tackling the problem which he believes is destroying families.
As Tauranga grows, there are claims that methamphetamine is growing too in the region.
Stanley says, “Two years ago the average person using methamphetamine was Māori 33-year old and male now a lot of that is changing there have been a lot of meth going down in our region and I think the region has an inability to deal with it.
Furthermore, Stanley says that under his organisation they provide a counselling service. They have been working with families who have seen the impact of the drug and he says that whānau are crying out for assistance.
“In terms of health $16.2bil industry for the local DHB it's $718mil it's an increase this year but we haven't seen an increase in services to help treat what's going on with methamphetamine.”
Bay of Plenty District Health Board currently operates two mental-health and addiction care units one in Tauranga, the other in Whakatāne. They also work closely with youth who are affected by addictions but Stanley is saying otherwise.
"It's really important that we have a specialised unit particular for methamphetamine. Too many programmes have been under-resourced or not resourced at all in terms of prevention I know it's got to do with money. We are going to have programmes that deter them from using and also support them from when they want to give up, we don't have that."
Te Kāea contacted the DHB to ask whether it would support the establishment of a specialised unit for P use. They have yet to respond.