Ryall Tony: General Debate 
Ryall Tony: General Debate 
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Hon TONY RYALL (Minister of Health) 
: 
 I join with most New Zealanders in congratulating the Prime Minister on his leadership in tackling the scourge of our communities P or methamphetamine. No member of Parliament can fail to be touched by the anguish of families seeking to find help for their loved ones who have become addicted to this evil drug. No one can fail to be moved by the stories of parents and grandparents and the anguish they feel in trying to get care for their children their husbands their wives or their grandchildren who have become addicted to this drug. 
This scourge has started to wash across our communities in the last 10 years. Time after time members of Parliament have risen and railed against the scourge of P and joined with communities in their anger about P and for too long previous Governments did nothing. Previous Governments did nothing effective and nothing that would deal with this scourge on our communities until this Prime Minister put together an action plan that would deal with this drug not only in terms of the availability of precursors but also customs control in order to stop the importing of methamphetamine as best we can right through to treatment options to deal with family members who are so affected by methamphetamine. 
This is a seriously addictive drug and it has been viciously destructive to the lives of so many young New Zealanders. It is hugely damaging to those who take it and to those who are around it. As the Minister of Police will confirm so much of the burglary and violent crime in our communities today is driven by people who are on P and who are seeking to get more money to feed their drug habits. This Government wants to deal with that. 
We are looking at it from a number of angles. When we look at the roll-call of shame that is associated with methamphetamine—William Duane Bell Antonie Dixon Ese Falealii and Steven Williams—we ask how anyone in this House can say that we should not be taking every step we can to stamp this drug out of our communities. We know that 80 percent of the cold and flu tablets purchased in New Zealand today are pseudoephedrine-free. Over time the association of methamphetamine with cold and flu medicines has meant more and more New Zealanders decided that they do not want to buy that sort of cold and flu medicine. I repeat that 80 percent of the cold and flu tablets that New Zealanders buy do not include pseudoephedrine. 
The most significant investment announced by the Prime Minister last week was $22 million into improving treatment services in New Zealand. We are all aware of the fact that there are just not enough beds to deal with this problem. About 2000 people have presented seeking treatment options for methamphetamine but only about half of those people got the care that they needed. In this plan we are putting $22 million over the next 3 years towards expanding the new methamphetamine treatment pathway. It will start with a stronger commitment by our district health boards to getting those waiting lists down and we will also provide 2700 social detox places over the next 3 years. 
Dr Cam Calder 
: How many? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: About 2700. That is saying to methamphetamine addicts and users who want to get off the drug that there is a period of time when they can be in a serviced clinically-appropriate social detox bed for the time they need to get down off the drug. Then a plan can be put in place for their treatment. Most people will be treated in the community but there will be up to 400 additional places for methamphetamine users to be treated in longer-term residential facilities. That is 400 extra places over the next 3 years and it increases the number of long-term residential beds that are available for drug users by 60 percent. It is a very significant investment. There is also a doubling of the number of social detox beds. 
The Government wants to attack this scourge of methamphetamine on a number of fronts and in a coordinated and comprehensive way. There is no point in saying that no one can get pseudoephedrine in New Zealand if we do not have a tougher customs response—and we will have a tougher customs response—and there is no point in saying we will try to get people off methamphetamine if we do not improve treatment options. That is part of the comprehensiveness of what the Prime Minister announced in Auckland last week. New Zealand families up and down this country will appreciate his commitment to dealing with this problem.