An unusual case raises the usual issues

Lisa Williams-Lahari
Whether known as ice or its longer name, methamphetamine hydrochloride is already raising an ironic twist to the peaceful Pacific with its one-letter street logo, P.

The drug is no stranger to Micronesia, but has yet to hit the headlines as strongly in the other sub-regions.

Yet, in a strange déjà-vu parallel, just as women activists raised the alarm more than eight years back on the situation in the North Pacific, mothers on the Southern side of the Ocean are picking up the tremors of a growing trend with unease.

Asked what the key development obstacles were to Pacific families at a seven-country meeting for Ministries of Women in Kiribati in 2000, delegates from the US-connected north were loud and clear in their concern over ice and its devastating impacts. While a US drug enforcement administration agent raised the alarm (once more) over epidemic use—or abuse—in Micronesia last month, P has still kept a relatively low-profile in smaller, South Pacific islands communities such as the Cook Islands. Until now.

A small but growing number of Cook Islands families in Auckland and Rarotonga are being hit by the reality of P and its accessibility for Cook Islands youngsters.

That reality hit home hardest for one mum after her teen son, charged and put into custody in New Zealand, was locked away this year because of crimes linked to financing his habit.

Mere (not her real name), said she was devastated when her son broke the news that his first taste of the drug was back in the homeland.

Adding to the shock—he received the sample while out clubbing at a popular Rarotonga nightspot—from a bouncer.

Not much can be divulged about Mere’s son, who spent his 18th birthday last month in a jail cell. She fears gang-related retaliation if the connections exist to the Cook Islands supply which led to the then 17-year old’s ill-fated taste of the addictive drug.

While she says she missed the physical symptoms of her teen’s addiction, she picked up on his sudden mood swings while chatting to him over the phone.

“I found myself wondering if this was my son, where he had gone to in all that anger,” she remembers.

All too easily, she admits, she puts it down to those troublesome teen years, and it wasn’t until he faced the courts in Auckland that the truth hit home.

“The main thing is that it’s done. You’ve just got to be there and support them. Hopefully they don’t want to do it again, but the main thing is you’ve got to be there and tell them they are not that person, there’s so much else that is better about being in their shoes.”

Mere is well aware her compassion isn’t matched by the hordes of Cook Islands parents who give up on their troubled kids and send them to the traditional safety net: back home to the Cooks.

While no estimates are available, recent increases in the audacity and scope of youth crime have angered local communities and raised issues of parenting versus funded programmes for young people.

Worrying: Equally worrying are claims that a P-lab already exists on Rarotonga. But Police Commissioner Pat Tasker doubts that. He says the purchasing which would signify local manufacture isn’t happening.

The problem isn’t P the drug but P the parenting style, says an Auckland-based counsellor.

Working with Pacific families, mainly Cook Islanders and their troubled teens, Tara Mitchell* (not her real name) often visits Rarotonga.

Over a long period, she has picked up on the lack of state-funded counselling support and services for parenting skills to help homes deal with at-risk youth—targeting the critical period before critical choices are made which lead to criminal records.

“I was walking around at the local market and met my sister’s daughter—14 years old—in trouble for stealing to support her P habit.

“She was sent back here and begging me to take her back to New Zealand...she was in tears, and so was I. I felt for her, because other than talk to her, I couldn’t refer her to anyone for help. I just had to walk away.”

Picture too, the scenario which police workers face with youth and drugs. Their biggest problem is indeed, not P—but killer levels of freely available alcohol in a society which still celebrates binge drinking in sports and social contexts.

The homeland, while relatively P-free and with less of the gang problems which abound in South Auckland and other Pacific hotspots, is facing home-grown trouble of its own.

Asked if Cook Islands police had a policy on dealing with P, Commissioner Tasker responded: “If you mean ‘do we spend all day looking for it?’, the answer is no, as there are more pressing problems to deal with.

“If we come across it in the future, we will deal with it by seeking assistance from New Zealand which has more experience in the dealing with labs and have the correct equipment.”

The commissioner has extensive experience in his previous New Zealand post of P’s influence on communities.

He says he is in no doubt P has been or is in Rarotonga but apart from the small number of cases of visiting Cook Islanders from New Zealand displaying the classic symptoms, he says there is no evidence of it being an epidemic problem, or even a problem that comes to police notice.

That response doesn’t wear well with Mere, who says that Cook Islands police could do more than “sit back and wait” for the horrific impacts of P to make themselves felt. The counsellor agrees.

“Waiting for P to become a problem isn’t the answer. There’s lots of awareness raising and understanding of issues that could be happening, but it’s not just the police who need to act,” she says.

“Government and NGOs can make the most of ties with New Zealand to seek help in raising awareness about P and what it does, so parents can tell the difference between that and other drugs,” she says.

“I even spoke to people here about seconding me from New Zealand to help out here. It wouldn’t cost the Cooks any thing, other than a formal request from the ministry in Raro to my bosses. Nothing has happened.”

Meanwhile, the trend of sending ‘troubled’ young people home by their increasingly desperate families in New Zealand continues.

Whether they will be able to cope, or make such an impact that their families send them packing back to Auckland, one thing is clear. They are on their own and may well have to depend on another P—prayer.