8 December 2008 - Following the death of Lee Mettam and meeting in Whangarei to discuss the methamphetamine crisis gripping the North and New Zealand, the important message to take away is that communities must take up the challenge of reducing the attractiveness of P and prevent its use wherever possible according to MethCon Group Director Mike Sabin.

"It is important to remember that there is no one silver bullet and any responses need to be consistent, coordinated and widespread, before they are likely to bring sustainable change both in the North and nation-wide", said Mr. Sabin.

"Knowledge is the power from which change can develop and grow, while ignorance is the glue that holds drug cultures together and one of the most significant outcomes from the meeting on Thursday is the increased knowledge and therefore power to change of some 400 motivated citizens of the North should not be underestimated", said Mr. Sabin

"The point is, that until we as individuals, as families and as communities can learn how to 'unsell' the attractiveness of this drug and reject the romantic notions of the 60s of so called 'recreational drug use', no amount of effort from central or local government will gain much traction", claimed Mr. Sabin

"In this sense, meaningful health and science based education is so vital and something which I believe is the key to undermining the demand for P and indeed other destructive drugs such as cannabis, which ultimately ensure there is continued financial incentives for their supply", said Mr. Sabin.

"While I will continue to encourage central government responses to build a better platform for change, it is important that we all accept some ownership of this problem and use our sense of community to work with our families and those within our sphere of influence in terms of attitudinal shift,"

"Both John Carter and Phil Heatley, MPs in North, along with the National led government have made it clear that P needs to be tackled and have signalled their intention to work at better ways to do that, however I am tired of everyone looking to others for answers", said Mr. Sabin

"We all need to do our bit and reducing demand and preventing P and drug use is something we all need to accept we have a hand in. The problem would disappear in a matter of weeks if the nation accepted that rejecting drug use was up to them. It is a problem of a nation and we must come together as a nation to accept our collective role in its solution," claimed Mr. Sabin.

"Beyond this, I will be pushing hard for two critical changes which I believe will catapult us toward a solution; abandoning the harm minimisation philosophy to our national drug policy and the instigation of a national drug control policy office, over and above the Ministries which will oversee all policy relating to drug strategy down through the Ministries."

"I want to speak with the Prime Minister personally about these critical areas of change I believe are needed. Change will come when the right blend of framework and community ownership are achieved, so lets just get busy changing", said Mr. Sabin.