Police Minister Paula Bennett is urging gangs to work with police to solve New Zealand's methamphetamine problem.
Bags of methamphetamine seized by police Photo: SUPPLIED/New Zealand Police
Ms Bennett opened the Australasian Drug and Alcohol Strategy Conference today, saying there was a tension between police trying to control the supply and people getting caught in the cycle of substance abuse.
"How do we get that balance right?
"It's not always the criminal that then is pedalling the drugs, it's often the drugs that lead to the criminal behaviour... Somewhere in there, there is a better intervention than what we're currently doing," she said.
Police wanted a "genuine commitment" from gangs that they would stop the importation, manufacture and distribution of methamphetamine, Ms Bennett said.
"So I call that out to our gang communities in New Zealand.
"We do want to work along side of you and we do see that it's a genuine problem and we accept you've got one as well, but I equally say there is something you can do that would have a bigger effect than anything that the government could do as well."
Police Commissioner Mike Bush said preventing and dealing with the consequences of P had been tough, and there needed to be more debate around how it could be stopped altogether.
Enforcing the law was a much simpler concept, though, he said.
"Every resource we can possibly put into absolutely dismantling organised crime groups and gangs, we should do.
"We need to take their money, and we need to put them in jail. That's how you do it," Mr Bush said.
