27 Aug 2018

Synthetic drugs in Maraenui: A suburb afflicted by addicition

From Morning Report, 7:11 am on 27 August 2018

Grandparents, parents, siblings... and children as young as 11 are getting hooked on synthetic cannabis in Napier's suburb of Maraenui. It's hard to find anyone unaffected by the drug there - they are either hooked, have been hooked or know someone who is. While the police blame the Mongrel Mob, locals say it's just ordinary people making and selling the drug to feed their own addiction, or doing it to survive in a place where unemployment, poverty and desperation is high.