Legal highs growing addiction at rehab centres

  • Breaking
  • 21/04/2014

The Auckland City Mission says synthetic cannabis abuse will become a bigger problem than methamphetamine.

Rehabilitation centres say they are being swamped with synthetic cannabis users, and some will go to extraordinary lengths to get their fix.

Footage was uploaded to the Campbell Live Facebook page showing synthetic cannabis users queuing up outside a legal highs shop in Palmerston North at 1am on Saturday morning.

The shop had been closed all day for Good Friday, and people were waiting outside when it reopened at midnight. The cameraman says: "This is what it's doing to New Zealand."

Police have confirmed around 100 people, many from out of town, were queuing.

Three News has been told it was a similar situation in Auckland, and the City Mission says synthetic cannabis abuse is a major problem.

"This is going to be worse than P," says team leader at Auckland City Mission's detoxification service Irene Rama. "I really think it's going to be worse because it's legal."

Ms Rama says people as young as nine are using synthetic cannabis and most users are surprised at how addictive it is.

"At least 90 percent of clients coming through detox have used synthetic cannabis," she says. "They're telling me that it's the hardest thing that they've ever come off."

But it is possible. One boy 3 News spoke with, who did not want to be identified, recently quit after two years of smoking, sometimes every day. He was just 13 when he started and has a message for those who still smoke it.

"Just stop," he says. "Just stop completely. Just don't keep going because if you keep going you're just going to smoke yourself to your death."

New Zealand websites let people buy synthetic cannabis online. And other websites show where to get it over the counter, with more than 25 shops in Auckland alone.

Rehab centres say the temptation of legal and easily available drugs is making their job harder.

"A lot of our clients are staying for three to four days and then they're leaving because they need to go and buy some synthetic cannabis," says Ms Rama.

She says making it illegal would help reduce the problem and make frenzied queues at legal highs shops a thing of the past.

3 News

source: newshub archive