Roadshow in drug problem denial
Candor Trust
 
The condolences of new Police Minister Judith Collins to the family of innocent shoot-out victim Halatau Naitoko will ring hollow, if she declines to deal with an apparently typical background to this latest tragedy. One of several weeks of fumbling by the authorities, which are oddly ill equipped to deal with other than drunkard customers.
 
Stephen McDonald, whose lawyer today tried to reduce responsibility by blaming the drugs, was left in the community as a crazed methamphetamine user. Left for weeks to drive around in a vehicular weapon or 3, and ended armed with a gun to further heighten disaster odds. He'd apparently lost his licence due to prior traffic offending, and there it's thought that he was driving impaired by methamphetamine use, or after effects.
 
It does not take a psychic to know this was unlikely to have been the first time he did this, the first sign of big trouble, or of trouble that might easily have been identified and averted.
Or that until Legislators and Police get their acts together, apologies will remain part of a vaudeville show.
 
Perhaps most damning is that of 29 charges McDonald now faces, not one appears to be that of driving while drug impaired. How could that be when he reportedly uses enough to gain amnesia for several days. Could NZ Polices lack of legal power to collect blood evidence of drug impairment be the reason this serious offence, strongly queried in the media, still remains a matter of speculation?
 
More importantly, could any attempts to detect such risky drug impairment at his prior contacts with Road Police (if enabled by upcoming laws) have facilitated earlier intervention? Such as apt sentencing that would have seen no lives of Police or Civilians being risked on the day of his final and heinous road based crime spree?
 
If so, then the agency of NZ Police have a lot more to answer for in the gestation of this tragedy and than the facts already presenting in surface story might suggest. The Police Minister promises a transparency around the 3 related inquiries, but Candor suspects this transparency won't extend as far as revealing the drug contents of McDonalds blood; if this important clue to the motive was even checked.
 
In a similar but slightly better managed case 25-year-old Matthew Newton who has been dodging court dates in the South Island’.was placed in custody on Christmas Eve. The drug user had failed to appear on charges including possession of a pistol. He was eventually arrested between Rakaia and Dunsandel when police closed State Highway 1, and he now faces additional charges of dangerous driving while prohibited, and possession of cannabis.
 
In the meantime, a series of further charges was laid against him in the Christchurch Court arising from a serious crash there in August. These included driving while prohibited, driving in a manner that caused injury, and possession of methamphetamine. The Police and Judge who dealt with Matthew Newton were conscientious, so far as our dated legal frameworks in regard to drug driving, and sentencing weaknesses in relation to drug treatment enabled them to be. They contained the acute threat via remand in custody 
 
Is it not a stark contrast that the offender who just swung the weights in favour of killing an innocent on Auckland's motorway, has had no firm intervention from the Courts despite a trail of red flags.
 
Under the British Justice System, it is much more likely no Officers would have come under fire, and that no innocents would have been killed. Firstly, drug drivers and drug driven offenders are promptly  ID-ed. Secondly their threat is often neutralised, by problem intervention. 
 
The Drugs Act (2005) atop new drug driving legislation empowered Police to mitigate the high risks of Class A drugs. Its aims are socially acceptable, unlike NZ's Misuse of Drugs Act (current form). The UK Act increases the effectiveness of the Drug Interventions Programme by getting more offenders into treatment, and enhances police and court powers against drug offenders.
 
If Judith Collins and Co. are serious in their condolences they will concede regrettable approaches, and make concretely addressing New Zealands denied drug problem a part of the 100 day priority list. A top starting point would be to review with Ministerial Advisers the content of the UK Drugs Act. It allows testing of drug offenders on arrest, before charging, and requires assessment of those testing positive. Special orders can be attached to ASBOs issued to adults with anti-social behaviour, requiring drug counselling.
 
ends 
 
 

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