Gang pill abuse ‘common’

Press, 12 September 1988, Page 3

Gang pill abuse ‘common’

PA Wellington Doctors intimidated by gang members desperate for prescription pills should give them what they wanted and get help later, a Health Department pharmacist, Mr Doug Longmire, said yesterday. Mr Longmire is one of two Health Department officials who monitor prescriptions of abusable pills in Wellington and Wairarapa.

His comments stem from a report in the “Dominion” quoting the concern of the Black Power president, Mr Rei Harris, about an epidemic of gang pill abuse which was causing violence.

Mr Harris said it was too easy for gangs to get supplies using stand-over tactics.

Mr Longmire said he had heard of doctors being intimidated, but had never been approached about it, possibly because doctors would be too embarrassed or frightened. “But certainly in the case of intimidation all advice we would give would be to give them what they want and seek help later,” he said. Mr Longmire said the pill-abuse problem was widespread and very common with gangs in the region.

It was likely gangs were organised, and used nonpatch associates and wives and girlfriends to get prescriptions for them, by pure “manipulation.”

He said part of his brief was to inform doctors of trends, and well known prescription abusers and their techniques. The problem was large enough to support a monthly newsheet for doctors.

Mr Longmire said this year there was a big problem with one particular type of pill being abused, mostly by gangs, in Wairarapa. Pharmacists and doctors were shocked when they found what was happening to prescriptions. In a month, one pharmacist dispensed 700 pills before he found they served no real purpose, otjier than to be “hit.”