South Auckland drug users are increasingly turning to secretive mass group chats to buy and sell large quantities of illegal drugs, with police admitting they are difficult to stamp out.
Information was provided to 1 NEWS by a former member of several large Facebook chat groups, which reportedly have "hundreds of members", and where "drugs are sold in big quantities".
"Pounds of weed and big shipments of crack and stuff," the source said.
"You have buyers and people who sell both drugs in big quantities."
1 NEWS has decided not to name the person, who spoke out against the groups due to concerns about the effect they are having on the South Auckland community.
"It was no longer safe to stay in those groups due to the dealers carrying weapons," they said.
"These drug chats exist and are getting worse each day."
Screenshots seen by 1 NEWS show three such group chats with people appearing to be looking to have drugs delivered to them.
The source said there are many more active groups and that they change frequently and membership spreads through word of mouth to avoid detection.
A spokesperson for police said they did not reveal too much about what they are doing to combat such groups, as that could potentially compromise their investigations.
TAKEN SERIOUSLY
They did, however, reassure the public that they are taking them "extremely seriously".
"That investigation process will involve a range of techniques such as working with telecommunication providers to lawfully access account information," the spokesperson said.
"Historically, international law enforcement agencies have successfully taken down a number of sites focused on the trade in illegal drugs, firearms and other commodities.
"The nature of the internet means that often offenders will move to newly established websites or social media applications to continue their activity if one site is shut down."
The spokesperson said where police were unable to actually identify people involved in the groups, steps would be taken to disrupt their activities.
DEMAND DOES NOT DIMINISH
NZ Drug Foundation's Nathan Brown said demand for drugs "never seems to diminish" and that New Zealand needs to reconsider its approach to drugs.
"It is unsurprising that people turn to Facebook and similar ways of communicating with each other to access drugs of choice ... as soon as one avenue is shut down another will open," Mr Brown said.
"The police can only do so much in the face of strong demand.
"There are lots of reasons people use drugs ... pain relief, coping with depression, anxiety or trauma, relaxation, or even enhancing a social experience ... until we address the reasons behind drug use, we can believe drug use will continue.
"What we need is a broad set of measures that tackle the reasons why people use drugs in the first place, and we need to regulate supply of some lower harm substances (such as cannabis) to provide people with a less dangerous option.
"The current law is acting as a barrier to people getting the help they need ... in the short term we can offer advice, but the long term answer is changing the law so drug use is treated as a health issue."
Justice Minister Andrew Little announced in December last year that a referendum will be held on personal cannabis use at the 2020 election, with the outcome agreed to be binding.
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