The plan to heal Murupara's meth addicted

A small eastern Bay of Plenty town is tackling its meth problem head on.

Police wastewater data released to 1News reveals that Murupara had one of the highest per captia consumption rates in the country, when it was completed in 2021. The data has not been released publicly before.

It found that on average an estimated 29 grams of methamphetamine was consumed per week of testing. This equates to an average per capita consumption of 2285 mg/day per 1000 people.

As a pretty loose comparison, the last available national results for quarter four of 2022 found that there was about 500mg/day per 1000 people.

Ormond Hines is the chief executive of Te Ahi Mauri, a meth harm reduction program. He believes that of the town of 2000 probably half use the drug.

"I've spoken to recovered users and people who are still in the know in the community for meth use and dealing. I thought that our usage in Murupara was 1 in 3 and I was corrected to say every other person uses meth in our community.

"So an appalling statistic.

"It wasn't always meth, back in the day it was dope. Murupara was one of the main highways for dope. Unfortunately meth is a demon compared to what they were using before."

He'd like Murupara to be on the national wastewater programme for testing, so they can have ongoing access to much needed data.

But in the meantime he isn't sitting still.

Last year, Te Ahi Mauri received about half a million dollars in government funding. He's stretched it to pay for alcohol and drug clinicians, support courses led by those with lived-experience of meth addiction and a rangatahi prevention program.

Te Ahi Mauri wrap clinical and other support around users - that includes dental and wider health help, housing, whānau issues, and as its te reo name suggests, its purpose is to rekindle a spark for things that make people happy.

Part of it connects users with things Murupara people love - hunting, fishing - all with a Te Ao Māori focus.

"I love it, I love being out in the bush, you know it's a place of peace," recovering addict Quade Tai said while on a pig hunting trip as part of the programme.

"You come in here, you feel good when you come home."

The pigs gave him the slip on this outing, even as the kurī (dogs) have sniffed, chased and been monitored on GPS crisscrossing forestry tracks.

Tai's looking for a natural dopamine hit from doing ordinary things. The aim here is to help ease a 21-year addiction to methamphetamine.

"It's just something I need just to get out of bed, just to function just to do everyday things, get my kids to school and pick my kids up from school, sit up there and do the homework, do all that there. I just needed it, it became a functional thing," the 34-year-old said.

"You have to have it, without it I'm no-one and when I'm no-one I'm nothing."

The local top cop Rotorua Area Commander Inspector Herby Ngawhika is a fan of their work.

"You've got people who are willing to draw a line in the sand and say 'hey, we love our town and we've had enough and we want to do something about this'.

"They operate on a shoestring budget, everything's very simplistic for them in what they want to do. Very holistic, Te Ao Māori view."

He's also on the steering group for Te Ahi Mauri. It's good police strategy to help build resilient communities, he said.

"We can almost liken it to the hammer and glove type scenario. Yes, we've always had the enforcement and we're quite comfortable in that space.

"For us as an organisation, our point of difference is coming from the other end with the prevention aspects and this is the beauty about being involved with Te Ahi Mauri."

Meanwhile, Quade Tai is headed to a rehab facility in Auckland.

Te Ahi Mauri know they don't have all of the services. They've organised the placement and as they see him off they tell him, they're in his corner.

"We're here to support you all the way, we're not giving up on you."