Mad on Meth: How New Zealand got hooked on P

Why cook at home when you can order in? Only fifty years ago in New Zealand, methamphetamine was a publicly prescribed drug used by housewives, shift workers, students, and anyone looking for a boost. Legal for decades and treated no different to caffeine, meth was about to undergo a rebrand as the most dangerous and destructive drug in the world. With dry wit and biting insight, journalist Benedict Collins takes us inside the evolution of meth in New Zealand. From ram raids for pseudoephedrine to our own cooks and gangs 'breaking bad', a visit to the Golden Triangle of meth production in South-East Asia, multimillion-dollar busts, and a moral panic that seeded a meth-testing scandal. All set the stage for unthinkable crimes and drug-fuelled mania, but also serviced a hidden world of white-collar users - and cemented New Zealand's reputation as among the biggest meth consumers in the world. How did tough on crime become dumb on drugs? And what does a solution to Pure addiction look like? * 'A terrific, gripping read that challenges us to think differently about one of New Zealand's biggest problems.' Jarrod Gilbert, bestselling author of Patched: The History of Gangs in New Zealand 'Engrossing and written with flair, Benedict Collins tells the story of how demonising drugs and drug users causes more harm than good. The upside is: there is a better way.' Professor Michael Baker, co-author of 'Minimising the Harms from Methamphetamine' (NZ Drug Foundation/Helen Clark Foundation)