Death to ‘P’ but not to its smugglers

Lisa McNab

Te Tai Tokerau, June 28, 2017

Nobody quite grabs the public attention like Hone Harawira.

Fighting the devastation caused by meth in Maori communities is something Hone has been doing since he got out of Parliament and we are seeing the fruits of his work in the ‘Fight the P Fight Night’ held recently in Kaitaia, his work with the Rugby League community across the Far North and with the gangs, and his Open the Curtains initiative which is helping bring people together to build a park for their children in one of the toughest parts of Kaitaia.

Multi-agency partnership

Hone is working across all sectors of society on this, including the Police, the District Health Boards, gangs, lawyers, sports clubs, doctors, unemployed, drug users, drug reformers, hospital administrators, army personnel, criminology students, teachers, social service providers, community activists, churches and judges.

He has seen upclosehow P destroys people’s ability to think rationally, the friction it causes within whanau, and the breakdown of trust in communities when addicts start lying, stealing, borrowing, bullying, bashing and bludging off those closest to them to feed their habit, and he has been to tangi where his nephews have died because of P.

No Capital Punishment

We understand the rationale behind Hone’s comments about the execution of those caught smuggling meth or its precursors into New Zealand stop the drugs at the source and you reduce the harm that those drugs can cause to all NZ citizens, including Maori – but the Mana Executive does not support capital punishment.

Hone’s comments have dragged the Fight against P into the public arena, and they match the energy and the commitment he has brought to his work in the community.

We support Hone’s call for political action to halt the importation of drugs into Aotearoa, and we call on other politicians to start attacking the devastation being caused by P.

Lisa McNab is President of ‘Mana Movement,’ formerly known as ‘Mana Party.’ The above comments were in response to a question on her Party’s position on Hone Harawira’s comments about ‘Executing Chinese drug smugglers.’

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