As methamphetamine’s stranglehold in New Zealand continues to grow in strength, there’s a new kind of victim showing up to GP surgeries and hospitals – the people who unwittingly live in a home that once accommodated a meth lab.
“People are getting sick because of the invisible toxins from meth. This is a big problem, more widespread than we realise. We should be as aware of this as we are the effects of asbestos and lead paint,” says Australian academic and lecturer Dr Jackie Wright, who has completed a PhD on the health effects of clandestine meth labs.
She and other people working in this new area arising from the growth in the drug’s manufacture, speak to The Australian Women’s Weekly in the November issue, on sale now.
“It’s such a toxic and powerful drug that the residue seeps into any porous surface – carpet, curtains, plaster, even the timber frames of homes,” says Dr Wright.
“The impact is profound, from headaches and sleep deprivation to respiratory problems, asthma and eye complaints. Some homes may have to be demolished because they can’t be decontaminated.
“We are seeing more and more people who have moved into homes without knowing they were once used as a drug lab become sick. Even people who don’t use meth themselves but share homes with meth users are becoming sick.”
In New Zealand Housing New Zealand owns approximately 64,000 properties. From 2015 t0 2016 they found 688 of their homes tested positive for meth contamination.
Auckland holds the dubious honour of being the country’s leader in methamphetamine production with more meth labs uncovered by Housing New Zealand than in any other city. Testing cleaning and then retesting meth labs in public housing costs Housing New Zealand s minimum of $14,350 per house.
One of the people at the front line of this new fall-out from the meth crisis is Josh Marsden, the managing director of Meth Lab Cleaners Australia, where the problem is also growing. He told us that “soon cleaning up meth labs will be as common as pest control”.
“There’s no way I’d buy a house or rent a house without testing for meth first,” he said.
To read The Australian Women’s Weekly’s investigation of this issue grab the November edition out now
