A three-month police operation targeting the illegal sale of Ritalin has resulted in the arrest of a South Dunedin woman police say is the "kingpin" of the black market sales of the drug in the city.
This comes after concerns from the chairman of Needle Exchange New Zealand that since the reclassification of party pills in April there has been an increase in the abuse of the drug.
Sergeant Chris McLellan, of the police tactical response section in Dunedin, said a 51-year-old woman was facing five charges of procuring the class B drug Ritalin, an indictably laid charge of selling Ritalin and one charge of selling the class C drug Diazepam.
Sgt McLellan said it was particularly concerning as the woman was alleged to have been buying the medicine from 15- to 20-year-old on a regular basis.
The youths had been modifying their supply before selling the remainder, he said.
Some of the youths had been referred to police youth aid and other charges were possible.
The operation, nicknamed Ritz, focused on the South Dunedin house of the arrested woman and included surveillance and search warrants along with information from medical practitioners, pharmacists and the public.
The woman was well known to members of the Dunedin "drug-taking community", he said.
She would appear in the Dunedin District Court today and police would oppose bail.
Sgt McLellan said police had serious concerns about the illegal sale of Ritalin and would treat any offences harshly.
New Zealand Needle Exchange chairman Stephen Farquhar said since the reclassification of benzyl-piperazine (BZP) in April, he believed Ritalin had been sought by users to replace the high that party pills were associated with.
The abuse of methylpheni-date, which goes under the trade name of Ritalin, was more of a problem in South Island cities that it was in the North Island, he said.
In the past decade, there has been at least one death reported in Dunedin linked to Ritalin abuse, and there have been cases of children having their medication stolen.
Police operations about 10 years ago in the city netted up to 50 people at once involved with supplying and dealing the drug.
Many users obtained the drug on prescription or from a third party who was prescribed the medication, he said.
The price on the street about five years ago was $1 per mg, which meant a tablet would cost $10.
He was unsure of current prices, but expected them to have risen.
He said it was hard to gain an accurate idea of how many people abused the drug in Dunedin or Otago.
Methcon drug education group director Mike Sabin said there was a danger when stimulants were normalised to the public, as was the case with BZP, because when it was removed from the market there was still a demand.
It was highly likely that methamphetamine and Ritalin had replaced the use of BZP for some people, he said.
Ritalin had been abused as a stimulant for many years, and that problem continued today.
Mr Farquhar said the main issue was with supply and demand.
"The Government changed the prescribing options for medical practitioners some years ago in an effort to decrease the supply but this was largely unsuccessful.
Decreasing the demand can be attacked with education but to date this too has been relatively unsuccessful."
Ritalin
What is Ritalin?
• Ritalin is a trade name for methylphenidate.
• Prescribed by doctors to treat ADHD in children.
• Used intravenously, it acts as a stimulant.
Side effects
• Stroke and heart attacks.
• Highly addictive, with no known way for addicts to break habit.
