'Absolutely ludicrous': Meth pipes easily available to purchase in shops across Northland

Meth pipes are often sold with an attachment that allows them to be used as, or passed off as, cannabis pipes. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf

Northland drug and addiction services frustrated by the easy availability of meth pipes are calling on retailers to pull drug utensils from their shelves - and for police and health authorities to enforce the law.

RNZ's visits to vape stores, $2 shops and dairies in Northland suggest it's likely hundreds, possibly thousands, of shops around the country sell glass pipes for smoking the country's most pernicious and addictive drug.

That finding comes just days after dozens of alleged meth cooks and dealers were arrested in major police busts across Northland and Auckland.

Rhonda Zielinski, kaiwhakahaere (chief executive) of Whakaoranga Whānau Recovery Hub in Kaikohe, described the situation as "absolutely ludicrous".

Rhonda Zielinski, kaiwhakahaere (chief executive) of Whakaoranga Whānau Recovery Hub. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf

"I think the government should be able to stop the sale of those items. I mean, they're drug paraphernalia," she said.

The recovery hub provided a much-needed residential programme for ex-addicts trying to rebuild their lives.

Zielinski said if any of her clients had a meth pipe they would be sent packing immediately - and police could charge anyone they found on the street with a P pipe in their pocket for being in possession of a drug utensil.

Yet the same pipes were openly for sale on the town's main street.

"It just seems insane to me, particularly when there's been so much attention on Kaikohe about being the meth capital of the world, and we've got our police doing the best that they can with the recent busts, but you can buy all the paraphernalia you require from a $2 shop, a dairy, or even Temu," she said.

To find out how easy to is to buy meth pipes, RNZ went shopping in two Northland towns.

In Kaikohe, one out of three vape stores, two out of three $2 shops, and one in two dairies visited sold glass pipes for smoking meth, ranging in price from $14 to $25.

In some cases the pipes were displayed openly on the counter, sometimes alongside children's novelty items.

In Kerikeri, not a town usually associated with meth use, the pipes were even easier to find.

All three $2 shops, a vape store and a combined dairy/vape shop sold glass meth pipes, with prices starting from $11.

When we asked what the pipes were for, most shop assistants said they didn't know.

Only one said the pipes were for smoking powder, as opposed to the even more ubiquitous cannabis pipes.

Tia Ashby, tum