Drug users are turning to "home bake" heroin as a reaction to criminal gangs' grip on the drug trade, the New Zealand Police Association says.
Drug users, anxious to escape the threats, debts and violence associated with organised crime, were turning back to home bake, according to the association's magazine Police News.
Home bake became popular in the 1980s when the "Mr Asia" syndicate was broken up and imported heroin supplies dried up.
Police News said some pharmacists had reported to police a sharp increase in people apparently shopping for codeine-based products, which can be "baked" into morphine and then converted to heroin.
Heroin has been a relatively minor drug problem in New Zealand since its peak in the 1970s and 80s.
