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ACC pays out $3m to drug-addicted police
NZ Herald, 1 April 1999
CHRISTCHURCH - ACC has paid nearly $3 million to 12 former undercover police officers suffering from drug addiction and post-traumatic distress syndrome.
ACC issued the figures through Associate Minister Marie Hasler, who was responding to an Official Information Act request from a former undercover officer.
The figures show that the Accident Rehabilitation and Compensation Insurance Corporation has paid $171,410 in lump-sum compensation for loss of bodily function and enjoyment of life and $2,694,725 in wage-related compensation to the former officers.
The first payments were made in 1990 when a former Dunedin undercover officer claimed his work had turned him into a drug addict and traumatised him to such an extent that he had post-traumatic distress syndrome.
One officer working undercover in the late 1980s said he had received about $550 net a week for the 10 years he had been out of the police.
He had not stopped using cannabis during that time.
"Some would say we have been on the pig's back, getting good money for smoking dope."
"The real scandal is that it has been allowed to continue like this, with undercover officers still being casualties."
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