Australian Ice Thread

[poledriver]

Struggle Street’s Billie Jo Wilkie reveals her ice addiction and her year in prison with Harriet Wran

STRUGGLE Street’s most notorious star Billie Jo Wilkie has revealed that she has just spent more than a year in prison and that she had a serious ice addiction.
Speaking exclusively with news.com.au, Billie Jo — who made world news when she smoked a marijuana bong on camera while eight months pregnant - says she was “smashed on ice” while filming the SBS reality show.
The series, which aired last year, focused on the lives of people living in the western Sydney suburb of Mt Druitt.

Wilkie and her partner Bob Quinn admitted they were both high on ice during filming of the show and had bought methamphetamines with welfare money freed up when SBS paid for their food and phones.
“Ice is bad s**t man,” Bob told news.com.au, “that time [filmed on Struggle Street] when I wouldn’t come to the door, I was pretty out of it that day.”
“You were smashed,” Billie Jo interjected. “SBS gave us a card to put Maccas on and our phones and that so, yeah, we were buying ice.

“It was disgusting. We were given money and taken out to do drug deals. They [SBS] took us out to get on.
“It was s**t.”

“Yeah,” Bob agreed, “I fell into oblivion with drugs.”
The pair, who broke up under the pressure of having the spotlight shined upon their lives, are back together and struggling with their notoriety and lives since the show finished.
Desperate to escape the Mt Druitt area, and the squalor and social problems which SBS’s Struggle Street focused upon, the pair have nevertheless achieved a huge milestone.
Both have given up drugs, with Billie Jo admitting that if she hadn’t she “probably would have died”.

“It’s a terrible life being on ice,” Bob said. “It’s just misery. I still have a daily struggle and we have these c***s who still come around and say can we get some and we’ll spot you some for free, the mother f***ers.”
Bob gave up taking ice last Christmas and encouraged Billie Jo to do the same.

She had received a jail sentence for driving offences, after she was caught driving while disqualified four times, and twice in one day.

She was sent to prison for 13 months. The term was just 11 months less than the minimum former NSW premier Neville Wran’s daughter Harriet received for her role in the murder of ice dealer Daniel McNulty.
Billie Jo did her time in Kempsey prison on the Mid North Coast, Dillwynia Women’s Correctional Centre in western Sydney and at Silverwater.
She was sentenced just a month after SBS screened the Struggle Street promo which showed her sitting on a toilet while she was pregnant and smoking drugs with her mother, Carlene.
Her TV fame preceded her in the yard with the other women prisoners.

“I copped it in jail. They’d yell out ‘hey Struggle Street, there goes Struggle Street’,” Billie Jo said.
For the first half of her sentence she took drugs in prison including ice and “bupe”, or Buprenorphine a drug like methadone distributed to heroin addicts in prison.
“Every couple of months I was doing drugs in there,” she said.

“I thought if I am in here and I get out of here and I’m still using it will have all been for nothing, so six months before I was due out I stopped.

“I’ve seen [other female inmates] collect debts in there and I thought if I get out and I’m using I’m going to kill myself.”
Billie Jo said she spent time in Silverwater Prison with an inmate called Harriet, but she didn’t realise until she got out that it was Wran, who she said had been a model inmate inside.

Released three months ago, Wilkie is back living with Bob at Lethbridge Park, a neighbouring suburb of Mt Druitt.
The couple cannot go anywhere without being recognised, which they say they “hate”.

“We were tricked into doing it by SBS because they told us it was a documentary and then we have been bullied and degraded on air,” she said.
“Now we’re attacked online and just walking down the street everyone knows us.

“It doesn’t matter where we go, everyone knows us. I hate the attention all the time.”
Bob, who has spent time in hospital and has suffered serious family issues with his children, said he just “wanted to get out of this sh**hole”.

“I want to get out of public housing and start working again and rent. While I was in hospital there were squatters living in this house and they trashed the joint,” Bob said.
“Housing blames me. They hate me because of the show.
“I just want to get somewhere quieter, maybe down the coast, where we don’t have people knocking on the door through the night.”

Bob and Billie Jo said with hindsight they should never have agreed to go on Struggle Street, and anybody participating in future versions of the SBS series to “stay the f*** away”.
“Never again,” Bob said. “We were vulnerable. We were on the ice bad and they gave us money. It’s affected my family.”
The couple say they both suffer extreme lethargy since giving up ice.

“That the worst thing about being off the drug, you can’t walk five steps. Got no energy,” Billie Jo said. However, she has gained weight and her eyes, skin and hair are glowing.

Billie Jo, who comes from a troubled background, said the pressure of being degraded online made life difficult.
She has a horrific family history of neglect, death, abandonment and physical and mental illness.
She had a brother who died from drugs and a sister who died in 2014 from motor neurone disease.

“Mt Druitt is a s*** hole, it’s crap, don’t live here, but it’s got lovely people who’d do anything for you’” she said.
“But now, where do we go that no-one would know us?”

Billie Jo said among the online trolling she had received was a YouTube video entitled “If Bogans had a Dating Show” made by a man calling himself “The Bogan Bachelor”.
In the video he says “I’m looking for a sheila that likes the simple things in life”, and the screen cuts to the shot from Struggle Street of Billie Jo smoking the bong.
“I don’t even know him, but I’d like to find out and see if I can sue him,” she said.

Asked about allegations of drug-taking being encouraged during the show, SBS told news.com.au that “any claims that SBS was involved in alleged criminal activity are absolutely untrue”.
An SBS spokesman said: “Struggle Street was made with rigorous documentary production protocols and standards, and we continue to stand by the integrity of the series.

“As with all productions, duty of care to participants is paramount, and clear and informed consent obtained.
“The first series was broadly acknowledged as having a significant impact on the national conversation about social disadvantage, and the support needed to address the complex issues of poverty and hardship in Australia today.”

http://www.news.com.au/entertainmen...n/news-story/49e65d3f6c7edeb166033a35178defa8

 

[poledriver]

The town that started national anti-ice drug campaign reports mixed results one year on

A country community in New South Wales is uniting to fight the myths and stigma surrounding the drug ice, one year after it began a national campaign to dob in dealers.

Police said they were making inroads in tackling a methamphetamine problem in the central-west town of Wellington.

But the community responsible for starting what is now a national anti-drug campaign is battling the stigma of being linked to the so-called ice, or crystalline methamphetamine, epidemic.

"The issue is no worse in Wellington than in any other regional town," said Alison Conn, manager of Wellington Information and Neighbourhood Services, the town's multi-service centre.

"It's just that the community has stepped up and decided to do something about it."

Wellington's story makes national headlines

Like many regional centres, Wellington, a town with a population of about 5,000, five hours west of Sydney, is in dire need of resources to tackle the health and social consequences of the highly concentrated drug, as well as reduce its availability.

Last year concerned locals worked with police to set up a hotline to encourage friends and neighbours to anonymously give information about dealers, aiming to remove the stigma associated with "dobbing".

The operation has led to multiple arrests, ongoing investigations and a decreased supply in some areas, but resulting publicity has made solving the problem harder.

Wellington has been nicknamed the 'South Pole', and Channel Nine's A Current Affair said the drug had forced people "off the streets" and "in lockdown".

Breaking down barriers

The community this week refocused on the situation with a series of meetings involving community, health, and drug and alcohol representatives, as well as a public forum.

Workshop trainer and facilitator Annie Bleeker said one of the aims was to dispel the stigma and fears about the drug.

"We know on average it takes people five to 10 years to access treatment for this drug," she said.

"If we continue to stigmatise that person, that's going to take even longer, and we know the earlier someone is in contact with treatment, they are far better in being able to respond and get well again.
"What you have in smaller towns is it's more visible and many people know other people, so that can make it more difficult."

In NSW, the number of methamphetamine-related presentations to 56 public hospital emergency departments increased from 470 in 2009/10 to 4,771 in 2015/16.

Ms Bleeker, who has worked in the drug and alcohol sector since 1990, said a common misconception was the idea that ice use was ballooning.

She said the increase in emergency presentations was the result of a drastic increase in drug potency — from about 10 per cent purity in 2011 to an average potency close to 80 per cent by 2014.

Wellington senior sergeant Ross Gibson said ice was still "fairly accessible" in the town.

"More often than not, when we are called to an incident, whether it's to do with domestic violence or property theft, it can be linked back to a drug of sorts," he said.

"Alcohol plays a large part in the incidents we attend, as do drugs — that's the reality."

Community calls for help

At this week's public meeting, community members said drug dealers were openly operating in the town, and asked how police could keep up with the 24-7 trade when the local station closed overnight.

One resident said as soon as the station shut down, drug dealers opened up shop.

Sergeant Gibson said tackling drugs was an ongoing process, and while results so far were good, he called on the community to stay involved in the Dob in a Dealer campaign.

"It has led to the community participating and buying in to getting the drug out of our town, to targeting those drug suppliers and putting them before the court," he said.

But the community said it needed more police and health resources.

The State Government has allocated $4 million for non-government organisations to provide services in rural and regional NSW, including Wellington, but services will only operate part-time.

Long term recovery from addiction

Crystalline methamphetamine can trigger the brain to release up to 1,200 times the standard amount of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which helps control the brain's reward and pleasure centres.

The corresponding lows can make it a difficult addiction to recover from, especially when it takes up to 18 months for the body's dopamine levels to balance out.

That often means in-house rehabilitation support is needed.

"We need more rehabilitation space in the central-west so we can get people in when they are ready and in a timely manner," Ms Conn said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-22/dob-in-a-deal-program-one-year-on/7865390

 

[poledriver]

Police promise not to charge ice users — could this be the answer to Australia’s drug crisis?

IT’S every ice addict’s worst fear.
They receive a text message, not from a dealer or their junkie mates, but from the police.
“Your number has communicated with this person” — and in those six words the text informs them their number had been uncovered in a raid on a drug dealer, who has now been locked up.
But then it said something even more shocking.

“Please be assured you will not be prosecuted.”
The text messages, sent by police in Auckland, New Zealand, are part of a groundbreaking campaign to try and end the scourge of methamphetamine that has Kiwis and Aussies hooked in greater numbers than most other developed countries.
The police text then gives recipients three options to call for assistance, a helpline, an alcohol and drug service, or the number of a detective if they wanted help from police themselves, reported Newshub.
Of the 140 people, 20 chose to speak with police directly for help, a surprising result that one Australian expert has branded “innovative” and “open-minded”.

The people who met Auckland police face-to-face included wealthy company executives. New Zealand police say the approach is more beneficial than charging each meth user, and also allows them to gather intelligence on their focus, the dealers and cooks who spread the drug throughout the community.

John Coyne, head of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s border protection program, told news.com.au it was crucial police in this country adopted innovative ways to combat the ice crisis because “law enforcement on its own isn’t going to solve it”.

At the heart of what police should be doing was “harm reduction”, Dr Coyne said. And that meant thinking outside the square.
“What you see in the New Zealand example is police being incredibly innovative and open minded and remind themselves it’s not just about banging up crooks for using drugs.”
With ice consumption at record levels in Australia, and violent crime being fuelled by the drug, finding ways of getting addicts off it — permanently — is needed.
“Policing in its roots is about keeping people safe and problem solving ... saying ‘there’s a problem in our community so lets deal with it’.”

The problem with that approach was that all too often police were judged by the arrests they made or the amount of drugs that were taken off the streets.
“I think the challenge for police commissioners, whether they are in Australia or New Zealand, or NSW or head of the AFP, is the performance measures that drive police are very much focused on hard and fast metrics,” Dr Coyne said.
“Have a read of the last few annual reports and they talk about the astounding increases in drug seizures, the number of arrests and successful prosecutions.”
The number of Australians using methamphetamine has tripled over the past five years, according to estimates by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre.

A study in the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre found there were 268,000 regular and dependent methamphetamine users in Australia. Most worrying was the sharp increase in users aged between 15-24.
Last year Dr Coyne co-wrote Methamphetamine: Focusing Australia’s National Ice Strategy on the Problem, not the Symptoms, which said strategies to tackle ice were needed that were innovative and disruptive.

“In this strategy, law enforcement isn’t focused on arrests, prosecutions, custodial offences or seizures, as none of those will have a guaranteed impact on the problem. The focus is on means to reduce the availability of drugs, the disruption of user behaviour and the integration of education and health initiatives.”

A number of people would say the approach was wrong because it sent the wrong message and could be viewed as “going soft’ on criminals and drug users, Dr Coyne said. But his view was sending users through the courts and giving them a criminal record was not always the best tool in the fight against meth addiction.

“Chances are in the court system drug users won’t get a custodial sentence, but it will give them a drug conviction and that won’t allow them to drag themselves out of the [drug] mire. It’s not going soft on drugs, it’s about attacking the actual problem here.”
In terms of harm reduction, he said each of the people who took the police’s offer of help would inevitably lead to far less drama later in life.
“Think of how many crimes they commit per week in order to feed their habit and then multiply it ... You’ve saved a whole heap of angst later on.”

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/re...SF&utm_source=News.com.au&utm_medium=Facebook

 

[poledriver]

Party boy police officer admits using and selling METH – after he refused to take a drug test and quit the force the next day

Brendon Hanson pleads guilty to two counts of supplying banned drug
Told judge he used meth to cope with depression, anxiety and stress
Quit job after refusing to take a police drug test and is later arrested
Awaits Monday morning sentencing by justice Stephen Hanley, SC

A former Australian police officer with a taste for parties will soon have little to celebrate.
Brendon William Hanson has pleaded guilty to two counts of supplying crystal meth.
The 29-year-old former special constable is out on bail and faces a tense weekend waiting to be sentenced in a western Sydney courtroom on Monday morning.

Hanson told a judge on Wednesday he used ice to cope with stress, anxiety and depression, Nine News reported.
Penrith District Court was told that Hanson, a special constable in the NSW Police force for almost a decade, declined to take a police drug test in August 2015.
He quit his job the next day.

Detectives tapped his phone and followed his movements before arresting him in September last year, the court was told.
Police found more than 25 grams of methamphetamine and two replica pistols in his Sydney home.
In the year since his arrest, Hanson has been out on bail and undergone drug rehabilitation.

However, the court heard he was targeted as a former police officer during his treatment, Nine News reported.
Justice Stephen Hanley, SC, is due to sentence Hanson on Monday, October 10.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...n-awaits-sentence-supplying-crystal-meth.html

 

[poledriver]

Ice-crazed car thief jailed for ‘astonishingly dangerous’ joyride



A man who filmed himself driving a stolen car with his knees while smoking ice has been jailed.

Polair clocked Jake Robert Dixon, 24, travelling at 180km/h on April 17 for almost three hours before police used road spikes to stop the stolen vehicle, Queensland Times reports.

Dixon filmed part of the ordeal that started near the Sunshine Coast, before travelling to Brisbane and Ipswich.

At one point the 24-year-old recorded himself steering with his knees and smoking a “crack bong” in the wrong lane while manoeuvring past oncoming traffic.

“We would like to apologise to our mummies and daddies, if we do get caught at the end of the night, we got caught doing what we love mummy and daddy" a second person in the car could be heard saying off camera.

Magistrate Deborah Vasta, who sentenced Dixon to three years’ jail, said it was the worst case of reckless driving she has ever seen.

“It really is quite astonishingly dangerous, I actually can't think of a more serious case of dangerous driving," Ms Vasta said.

“Cars don't get any faster than 180kmh, you can't get more dangerous than driving the wrong way.”

Dixon has also been disqualified from holding a drivers licence for nine years.

http://www.9news.com.au/national/20...shingly-dangerous-driving#fOEp6KsJb50yp3kx.99

 

[poledriver]

Vic ice killer to spend 17 years in jail

A homeless drug user who beat a stranger to death and dumped his body in a Melbourne creek will be deported after spending at least 17 years in jail.

Dion Laban couldn't remember the attack on Joel Desgranges and only admitted it when shown CCTV footage of the brutal murder.

The 32-year-old was walking behind Mr Desgranges, 59, through Sunshine on the morning of December 2 and they had a brief chat.

Laban, who was pulling a suitcase behind him, suddenly attacked the older man, punching, kicking and stomping on him.

He dragged Mr Desgranges' body to Kororoit Creek and continued to beat him with a branch.

Justice Elizabeth Hollingsworth said Laban was clearly affected by ice, but she was concerned about his history of using illicit drugs.

"I am somewhat guarded about your prospects for rehabilitation," Justice Hollingsworth said on Wednesday.

She said the likelihood of Laban reoffending is "inextricably linked to your drug use".

Laban's family are based in Australia but his visa was cancelled after the murder and he will be deported to New Zealand at the end of his sentence.

Mr Desgranges, originally from France, liked to walk in the mornings and usually met his friend at the train station before getting a coffee.

His friend was on holidays the day Mr Desgranges was murdered so they did not meet at the station that morning.

The friend has told the court he will forever feel guilty over what happened to his cheerful friend because Mr Desgranges might still be alive if he had not been on holiday and they had met that morning

Laban had been homeless and using ice for some time when he bumped into Mr Desgranges.

Justice Hollingsworth sentenced Laban to 21 years in jail, with a 17 year non-parole period.

She recommended he be given long term counselling to prepare himself for having to be sent back to New Zealand, away from his family, when his sentence is complete.

http://www.9news.com.au/national/20...es-jail-for-random-murder#5S7CDZTdKMteuBE2.99

 

[poledriver]

Accused in shock guilty plea to rape and murder of French student Sophie Collombet

BENJAMIN Milward has told his mother he deserves whatever is coming to him for the rape and murder of French student Sophie Collombet, as she warned of the dangers of the drug “ice”.

Two weeks before he was to stand trial, Milward yesterday pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court in Brisbane over the horrific attack on Ms Collombet as she walked home in March 2014.
The rare plea of guilty to a murder charge follows a swift but meticulous police investigation into a crime that provoked an outpouring of public grief and outrage.

Sophie Collombet.

Quick-thinking detectives were on Milward’s doorstep just hours after Ms Collombet’s body was discovered in a rotunda near Kurilpa Bridge in South Brisbane.

Deciding to check the nearby Ozcare hostel a few blocks away, officers discovered Milward was missing after failing to return home by curfew on the night of the murder.
The hostel houses convicted sex offenders and others on parole, despite being located a short distance from one of the city’s busiest tourist and entertainment precincts.

Witnesses soon told police that Milward twice injected the drug ice on the day of the murder, and had been drinking in the rotunda where her body was found.
He had previously been jailed for a year for serious assault and had been convicted of a string of other offences, such as stealing and causing a public nuisance.

On the day of her murder, Ms Collombet, 21, a business student, had been at Griffith University and had declined a classmate’s offer of a lift home. Instead, she caught a bus to the Cultural Centre terminal and walked along the Brisbane River towards her apartment about 9pm. An area that might normally have been full of people was deserted because of a storm that brought heavy rain.

A jogger discovered her body the next morning.
She was naked and had been covered in newspapers and a jacket.

DNA recovered from under Ms Collombet’s fingernails was found to be 1.1 million times more likely to have come from Milward than not.
His mother Diane Milward yesterday said he had pleaded guilty ahead of his trial because he was “sorry about everything”.

“He knows he deserves whatever is coming to him,” Ms Milward told The Courier-Mail. “He’s done a horrible thing and he deserves to be punished for it.
“I know people probably won’t believe this, but he’s so remorseful and devastated by what’s happened and he’s ready to accept whatever happens.”
Ms Milward was continuing to support her son, visiting him in the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre every two weeks.

“Why did he do it? The drugs, absolutely,” she said.
A conviction for murder carries a mandatory life sentence, with a minimum non-parole period of 20 years’ imprisonment.

Dressed in an untucked long-sleeve shirt and long pants, Milward showed no emotion and spoke only when asked how he pleaded to charges of rape and murder. “Guilty,” he replied to each.
A man believed to be Ms Collombet’s 27-year-old brother sat in the public gallery but declined to comment.

Justice Ann Lyons said she would sentence Milward on October 26.

http://www.news.com.au/national/que...t/news-story/89f85cdf45ae1b9476e96e8d04eecda7

 

[poledriver]

Rapper 360 says government anti-ice ads only entice addicts 'to go and score'

Melbourne rapper Matthew James Colwell, better known as 360, has revealed his battle to recover from methamphetamine, commonly known as ice, has been the hardest of all his drug abuse over the years and watching Victorian government anti-ice television campaigns only makes him itch for more.

"Out of all the drugs out there, there is one that is leagues ahead of every other drug in every way and that is ICE. It's the MOST addictive by far," he posted recently to his Facebook page.

He went on to say "government funded anti-ice campaigns are f---ing terrible" because "they have zero idea that simply showing a picture of a pipe will have every addict itching".

"Even just looking at the glass pipe literally sets them off, it's THAT bad. I guarantee that there's people out there who saw that advertisement and it caused them to go and score," he wrote.

The campaign Colwell appears to be referring to an ad that ran in 2014 and featured the slogan What Are You Doing On Ice?, and depicted young people blowing smoke in cars and holding smoking implements in their bedrooms (not included on this article for obvious reasons).

Attempts to speak to Colwell were dismissed by his agent who said he wasn't speaking to media at the moment.

Melbourne community agency TaskForce, which offers services to people with drug, alcohol and disengagement issues, has experienced some of the fallout of anti-drug campaigns, particularly on the 2500 clients living across the southern suburbs from St Kilda to Frankston and across to Dandenong.

TaskForce CEO Raymond Blessing says most heavy ice users feel vilified by the government ads, and some have complained of wanting to use again after seeing the ads.

"Our front-line staff say that the advertising demonises users, creates stigma and some clients say it gives them cravings. So it most instances they just wipe it away. It certainly doesn't appear to have any positive aspect, it just seems to create more of an issue for them about initiating cravings or causing that kind of activity in their mind," he said.

"To a degree it causes fear and apprehension in the community, it misdirects community views and it creates disproportionate government responses.

"From the feedback that I'm getting from the staff and from their indication of the thousands of clients we work with across the southern region of Melbourne, they don't see the campaign as successful. It seems to stimulate more interest in the drug than avoid it."

The Victorian Department of Health and Human Services, responsible for the campaign, has pointed out that the ads have not screened since 2014.

"The ads were specifically targeted at young Victorians, not people in treatment for ice issues," a department spokesman said in a statement. "They were developed with drug treatment experts and sector organisations, and were widely road tested on the target audience.

"The campaign evaluation shows it successfully met its objective to raise awareness about the harms associated with the drug ice, and in particular, it's highly addictive nature."

Mr Blessing believes it is more effective to work with information in schools and peer leadership as intervention rather than a blanket campaign on television that can actually be harmful to those using or heavily impacted by drugs, who "are a life story unto themselves".

"I just find that people making outrageous statements [that] ice users are just a disaster and there's no hope for them, it's just so negative and we're talking here about people's sons and daughters, brothers and sisters. At TaskForce we're [instead] saying, 'how can we help my brother or my sister'?, and for me it's about effective recovery and having easy access to counselling and easy access to support."

Colwell has made no secret of his drug addiction after posting rap I'm Sorry to Facebook in January, which detailed the mental health and drug battle that caused him to postpone his Utopia tour last year. It includes the lyrics "I should be dead, maybe I got nine lives. Seven left, 'cause I've already died twice".

Colwell says in his most recent post that ice is "the only drug that I still get cravings for", despite the fact that his drug of choice are opiates, mostly "80mg oxycontin, sometimes heroin and a lot of the time codeine when i couldn't get the oxy", and he has never been a huge ice smoker and has been living drug free for two years.

"I used to idolise people like Anthony Kiedes and Motley Crue, etc and all I wanted to be was a rock star and live that life. I actually lived that life and it was so much fun, at the start. So though my poison was opiates i'd be down for anything and everything. Coke, MDMA, Benzos, acid, 'shrooms, DMT, speed and the monster itself meth," he wrote.

"... Coke in Australia is terrible and costs a fortune though where ice whilst expensive lasts days on end. I loved going on benders so I used to smoke it a LOT. It never reached an everyday thing for me though ... as long as i had my Xanax and Oxy there was no such thing as a comedown so I was always down for it if others were too."

He details his fears for the next generation of Australians, given that the "majority of the people I know who use the shit end up doing it so much and for so long that they never come back".

"Out of everyone I know who has tried to quit I think 90 per cent haven't been able to stay off it. I only know a few people who have fully cut it out of their lives but it took years of hard work and many relapses whilst losing a lot of friends and family in the process. It is the devil," he wrote.

"I really do love this country but the effect ice is having on it is very noticeable and scares the shit out of me.

"The fact that in most rural towns you can probably find ice easier than you can weed says something. I know some people have had to move to another country because it's everywhere here and if you're an addict it can be impossible to escape.

"When I was young people would pass around a joint at parties, maybe even a rolled up note for some coke or x to snort. These days people are passing around pipes."

Mr Blessing says TaskForce treats many more people for alcohol addiction than ice, which makes up a smaller percentage of the population. But even so, any campaign that demonises people who are "just looking for a way out and don't know the way out" should be re-examined.

"I know of individual circumstances where some of the finest people and families here in Melbourne have got a child who is 20 or 30 who has been into drugs for 10 years, and particularly into ice, and you look at that family and you think 'they have tried everything' and it's heartbreaking for them," he said.

"So dramatic ads on television aren't necessarily going to help them. What they want is where can they find that doctor or that service that'll be able to hopefully break that cycle. And there's no guarantee that it will ever be broken but they need encouragement to keep trying but also then we need to be able to promote the good stories, and the positive stories of people who actually have been able to overcome this cruel substance."

The federal health department's eight-year national drug campaign, Ice Destroys Lives, most recently televised ads (in 2015) showing ice addicts attacking their family and hospital staff. It acknowledged that the aim of the campaign was to create negative attitudes towards drugs, but they argued that it was effective in communicating to young people at risk, and their parents, the harm ice created and it was not "counterproductive amongst this audience".

"More than 90 per cent of both youth and parents who saw the campaign indicated that they had taken some sort of action, predominantly around reinforcing existing knowledge about ice," a Department of Health spokesperson said.

They went further to say that "concept testing of the user groups found that ice users exhibit high levels of familiarity with the drug, the circumstances in which it is taken and its effects. In many cases users believe advertising about the harms of ice is a positive step for the government to take to target the population at large".

Its findings are published here.

A Victorian government spokesman said its Ice Action Plan does address "urgent issues to support families and provide treatment for users", while also protecting front-line workers and closing down manufacturers in a bid to make the community safer.

"More than $100 million has now been committed to implement the plan, including an additional $57.6 million announced as part of the 2016-17 budget," he said.

Colwell has encouraged users to seek help, saying: "It's not something you can beat on your own. Don't be ashamed either, being open and admitting it is a huge deal and is respectable. It takes balls."

http://www.theage.com.au/entertainm...-addicts-to-go-and-score-20161011-grznlk.html

 

[poledriver]

Former addict talks about ice 'demons' as St George comes together to take action

A former ice addict has described how his life spiralled out of control when he began using and selling methamphetamine, as the community of St George bands together to ensure addicts get the resources needed to get their lives back on track.

Travis Johnson, from Moree just over the NSW border, visited the south-west Queensland community as part of Lifeline's True Grit program on Tuesday night to educate about 150 students and concerned community members determined to tackle the drug scourge.

Mr Johnson said he began experimenting with drugs when he was 12 years old and said his life spiralled out of control when he was using and selling methamphetamine hydrochloride, also known as ice.

"It can be almost like living in a supernatural world — shadows move, you can hear voices, you can hear people speaking that you know aren't there," he said.

"I did feel like there were demons wanting me, targeting me ... wanting me to lose my mind and consume me.
"It can be quite scary but it doesn't seem to be enough to deter you from having it again."

He said if his parents were educated on the drug they could have helped with intervention earlier.

"I had no education around amphetamines — there was only scare campaigns," he said.

"There was no true education, so I said yes, blindly."
After a string of criminal convictions relating to selling and using ice, he was sentenced to rehabilitation 10 years ago.

"While I was in there I made the decision once I leave I want to start studying, I want to get into community welfare, I want to support the community. It helps me stay 100 per cent clean," he said.

'We need to wrap our arms around these people'

Program coordinator Kim Besley Scott said the education and awareness program would empower the community to take action and advocate for services needed.

"I don't think St George is the ice capital but the community needs to come together to look at how to rectify that problem," she said.
"We really need to consider what is it that's going to help this community needs to heal itself."

Mental Health occupational therapist Alex Donahue said the first step was getting people to self-acceptance.

"Sustained ice use is a self-harm behaviour; people don't hurt themselves for no reason," she said.

"We need to wrap our arms around these people and help them when they can't help themselves.
"We are not set up for that type of service provision so for somebody who is already going through a physiological and emotional trauma they then have that compounded by having to go to Toowoomba or Brisbane for services."

We're making progress on ice problem: local police

"When you're in a small community everything gets magnified as we are a close community," he said.

"We are no different to anywhere else but it does get blown up in proportion.
"We're making a dent on the ice problem within town and that's why we need that community base to continue their support with the local police."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-...lifeline-true-grit-program-queensland/7926462

 

[poledriver]

HOW USING ICE CHANGED MY LIFE FOREVER

Zachary had never used ice. But when his boyfriend introduced it to him at 19, his life changed forever.

When I first started using it, I had never really used drugs before. I had smoked a little bit of weed and drank alcohol, but nothing that has a Government-funded fear campaign to eradicate its use.

People always ask me why I decided to use ice in the first place.
In an attempt to make myself not seem pathetic, I usually say ‘I just wanted to try it’. But the truth is, I had a boyfriend named Clarke*, who I had no clue was an ice user when we first started dating.

I had never been around ice before and seeing the pipe scared the shit out of me at first.

He was a troubled man and as time went on, he would start to ‘borrow’ money off me even though he had a stable job and I was on the dole. He would call it borrowing but he never actually paid me back.

I had just the right level of low self worth to never question why he would always borrow money off me.

It wasn’t until a year into our relationship that I discovered he was an ice user. He would always disappear off the face of the planet. When we made plans to have a date or for me to stay at his place, he’d vanish for days on end.

“Is he cheating on me?” I’d worry. I didn’t really talk to my friends about my relationship issues because I was still newly out to my family and friends, who didn’t take it well. I just assumed they’d already dealt with me enough that year.

One night when Clarke and I were supposed to see each other, he disappeared again. I went out and got drunk with my friends instead of sitting at home, worrying about it.

And then he rang me while I was walking home from the bar.

He told me he was “smoking some stuff” with his friends and I assumed he meant he was smoking weed. I joked that it sounded like he was “smoking crack” and then there was a long silence.

Instead of getting mad, my 19-year-old self was curious.

I wanted to know what all the fuss was about so I asked him if I could try it.

This seems monumentally stupid to most people but this is also how I started smoking cigarettes. It didn’t even take peer pressure – I’ve always just been a curious person, and what better than to try new things with the guy you think you’re going to be with forever, right?

When I first saw the pipe, I had no clue how to use it. It was actually frightening for me, and gave me vivid flashbacks to my high school’s drug education program where they try to scare you with videos of ‘junkies’.

At first, he would hold the pipe and lighter – all I had to do was inhale and exhale. I watched the crystals melt into a fluid and then eventually begin turning into a vapour. He told me not to hold it in because the crystals would reform in my lungs and “fuck them up good”.

I exhaled the vapour and then I laughed. I had tried ice. I felt amazing.

I never was a popular person in high school – I was actually the fat kid. Even though I had lost all my weight and was seen as attractive by people now, I still felt like that fat kid.

But that fat kid died when ice was in my system and I didn’t think that way anymore. Suddenly I had self-esteem. Selfies became a big part of my routine.

My routine was pretty mundane until using ice. I wasn’t in university or working at the time, I was living at home with my parents and played Call of Duty in bed all day.

I was diagnosed with depression about three months before my first use because of my lack of motivation to do anything. I sometimes saw my friends but most of the time I couldn’t be bothered leaving the house.

That all changed. I became more talkative and outgoing when I used ice. I don’t know if it was just a delusion or if it was real, but I suddenly felt like someone with a razor sharp wit and snappy comebacks. That person I had always envied.

I was surrounded by pretty shitty friends at the time who would always talk negatively about everything and never did anything with their lives. They would always talk about going to TAFE or university, but never actually did it.

They also had a knack for making me feel like I couldn’t do anything either, so why bother trying?

We would just sit there and drink all the time and reminisce about things that happened in the past. We were 19 and already reminiscing about our lives, and that was acceptable to me.

Ice took that away and I realised how depressing and repetitive the “remember when” conversations were.

Suddenly I had motivation and enough self-esteem to defy what people said to me. I enrolled into university and said to myself that I would stop using ice before it started.

I eventually broke up with Clarke* when university was beginning but I also didn’t quit ice like I said I would. I now had to find my own supply of shard since we had been using his dealer to get it – and Grindr was more than happy to supply me with dealers.

It’s actually easier to find ice on Grindr than it is to find weed. I would meet up with guys about once a month or so when I wanted to use. I had told myself that if I only used once a month there was no problem and I was going just fine.

One night I met up with a guy who was having a party. I didn’t see any pipes around and then I was led into the kitchen. I quickly realised they were not smoking, they were shooting up.

Needles scared the shit out of me but what did I do? I got them to help me inject.

One of them was a doctor so I deemed it to be the safest opportunity to shoot up if I was ever going to.

It happened two more times after that and on the last time, while I was in a public bathroom with a guy from Grindr shooting me up, I looked at the moths hitting the caged light bulb and I said out loud without realising, “this is the last time. I can’t do this anymore”.

He laughed and under his breath said, “everybody says that.”

I haven’t used since.

Reflecting on my use, there was major self-esteem and self-worth issues.

My environment and social surroundings were not turbulent but they were problematic

I didn’t have a particularly bad childhood and both of my parents loved me a lot. When people would talk negatively about me I used to fight and take it on board, I would believe that I was a shit person.

Ice took that away. And it hasn’t returned either.

It might have just come with age – I had self destructive behaviour for sure, but I knew my limits and I am grateful.

*Clarke’s name has been changed to protect his identity.

http://www.starobserver.com.au/opinion/using-ice-changed-life-forever/153353

 

[poledriver]

Brisbane mum finds 'meth' inside toy egg in her young son’s backpack

A Brisbane mother has described her shock after finding what appeared to be methamphetamine stashed inside a toy egg in her six-year-old son’s backpack.

Mother-of-two Crystal Hill was cleaning her home last week when she found an orange plastic toy egg from a Kinder Surprise chocolate in her son’s backpack. Inside the egg was two clear pouches containing “chunky salt crystals”.

“I happened to be cleaning out his bag. It was a fluke that I even found it,” Ms Hill told 9news.com.au.

“The scary thing is, we were trying to remember the last time we went to the particular place where he found it and it’s got to be about a month ago. So, that stuff has been in our house all this time and I had no idea,” she said.

After Ms Hill discovered the substance, she and her husband sat their son, Jonah, down to ask him about it.

“Jonah has an amazing memory and recalled finding it in the gutter at a local second hand store (weeks ago),” she said.

“He was so freaked out, he just thought it was salt.

"He takes things very internally and he is very sensitive. He knows how dangerous that was. We had taught them about needles and other things but we had not expected this.”

Ms Hill posted a photo of the toy egg and the pouches to her Facebook page to warn the community. The post has since been shared more than 700 times,

“I had no idea we would find something like that ever in our house,” she said.

“We never anticipated this, so other people wouldn’t either. It’s freaked us out, our friends out, our neighbours out.

“He has an older sister who has Asperger’s and were lucky she didn’t come across this because she puts a lot of things in her mouth.

“It’s so cruel, it just seems nasty.”

Ms Hill took the pouches to local police, who are now investigating.

http://www.9news.com.au/national/20...n-her-young-sons-backpack#0xAj606ZjEcbOEHd.99

 

[poledriver]

Revealed: Seven out of 10 ice users are on the dole and almost half steal to feed their drug habit

70 per cent of ice users arrested by police said they have been on welfare
Survey of 1146 criminals conducted by Australian Institute of Criminology
Report also found forty percent would steal to feed their drug habit
Their main crimes of offenders arrested were robberies and drug dealing

New figures have revealed seven in 10 ice users arrested by police are on the dole.
A survey of 1,146 criminals done by the Australian Institute of Criminology also found 40 per cent of offenders would steal to support their drug habit.
Their main crimes were robberies and drug dealing, the Herald Sun reported.

We already know that too many Australians are addicted to ice. And it's a disturbing revelation that many are also on welfare,' Justice Minister Michael Keenan said.
Mr Keenan said the ice epidemic was why the government had promised to put $300 million towards stopping the issue.

The report found methamphetamine use of police detainees sky rocketed from 14 per cent in 2009 to 37 per cent in 2014.
It also concluded addictive drugs such as ice are now stronger and easier to get.
The study said it provided more evidence of the link between drug use and crime.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3848100/Seven-10-ice-users-welfare-new-reports-says.html

 

[consumer]

What is the bet the govt uses this as an excuse to bring in their welfare card you can only use to pay rent and buy food etc.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Revealed: Seven out of 10 ice users are on the dole and almost half steal to feed their drug habit



New figures have revealed seven in 10 ice users arrested by police are on the dole.
A survey of 1,146 criminals done by the Australian Institute of Criminology also found 40 per cent of offenders would steal to support their drug habit.
Their main crimes were robberies and drug dealing, the Herald Sun reported.

We already know that too many Australians are addicted to ice. And it's a disturbing revelation that many are also on welfare,' Justice Minister Michael Keenan said.
Mr Keenan said the ice epidemic was why the government had promised to put $300 million towards stopping the issue.

The report found methamphetamine use of police detainees sky rocketed from 14 per cent in 2009 to 37 per cent in 2014.
It also concluded addictive drugs such as ice are now stronger and easier to get.
The study said it provided more evidence of the link between drug use and crime.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3848100/Seven-10-ice-users-welfare-new-reports-says.html

And one of those seven cunts stole my damn fucken mountain bike on new years.

 

[poledriver]

Melbourne Chargers rugby player Michael Quinn’s meth habit ‘no excuse’ for attempts to sleep with six-year-old boy

MELBOURNE rugby player Michael Quinn’s methamphetamine addiction was no excuse for deciding he would try to rape a six-year-old boy at what he thought was a Los Angeles sex party organised by paedophiles, prosecutors have told a US judge.

Quinn, 33, an IVF geneticist arrested in an undercover sting in May while on a US rugby trip, will be sentenced in a downtown LA court on October 31. Prosecutors have recommended Quinn be sentenced to 12 years’ jail and lifetime supervision when released.

“Despite the friendly, congenial mask defendant showed to the world, defendant lived a secret life online,” assistant US lawyer Joey Blanch wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed this week.
“He used the anonymity of the internet to share his secret sexual interest in children, searching out like-minded people and ultimately arranging to purchase a six-year-old boy he intended to sodomise.”

The court filing exposed publicly Quinn’s addiction to meth, the extent of his sexual lust for children, a blog he wrote about sexually abusing children and plans he was making to meet “like-minded pervs” in New York.
Quinn, who worked at a Melbourne IVF clinic and was in the US to play with the Melbourne Chargers rugby union team in the Bingham Cup in Nashville, was staying at a Hollywood Hills home he was renting with teammates on the first leg of the trip.

Quinn snuck away to the LA beachside hotel without his friends knowing and was arrested when he handed $US260 ($340) to an undercover agent posing as a pimp.
US authorities posing as paedophiles began communicating with Quinn in early May after he posted on a social networking site: “Aussie perv, heading to the US late May/June interested to meet others while I’m there. LA, Nashville, NYC”.
Authorities said they found child pornography on his phone and also seized a meth pipe.


Quinn has entered a guilty plea to a charge of travelling to the US with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.
The US Probation Office has recommended a 10-year sentence.
“The government agrees with defendant that he is a drug user; however, there is simply no evidence that drug abuse contributed to his sexual interest in children or that it excuses or even explains his determined efforts to rape a six-year-old,” Ms Blanch wrote.

http://www.news.com.au/world/north-...y/news-story/23cc607eebc7a52d884a2fad12f4b531

 

[poledriver]

'I couldn't have sex without it': Porn star reveals his battle with ice addiction after he was pressured into injecting the deadly drug at a sex party

Porn star Skippy Baxter has opened up about his crystal meth addiction
The Australian man tried the drug more than two years ago at a sex party
He immediately became hooked on the hard drug after the first hit
The bodybuilder checked into a rehabilitation facility just four months ago
The negative impact the drug had on his life has helped him to refrain
Baxter also made it clear that he was never on ice while filming on set

A porn star has opened up about how his life spiralled out of control after becoming hooked on crystal methamphetamine for two years.
Skippy Baxter's world started to crumble after he tried the highly-addictive drug for the first time about two-and-a-half years ago at a sex party.

Speaking to Star Observer, the Melbourne-based porn star revealed the moment he was introduced to ice - something he knew nothing about.
The bodybuilder initially declined the offer but things took a serious turn for the worst when he was convinced into injecting the substance.

'They talked me into it – they said: "If you don't like it, you don't ever have to do it again, it's just a once off thing. Just see if you like it",' Baxter recalled.
'It was probably the best experience I've ever had, it was incredible the feeling.'
The following day, he experienced his first 'horrific' comedown, during which he made a promise to himself not to touch the toxic drug again.

But the pressure from everyone constantly getting high around him led to his battle with ice addiction.
'Then it got to the point where I couldn't have sex without it. I never smoked, I only injected... Injecting got me really high and horny,' he said.
What had begun as a use for sexual encounters, swiftly became an addiction, and before long he was using ice every day as a means of escapism.

He kept his drug use under wraps from his loved ones - and he soon 'fell into a black hole' where he 'didn't really know how to get out of it'.
His harrowing ordeal with the illicit drug kicked in when his weight plummeted, he suffered paranoia - and pushed his family, friends and his partner away.

Up until that point, Baxter said he wanted to take his own life because he was struggling to cope with the feeling of being depressed all the time.
About four months ago, his parents found the help he desperately needed after contacting a rehabilitation facility where he was able to get on the road to recovery.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...veals-battle-ice-addiction.html#ixzz4NeoSsP9c

 

[poledriver]

They're not 'cold hard bludgers': Ice users on welfare need support not shame

Some sections of the media let the welfare bashing rip following a report that found 70 per cent of ice users arrested by police were receiving payments.

While it might rile you to think that your tax dollars are paying for drugs, calling ice users names such as "cold hard bludgers" is tantamount to blaming the mentally ill for being too unwell to work.

The welfare statistic was cherry picked from an Australian Institute of Criminology survey that actually sought to discover the motivation for ice users' crimes to help law enforcement and policymakers to better target resources.

It was merely one question within a table in the paper.

Rather than focusing on what those resources could achieve – such as shortening the up to six month wait to get into rehab in Victoria or the lack of harm-reduction services – the findings were selectively presented by other media outlets to blame users for being unable to work.

This view is backward. Just as we have begun to stop discriminating against people with mental illness, we must start to have compassion for people stuck in the vicious cycle of drug addiction.

This, I admit, is difficult to swallow. It now seems possible for most people to forgive a person too sad to get out of bed and go to work.

But the unhappy person who takes a drug to mask those unbearable feelings and finds themselves addicted, and who might then lie, rob or beg, is not. These people are understandably harder for some to find sympathy for.

If we truly want to reduce the number of people on ice, we need to understand and confront, rather than discriminate against and alarm.

Some media outlets failed to include in their reports that the 1146 people surveyed had been arrested by police. Their readers and viewers will now believe 70 per cent of all ice users are on welfare.

Contrary to what was implied in some reports, ice users were not found to be more violent than other drug users when committing crimes.

The findings were called "shocking", "alarming" and "disturbing". That more than four in 10 surveyed committed crimes to fund their habit was highlighted.

While crime statistics are highly valuable for directing funding, is it really that surprising that a high percentage of arrested ice users are on welfare and committing crimes for money?

Ice is highly addictive. It changes users' brains so their dopamine levels are no longer reproduced without taking more of the drug.

It also produces noradrenaline, which makes people anxious, paranoid and suspicious.

This can change their thinking and personality so they are no longer able to make the same decisions as they would before they started taking the drug.

It drives many of them to do whatever it takes to get more. It can also make it hard for them to hold down a job.

Long-term use is challenging for some to recover from and relapse is common, but people can and do.

Their families could have them back to the person they were before, if our federal and state governments provided adequate support.

Drug and alcohol experts frequently call for more access to treatment. Some say the slated $300 million federal funding, most of which is yet to be rolled out, is a "drop in the ocean" of what is needed to confront the problem nationally.

They also doubt it will go towards expanding insufficient public residential rehab beds, as private ones continue to be unregulated.

And if we are so concerned about ice users taking our taxes, why don't we listen to the experts advocating for businesses to provide better pathways into employment for jail leavers.

This alarmist coverage has got the social media warriors among us calling ice users "drug scum" and "parasites'.

Words that should be as outrageous as discriminating against the mentally ill or disabled.

Correct and responsible reporting would encourage more of us to see drug use as a health issue.

Most of all, it would be welcomed by the families aching for change for the sake of their loved ones.

Chloe Booker is a reporter at The Age who has written about addiction and the Victorian drug and alcohol treatment sector.

http://www.theage.com.au/comment/th...e-need-support-not-shame-20161019-gs5qmu.html

 

[poledriver]

Ice-addled parents stripped of eight kids — now fighting to keep baby nine

A BLACKTOWN ice addict mother and her violent partner, who have had eight children taken away from them, are trying to keep their ninth newborn through a radical new child protection scheme that includes a fulltime care worker in their home.

Part of the services offered to the couple was also group therapy sessions before their baby boy was even born.

Their ninth child was one of the more than 2000 unborn babies across NSW each year now being identified as “at risk of significant harm” before birth.

Family and Community Services Minister Brad Hazzard said the “appalling” reality was some NSW parents “know more about dope than they do about the food necessary to keep their babies alive”.

He said there was “far too much domestic violence, far too much drugs, far too much alcohol” creating “recipes for disastrous lives for children”.

But simply taking these children from their parents was not the answer.

“There is absolutely no question that removing a baby from a mum is no guarantee that baby is going to have a positive future,” Mr Hazzard said. “Sadly, too many children in foster care end up with very negative lives.”

New figures obtained by The Daily Telegraph reveal 2227 unborn babies were classified as being “at significant risk of harm” in 2014/15.

Family and Community Services — which is reeling from the Girl X scandal where it was revealed a vulnerable 14-year-old girl was allegedly repeatedly raped in a group foster home by staff before then later dying from a drug overdose while in care at another facility — is trialling several new early intervention programs.

Mr Hazzard recently told The Daily Telegraph that he wanted to dramatically reduce the number of kids in out-of-home care.

A new “pregnancy family conference” joint scheme run by FACS and NSW Health identifies unborn babies at risk and then sets up meetings between authorities and the family that friends are permitted to attend.

Nine families have gone through the program so far, with seven children staying with their parents and two ending up in care.

“These are all families who have lost all their other children,” the newly appointed vulnerable families co-ordinator for Western Sydney Local Health District Kylie Hughes said.

Ms Hughes revealed the case of the Blacktown couple — who had lost eight children because of drugs, alcohol and domestic violence issues.

Yet they have retained custody of their newborn baby boy, who is now seven months old, and were “thriving” thanks to several pilot programs. “They were booked into Blacktown Hospital, which was our pilot site for the pregnancy family meetings so they attended and went through three pregnancy family meetings,” Ms Hughes said.

“They then moved into our MASH (Making a Safe Home) program.

“We actually put services in their house. We had someone in their house with them for 40 hours a week assisting them with their interactions with the baby (and) observing them and ensuring that there was no more violence.

“Now we’ve managed to reduce the number of services and they go out to visit the service and they have case management outside of the home.” Ms Hughes said early intervention and “hands on” support could make a difference, but it had to be funded properly.

Opposition FACS spokeswoman Tania Mihailuk said it was “heartbreaking” so many unborn babies were being classified as at risk.

“This minister must allocate prenatal case managers to every FACS district to ensure that necessary early intervention support is there to stop these babies from becoming just another tragic statistic,” she said.

“If there are innovative methods of providing the appropriate support, then why not roll it out to every FACS district? In the end it’s about funding case workers and given this government’s poor budget record, it’s clear their priorities are not on reducing the magnitude of babies that are at risk.”

Cont -

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ne...utm_source=DailyTelegraph&utm_medium=Facebook

 

[poledriver]

Was Maddison murdered? Detectives suspect young mother's death was disguised to look like a suicide after she was found with her baby son just metres away

Maddison Murphy-West, 20, was found dead in her Melbourne unit in 2013
Police initially thought it was suicide but now believe she was murdered
Her boyfriend, then-24-year-old Troy Boothey, remains the main suspect
An inquest into Maddison's death could finally reveal crucial details
Maddison left behind a 20-month old son Noah, who is now four years old

An inquest into the mysterious death of a young mother who was found lifeless next to her two-year-old son could finally reveal details about her last moments alive.
Police found Maddison Murphy-West's dead body at her Pakenham unit, on the fringe of Melbourne, exactly three years ago on October 23, 2013.

Her violent meth-using boyfriend at the time, then-24-year-old Troy Boothey, told police he had found his 20-year-old partner-of-four years hanging from the door.
But homicide detectives believe that Maddison's body could have been disguised as self-harm, which is what her family have believed to be the case all along.
Police now believe Maddison was murdered - with the killer manipulating the scene to make it appear a suicide.

Mr Boothey, who went to jail a month after Maddison's death for a road-rage attack while on an ice-bender and is facing further jail time for a string of theft and drug offences, remains the main police suspect but has never been charged.
According to the Herald Sun, investigators involved in the three-year-old case have sent evidence to the Victoria State Coroner, which means the case could go before an inquest.

Maddison's mother Paula has long believed that Mr Boothey is the man responsible for killing her daughter and leaving her to raise Noah, who is now four years old.
She also suspects that a second person may have been involved in covering up her death, and hopes the inquest will bring out new information to freshen the case.

Alarmingly, the young mother had been treated in hospital for an assault 13-months before her death and her family believe she was often in fear for her life.
Paula said that in 2012 marks were found on Maddison's neck but the young mother dismissed someone had tried to choke her and claimed it was ‘play-fighting’.

A family-run Facebook page named 'Justice For Maddy' has provided updates over the years as the Murphy-Wests search for answers.
'How can this filth ever do this to Maddy and live with it, why isn't he asking who killed Maddy himself?,' a post in July showing Noah at Maddison's grave reads.
'Why isn't he screaming from the rooftops that his innocent?'

'I know that if l was being accused of murder l wouldn't just shug my shoulders and say "l'v got things to do ya know".'
'We all know he did it! And it will be proven eventually!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...Murphy-West-finally-solved.html#ixzz4NxMsCIQY

 

[Jabberwocky]

Ice-addled parents stripped of eight kids — now fighting to keep baby nine

A BLACKTOWN ice addict mother and her violent partner, who have had eight children taken away from them, are trying to keep their ninth newborn through a radical new child protection scheme that includes a fulltime care worker in their home.

Part of the services offered to the couple was also group therapy sessions before their baby boy was even born.

Their ninth child was one of the more than 2000 unborn babies across NSW each year now being identified as “at risk of significant harm” before birth.

Family and Community Services Minister Brad Hazzard said the “appalling” reality was some NSW parents “know more about dope than they do about the food necessary to keep their babies alive”.

He said there was “far too much domestic violence, far too much drugs, far too much alcohol” creating “recipes for disastrous lives for children”.

But simply taking these children from their parents was not the answer.

“There is absolutely no question that removing a baby from a mum is no guarantee that baby is going to have a positive future,” Mr Hazzard said. “Sadly, too many children in foster care end up with very negative lives.”

New figures obtained by The Daily Telegraph reveal 2227 unborn babies were classified as being “at significant risk of harm” in 2014/15.

Family and Community Services — which is reeling from the Girl X scandal where it was revealed a vulnerable 14-year-old girl was allegedly repeatedly raped in a group foster home by staff before then later dying from a drug overdose while in care at another facility — is trialling several new early intervention programs.

Mr Hazzard recently told The Daily Telegraph that he wanted to dramatically reduce the number of kids in out-of-home care.

A new “pregnancy family conference” joint scheme run by FACS and NSW Health identifies unborn babies at risk and then sets up meetings between authorities and the family that friends are permitted to attend.

Nine families have gone through the program so far, with seven children staying with their parents and two ending up in care.

“These are all families who have lost all their other children,” the newly appointed vulnerable families co-ordinator for Western Sydney Local Health District Kylie Hughes said.

Ms Hughes revealed the case of the Blacktown couple — who had lost eight children because of drugs, alcohol and domestic violence issues.

Yet they have retained custody of their newborn baby boy, who is now seven months old, and were “thriving” thanks to several pilot programs. “They were booked into Blacktown Hospital, which was our pilot site for the pregnancy family meetings so they attended and went through three pregnancy family meetings,” Ms Hughes said.

“They then moved into our MASH (Making a Safe Home) program.

“We actually put services in their house. We had someone in their house with them for 40 hours a week assisting them with their interactions with the baby (and) observing them and ensuring that there was no more violence.

“Now we’ve managed to reduce the number of services and they go out to visit the service and they have case management outside of the home.” Ms Hughes said early intervention and “hands on” support could make a difference, but it had to be funded properly.

Opposition FACS spokeswoman Tania Mihailuk said it was “heartbreaking” so many unborn babies were being classified as at risk.

“This minister must allocate prenatal case managers to every FACS district to ensure that necessary early intervention support is there to stop these babies from becoming just another tragic statistic,” she said.

“If there are innovative methods of providing the appropriate support, then why not roll it out to every FACS district? In the end it’s about funding case workers and given this government’s poor budget record, it’s clear their priorities are not on reducing the magnitude of babies that are at risk.”

Cont -

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ne...utm_source=DailyTelegraph&utm_medium=Facebook

I can't understand why someone would want to have 9 kids Especially if every time you have one it's taken away from you.

I had some nutters who came from Brisbane living behind me and the first day they moved in their kid went missing and the police were searching for the child. The child couldn't tolerate the parents arguing so she was hiding downstairs. This girl was 5. A few months into their settlement you would always hear the mum going off at her or other kids who were 4 to do the washing, dishes blah blah.

In the end DOCS stepped in and took the kids away. The parents fucked off quickly after that.

Sad story when you have a child but are an incompetent fuck to look after it.

Not everyone should have kids.