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Arrests over ice soaring
Simon Kearney
October 18, 2006
ARRESTS for possession of ice have jumped more than 250 per cent in 10 years, confirming police fears that the drug is now one of the biggest law enforcement and health threats facing Australia.
Just weeks after NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney said ice was the biggest "scourge" on society that he had seen in 41 years of policing and that Australia risked losing a generation to the drug, new research has found the number of ice arrests increased by 253 per cent between 1995 and 2005.
Yet despite claims to the contrary, scientists have not been able to find a conclusive link between the drug and violence.
The arrest figures are included in a new report on crystal methamphetamine by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre for the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, to be released today.
But the report found that the widely attributed link between violence and ice had not been proved.
Author Rebecca McKetin examined research from around the world about the link between ice and violent psychosis. She concluded the science simply did not show a causal link between taking ice and becoming violent.
The study shows that pre-existing conditions and other drug use may play a role.
Beaver Hudson, a consultant nurse in emergency psychiatry at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital, said that while the link could not be proved scientifically, it was readily apparent to staff in casualty wards. "It would be erroneous to say there's no causal link between methamphetamine and violence because we haven't been able to rule it out," he said.
At Melbourne's Turning Point drug and alcohol centre, director Nick Crofts said the inability to find a distinct link could show the "reality underneath the hype" that ice use was often accompanied by alcohol and other drugs, and the after-effects could not be attributed to ice alone. However, he said studies showed conclusively that amphetamines cause psychosis.
"And the inclusion of violent behaviour as part of that violent spectrum is common," he said.
Professor Crofts said the study may have missed the fact that problems are not caused by ice in isolation. He said the use of ice increased an addict's ability to consume alcohol without realising the effects. "An underdone area is the relationship between alcohol abuse and amphetamines," he said.
A NSW Police source said there was concern about how violent behaviour was being blamed on ice when it could not be proven that ice was the cause.
Mr Hudson said ice use affected the chemicals in the brain that affect how people behave.
"It's not because they walk out the door and go and get in a fight, it's because they're afraid," he said. "Their level of irritability and paranoia is raised, they've got this sudden sensation that things aren't quite right. They then either run away or take on the threat."
He said because the drug also increased the user's sense of "grandiosity", they could experience feelings of strength.
Professor Crofts said one problem was that ice users did not seek help from drug and alcohol services as heroin addicts often did. Instead, they ended up in emergency or psychiatric wards or police lock-ups.
The Australian