NEWS: The Australian - 18/10/2006 'Arrests over ice soaring'

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.

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Fry-d- said:

Almost no one I know who has mental or health issues related to meth use would have seen a medical professional about it, I'm sure thats the same for most people.

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Caught in the Ice age
By Rhett Watson, Police Reporter
October 19, 2006 12:00
Article from: The Daily Telegraph

THESE are the desperate faces of the Ice drug epidemic ripping apart Australian families.

Today 20-year-old carjacker Sally Brennan – an Ice addict of three years – is on the run after she was given her last chance to kick the habit yesterday.

It was the desperate actions of her father Brett that led to that chance.

He pleaded for a legal aid solicitor to argue that someone so young could change.

Brennan had been charged with assault after allegedly committing a carjacking while hallucinating on Ice.

The magistrate agreed to bail provided the young woman got immediate treatment.

Her father, a lone parent, personally escorted her from Sutherland Court to the Darlinghurst rehabilitation clinic at 2pm yesterday, constantly reinforcing to her what running away meant.

But just an hour later came the heartbreaking news – she had fled and would now face arrest and possibly jail.

Her father expects he will now only see her during prison visits.

"I'm going to look for her but I guess all I can do is wait for her to be arrested again and I guess she'll be going to jail (today)," he said. "She's on the road to destruction.

"She's such a beautiful girl but this Ice . . . it stinks."

Just two hours earlier, when speaking to The Daily Telegraph, the young girl seemed adamant her life could change.

Her life has been out of control since she started smoking and injecting Ice at the of 17, but this was escalated by the death of her six-week-old son Jaydan little more than a year ago.

Three days after that her second son, Jordan, now 2, was removed from her care, partly because of the drug addiction.

"The magistrate gave me another chance so there's some hope out there," she told The Daily Telegraph before she fled.

It is a story too many Australian families are living with.

And the crime she allegedly committed in Miranda on Tuesday – dragging a woman from a car she was trying to steal – is an example of the randomness in which people can become victims to these addicts.

The 49-year-old woman remains so distraught she could not speak to the media yesterday.

Hallucinating from two days of smoking Ice, Brennan believed she saw her two-year-old son in the back of a passing taxi and wanted the woman's car to pursue him.

She only failed because the car was manual and "I can't drive a manual".

Still coming down from the drug, Brennan told The Daily Telegraph she wanted to apologise to her victim. "I just thought (my son) was in the taxi," she said. "I'm sorry for offending her, for touching her, for putting her in the position I did."

Now Sally Brennan is on the run – and her father despairs for a beautiful daughter.

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Assault rates double over drug
By Clare Masters, Health Reporter
October 19, 2006 12:00

ICE addicts committing violence in drug-induced rages are fuelling a rise in assaults across NSW, according to Australian-first research.

The state's assault rate has almost doubled in the last decade while the use of Ice – or crystal methamphetamine – has soared.

Scientists blame a proportion of violent crimes on the drug.

The report from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre found that over the past 10 years the assault rate in NSW has risen from 522 per 100,000 in 1995 to 942 per 100,000 in 2005.

In the same time there has been a 253 per cent rise in the number of people arrested for methamphetamine use in NSW.

Police Minister Carl Scully reacted to the report yesterday, saying training materials were being developed to assist front-line officers.

The rise in teenagers and young adults smoking Ice has significantly contributed to the increased use of the drug that now totals 73,000 users across the country. Researchers are now calling for more resources for hospital and treatment centres.

"We are seeing young ecstasy users in their late teens and early 20s who have taken up smoking Ice," National Drug and Alcohol Council researcher Dr Rebecca McKetin said.

"These are a group of people who are smoking Ice who are experiencing psychosis – and it is likely to be the tip of the iceberg."

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HAVE YOUR SAY - The Ice epidemic
By Claire Gould
Wednesday, October 18, 2006 at 09:24pm

ICE addicts committing violence in drug-induced rages are fuelling a rise in assaults across NSW, according to Australian-first research.

The state’s assault rate has almost doubled in the last decade while the use of Ice – or crystal methamphetamine – has soared.

Scientists blame a proportion of violent crimes on the drug.

The report from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre found that over the past 10 years the assault rate in NSW has risen from 522 per 100,000 in 1995 to 942 per 100,000 in 2005.

In the same time there has been a 253 per cent rise in the number of people arrested for methamphetamine use in NSW.

The statistics are frightening. But have you seen a marked increase in Ice abuse?
Or Ice-related crime?
Is there an Ice problem in your area?
Let us know.

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hoptis said:

Daily Telegraph

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Horror for sale on city streets
By Gemma Jones
October 20, 2006 12:00

The ice on offer yesterday. / The Daily Telegraph

IF you're a parent and think your child is immune to the drug ice, think again – it can be bought anywhere, with a deal taking just seconds.

In a terrifying dose of reality, the first dealer approached by The Daily Telegraph on a busy Kings Cross street yesterday offered a hit of the frightening, mind-bending drug for $50.

It was lunchtime in the city, with hundreds of people around, and in just 15 seconds the dealer had secured the drug with a mobile phone call.

He produced 0.1g of ice crystals, which would have delivered an intoxicating array of delusions and, at worst, psychosis, in a seedy alley.

The Daily Telegraph did not buy the drug but the exercise proved how easy it is to get ice in a city where school children are being admitted to hospital suffering from its effects.

It is also abundantly available in outer suburbs and can be delivered to youngsters' doorsteps.

The dealer yesterday was not shy, announcing after his brief call, "I can get six matchstick-sized crystals for $50."

The drug was presented in a bag with Playboy bunnies on it, which the dealer said was used to differentiate "brands of ice".

St Vincent's Hospital, in Darlinghurst, has treated children as young as 16, it was revealed yesterday.

Symptoms can range from mild anxiety to psychotic episodes in which patients sometimes need to be sedated, or even restrained, because of terrible delusions.

A report by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of NSW revealed the epidemic's spread.

The report, released earlier this year, stressed how easy ice is to obtain, with some youngsters ordering it to their homes like a pizza.

Use has spread from the inner city to the North Shore and southern suburbs, where youngsters are using ice before a night out.

Most of them buy it through friends.

The report found that methamphetamines users in Sydney's west were generally using a cheaper form, called base.

The drug and alcohol centre said users were becoming younger.

It also said urgent public warnings were needed to alert people to the scale of the problem and the threat of young people becoming addicted.

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Sally brought in from icy cold
By Rhett Watson, Police Reporter
October 20, 2006 12:00

Ice addict and carjacker Sally Brennan moments before she was arrested in Surry Hills yesterday. / The Daily Telegraph

ICE addict and carjacker Sally Brennan spent her final moments of freedom yesterday afternoon surrounded by another potential addiction – poker machines in a Surry Hills hotel.

Detectives arrested her outside the Royal Exhibition Hotel at 3pm – almost exactly 24 hours since the 20-year-old went on the run from police and her family.

Today she will appear in Central Local Court where she will may have her bail revoked for allegedly dragging a 49-year-old woman from her vehicle in a carjacking committed while hallucinating on ice on Tuesday.

The opportunity given to her by a magistrate on Wednesday – to kick the habit and avoid jail – could be gone forever.

Her father Brett last night pleaded for his daughter to get another chance to get off ice.

"Jail won't help her. It'll just make her worse. She needs the rehab," he said.

On Wednesday he was a shattered man having personally escorted her to the Gorman House clinic at 2pm – as part of her bail conditions – only to be told an hour later she had fled.

An investigation by The Daily Telegraph revealed Brennan, from Miranda, went first to Cronulla on Wednesday night before asking to stay at a friend's Caringbah Housing Department unit.

She woke about 6am yesterday to read of her exploits on the front page of The Daily Telegraph.

"She woke up, saw it and said 's. . ., I'm on the run'," her friend said.

"I think she'd just been in a daze – the ice does that."

She left at 6.30am with her former boyfriend – the father of her two children, one of whom died a year ago from SIDS – telling the friend she was going to hand herself in.

That never happened.

It took the keen eye of Darren Ford, chef at the hotel, to spot her as she walked through the Chalmers St hotel's doors at 2.27pm.

Recognising her from a picture in yesterday's The Daily Telegraph, he reported her presence to the hotel's manager, who called police after Ms Brennan remained in the disabled toilet for 15 minutes.

Staff then monitored her movements through the hotel to its gaming room until police arrived.

One patron said Ms Brennan was "cool, calm and collected with the detectives and admitted who she was".

But the Kings Cross resident added Ms Brennan also appeared to be affected by drugs.

Mr Brennan said it was likely his daughter would have scored ice – her drug of addiction since she was 17 – through a friend on Wednesday night and yesterday.

She had admitted to The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday that she used about $50 of ice, or .1g, every day, when she had the money.

Her father revealed she fed the habit through theft, mainly shoplifting, and had been banned from all Westfield shopping centres.

While his daughter was being arrested by police, Mr Brennan was on a bus headed for the southern Sydney suburb of Menai in what turned out to be the end of a long journey in which he had hoped to find Sally and convince her to hand herself in.

He started doorknocking Sally's friends at 3.30am.

By 6am he was on a train heading into the city where he walked the streets hoping to find people she knew.

It was back in his own territory later in the morning where the The Shire's network started to give him leads.

He was told the home of a friend he had visited on Wednesday night, asking after his daughter, was just 100m away from the unit where she was hiding.

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