NEWS: ABC - 20/5/07 'WA to hold drug summit'

WA to hold drug summit
Sunday, May 20, 2007. 3:00pm (AEST)

The Western Australian Government has partly blamed the state's economic boom for an increase in amphetamine use.

Premier Alan Carpenter has announced a summit will be held with police and hospitals in July to discuss ways to tackle amphetamine use.

Mr Carpenter says young people with high incomes are increasingly turning to crystal methamphetamine, or 'ice'.

Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan says amphetamine use is one of the major issues facing policing and there is mounting evidence to suggest more people are using drugs, particularly 'ice'.

Commissioner O'Callaghan says police have dismantled 189 illegal drug laboratories in the past year.

"It is a significant driver of crime in Western Australia, so we're seeing slight increases in street-level robberies and things like that, which are driven by people who want money to buy amphetamines," he said.

"One of the problems for us as a police agency is most of those people while they're committing these offences are extremely violent, they're violent towards the victim, they're violent towards police when they intercede."

Drug and Alcohol Office director Terry Murphy says more people are presenting to hospitals with psychotic and aggressive amphetamine-induced behaviour.

Mr Murphy says such patients take triple the amount of time to deal with than regular patients.

He says amphetamines like 'ice' cause long-term problems that will also become a burden on the health system.

"It's been impacting on hospitals," he said.

"We're now faced with a new type of amphetamine, 'ice', which is a lot more pure, so the effect and the length of that effect are more intense.

"That's what's showing up in our hospitals when people get into more trouble with aggression and psychotic behaviour."

The Australian Medical Association's WA president, Geoff Dobb, says the problem of amphetamine and 'ice' use in the community needs urgent attention.

He says he hopes this summit will produce some clear solutions.

"There have been previous drug summits in Western Australia that unfortunately don't seem to produce a great deal of action," he said.

"We believe the time is opportune to have a drug summit that does result in some action."

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Premier announces drug summit
May 20, 2007 12:15pm

THE State Government has announced it will hold an amphetamine summit in a bid to curb the higher than national average illicit use of the drug in WA.

WA Premier Alan Carpenter said illicit amphetamines were a serious problem in the state, with the use of crystalline methamphetamine - or ice - higher than the national average.

"This puts enormous pressure on the services required to manage the issue, including our police force, hospital emergency departments, child protection agencies and mental health system,'' he said.

"While there has been encouraging reductions in usage rates and increases in the number of people who are seeking treatment in recent years, we need to look at what more we can do.''

The WA Illicit Amphetamine Summit will be held at the Perth Convention Centre on July 3.

It will consider building efforts in prevention, treatment and law enforcement, as well as focusing on areas where ice use was having the greatest impact, including mental health, emergency departments, child protection and correctional centres.

Police seizures of amphetamine in WA increased 150 per cent from 1998 to 2005.

WA Police commissioner Karl O'Callaghan said amphetamine use was one of the major issues facing modern policing.

Perth Drug and Alcohol Office executive director Terry Murphy said some 4500 patient visits to emergency departments and 460 mental health admissions each year were a result of amphetamine use.

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Health crisis tied to drugs: Premier
21st May 2007, 6:00 WST

The pressure on Perth’s hospital emergency departments was partly due to amphetamine users, Alan Carpenter said yesterday as he announced a summit to find a way to tackle the illicit drug problem.

About 4500 emergency department admissions in Perth last year were related to amphetamine use — particularly crystalline methamphetamine or “ice”.

“They (amphetamine users) are often violent, aggressive, hallucinogenic and we need to be able to reduce that number as quickly as we can,” the Premier said.

“I would estimate that there is a very, very significant amount of the problem for our hospital emergency departments driven by amphetamine abuse, far more so than the simple statistic would seem to indicate because of the impact and the behaviour type you’re dealing with.”

Australian Medical Association WA president Geoff Dobb said amphetamine users placed a burden on hospital emergency departments, but warned the Government not to simplify the pressure on hospitals.

“The bed problem is much, much larger than what’s related to drugs,” he said.

The July 3 summit will bring together experts in drug prevention, treatment and law enforcement but has been attacked by the Opposition as a “talk fest”.

Professor Dobb said it should not be a repeat of the last drug summit in August 2001 which saw little action.

Mr Carpenter said the use of amphetamines, particularly “ice”, was higher than the national average with 4.5 per cent of WA adults reporting using amphetamine at least once in the past year, compared with the Australian average of 3.2 per cent.

He blamed part of the reason on the State’s booming economy.

“Western Australia is enjoying very robust economic times and there is a lot of disposable income around, especially for young people, especially young men, and one of the consequences of that may be a rise in amphetamine abuse,” he said.

WA Drug and Alcohol Office executive director Terry Murphy said amphetamine use could lead to serious mental health problems and while people could recover, others would have long-term psychotic mental illnesses. “Your brain starts to go a bit crazy,” he said.

Opposition police spokesman Rob Johnson said he was sceptical about the summit because the previous one resulted in a proliferation of drugs.

“They (the State Government) should be doing far more to stop the drug craze in Western Australia,” he said. “They can start by reversing their decision to decriminalise the possession and cultivation of cannabis where all you get is a bit of a parking fine for certain amounts of cannabis.”

Summit participants will include director of the National Drug Research Institute at Curtin University Steve Allsop, Assistant Police Commissioner Wayne Gregson and Nicole Lee, from Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre in Melbourne

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All options open to tackle 'ice' epidemic
21st May 2007, 12:15 WST

Health Minister Jim McGinty has flagged possible changes to the health and legal system arising from an upcoming summit to address the emerging illicit drug crisis in WA.

He also hoped the drug scandal enmeshing fallen Eagle Ben Cousins would encourage young people to stay away from illegal substances.

Premier Alan Carpenter announced yesterday that a summit would be held from July 3 in a bid to tackle the problem highlighted by 4500 emergency department admissions in Perth last year by people affected by amphetamine, particularly crystalline methamphetamine known as “ice”.

Today, Mr McGinty, who is also the Attorney General, said every aspect of the health and legal systems relating to the drug problem would be reviewed in an effort to better manage the issue.

“We have got serious issues affecting our emergency departments that we need to address without those problems being compounded by the highest amphetamine abuse rate in the nation,” he said.

“What we need to do is to do everything we can to reduce the supply, which is a criminal justice response, as well as the way in which we treat people – particularly the mental health psychosis issues of people who are affected by ice.”

Mr McGinty said the current laws and penalties relating to drug crime would be looked at.

“We have had for a long time tough drug laws in WA which the police have used and customs have used in order to clamp down heavily on people who deal in drugs, we have got the toughest criminal property confiscation laws in the country for anyone who traffics drugs,” he said.

“All of these are laws which I think are adequate, but I’m certainly willing to listen to anyone who has another approach or any suggestions of ways we can deal with the criminal justice side of this equation.”

The minister also said security at hospital waiting rooms and the number of treatment facilities were other possible areas of reform.

“People who come into emergency departments in amphetamine-induced psychosis are often violent, they require higher numbers of staff to properly (deal with) them and then need to receive medical treatment as well.

“We have got the staff in place to be able to do that but we want to review that to make sure that it is adequate for the future.

“I think we have enough treatment facilities but again, that is something that the summit can look at to see of more needs to be done to deal with this problem that is ruining the lives of many people.

“I am hoping that what the public has seen with Ben Cousins will have a salutary effect, there will be warning bells out there, particularly with young people who think they are invincible.”

Mr McGinty refused to be drawn on whether there were areas of the health and legal system which he believed could be performing better in relation to the drug problem.

“It’s not a matter at this stage of saying we are failing in this particular area, it’s a major problem and how can we best grapple with it,” he said.

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