AMA's meth recommendations get cautious welcome from users
Posted Tue Apr 29, 2008 2:19pm AEST
The peak body representing illegal drug users in Australia says there is a danger in taking an alarmist approach to dealing with methamphetamines.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) says methamphetamine users are violent and threatening towards hospital staff and are putting a huge strain on emergency departments.
The Association says it will lobby the Federal and state governments for new funding to overhaul the way the health system deals with methamphetamine users.
Annie Madden from the Australian Injecting and Illicit Drug Users League welcomes the AMA's call for funding, but says there is a danger in saying that most users are violent.
"If we do that we not only wrongly categorise people but we increase the chances that people won't come to health services for health because they won't want to be categorised in that way," she said.
Ms Madden says most methamphetamine users do not become psychotic.
"There are some people who do, a minority who do, and that's usually related to extended periods of binge using, with people not sleeping, not eating - that sort of thing," she said.
"The vast majority of people use methamphetamine very occasionally recreationally, perhaps on the weekend or something, and they're not going to get to that point."
The president of the Gold Coast Medical Association Philip Morris says people high on methamphetamine and other drugs should be treated in designated areas of hospital emergency departments.
Dr Morris says methamphetamine users require the same level of care as psychiatric patients and should have their own facilities.
"They'd have places to be cared for that are safe, that they can be contained and also with additional staff and security so that patients can be looked after appropriately," he said.
"It is happening in the United States, New South Wales has decided to try and do this in its general hospitals, it's happening in one or two places in Brisbane, but we would like to see it more widely operating."
