poledriver
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2005
- Messages
- 11,543
Instead of cluttering up the main forum with so many ice related threads I thought it a decent idea to start a thread for all Aussie crystal meth articles to go into.
WITH frequent psychotic episodes taking place in every hospital emergency room across the country, new guidelines have been developed for dealing with ice addicts.
The Daily Telegraph has reported instances of a woman chewing off her own toes and a man refusing to have his finger reattached after slicing it off as contributing factors to the development of the guidelines.
Another ice patient reportedly ran on the spot beside his bed for 24 hours until he suffered muscle failure in his legs and collapsed.
The guidelines, titled Management of Patients with Acute Severe Behavioural Disturbance in Emergency Departments, are set to change the way emergency services deal with ice patients.
Paramedic and Health Services Union official Steve Fraser said he welcomed the changes after having experienced what it is like to deal with an ice addict in the back of an ambulance.
“They are rocking back and forth, picking at their skin, and you don’t know if they are going to lash out at you. There are users as young as 10 up here, but it can affect all ages,” he told The Daily Telegraph.
Under the new guidelines, staff are told to “avoid prolonged eye contact” and to “avoid sudden or threatening gestures”.
They also provide a standardised list of drugs for sedating ice patients and detail the ability to inject patients who refuse to swallow the sedatives.
A 64-year-old man who attempted to import methamphetamine from Taiwan to Perth while serving time at a prison work camp in Western Australia has been sentenced to at least six years behind bars.
Ngoo Chan had already served 15 years of a 20-year sentence for his role in importing heroin in Sydney in 2000.
He had been in prison in Western Australia since March 2006 and was only five months away from being eligible for parole when he was arrested earlier this year.
He was identified as the ringleader in the operation to import three kilograms of the drug with 95 per cent purity, equalling a street value of almost $1 million.
He was serving time in the Walpole prison work camp in the state's south-west.
Chan was organising for the drugs to be sent to various addresses and contacts in the state via a mobile phone he was accessing when he was at work placements outside of the Walpole prison work camp in the state's south-west.
He was arrested in January along with four other men after police intercepted the delivery of a package to a house in Butler, in Perth's northern suburbs.
The Perth Supreme Court was told Chan had been communicating with a foreign national overseas about the drugs, but they would speak in code.
Malaysian national Yoh Wah Khew, who travelled to Perth to receive the package, was also sentenced to at least five years in jail.
Both men had previously pleaded guilty to the attempted importation.
Prosecutors said Khew was sent as an associate of the foreign national Chan liaised with and was promised $7,000 after flying to WA to receive the package.
The court heard Khew did not speak English and was unemployed.
Chan was involved in organising several different safe houses, cash payments and sim cards for Khew once he arrived in Perth.
But the plan was foiled as Taiwanese police seized the package before it was posted to an address in Butler in January and removed the drugs hidden inside.
Australian Federal Police seized the package once it arrived just over a week later and placed a substitute substance inside the package.
Once the package was delivered to Khew in Ballajura, police arrested him and three other men in the laundry of the house, where they also found the open package.
Police also found digital scales, a pick hammer and clip seal bags.
In sentencing Justice Peter Martino said Chan had gone to a lot of effort to import what was a significant amount of drugs.
"The offences you committed was serious. The drug methamphetamine causes great damage to the lives of people who use the drugs, their families, and to victims of crimes committed by people who use the drug," he said.
Both Chan and Khew had received reduced sentences for agreeing to give evidence against others accused of being involved in the criminal enterprise.
The joint operation by authorities in Western Australia and overseas also led to three arrests in Taiwan.
Three Hong Kong men have made no application for bail when they appeared in the Perth Magistrates Court via video link charged over the seizure of 320 kilograms of the drug ice.
Pak Cheong Cheung, Chin Yeung Ng and Yik To Ng were arrested earlier this month after most of the drugs were found hidden inside packages of tea in suitcases at a house in Canning Vale.
More drugs were found in an apartment and a hotel in the city, and $1.4 million in cash was also seized.
The drugs were estimated to have a street value of about $320 million and the seizure was the largest ever made of the drug ice in Western Australia.
The three men appeared in court via video link from Hakea prison.
Perth lawyer Sean O'Sullivan represented the trio with the help of a solicitor from Hong Kong.
Mr O'Sullivan told the court the solicitor had been engaged by the men's parents to try to "sort out" legal representation for them.
The solicitor also acted as an interpreter because Mr O'Sullivan said none of the men spoke English.
The men were not required to plead to charges of possessing a prohibited drug with intent to sell or supply and possession of unlawfully obtained property.
They were remanded in custody until their next court appearance in December.
A fourth man, Jian Tat Ng, did not appear in court due to technical problems with the video link to the prison.
However his lawyer Patti Chong appeared on his behalf and that case was also adjourned to December.
Two men from Sydney have pleaded guilty to trafficking almost a kilogram of methamphetamines found buried in remote bushland in north-west Victoria.
Stephen Gillard, 39, and Geoffrey Hitchen, 42, from South Penrith, were arrested in February.
They are accused of stashing nearly $300,000 worth of methamphetamines in scrubland off the Mallee Highway at Tutye, west of Ouyen.
Court documents reveal two farmers saw the pair acting suspiciously.
When the accused hid the drugs and left the area, one farmer entered the scrubland and dug up loose soil , uncovering plastic fruit juice bottles containing the drugs.
Police were waiting for Hitchen and Gillard when they returned the next day frantically searching for the drugs.
At the Mildura Magistrates Court yesterday, the pair pleaded guilty to drug trafficking.
They were granted bail on strict conditions and are due to return to court in November.
Jack Nagle Mr Nagle spent $7000 during a 10 day ice binge. Source: Supplied
New data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has shown the number of Australians who have used ice has more than doubled to about 1.3 million people.
The AIHW examined trends in the use and availability of methamphetamines — commonly known as 'ice' — and reported a big jump in the past decade in the production and supply of the drug across Australia.
Over a four-month period this year, more than 20 expectant mothers sought help from a drug treatment centre in Newcastle.
Bill Robertson manages the stimulants clinic, a service for people who have "issues with stimulant type drugs, amphetamines, methamphetamine".
Some clients are self-referred, while others are referred by state agencies like Corrective Services or Family and Community Services.
About 150 people come to the clinic each year and lately there has been a growing number of pregnant women who have come for help to tackle their addictions to ice.
"Pregnancy is often a motivator and they want to try to do the best they can being a mother," Mr Robertson said.
"We had 26 referrals between January and April this year — all methamphetamine."
Associate professor Adrian Dunlop, chief addiction medicine specialist with NSW Health, said it was unclear whether there was an increasing number of pregnant women using methamphetamines or if it was simply more women reporting their drug use.
"To try to give you some sort of comparison, we know across the country that alcohol use in pregnancy is a really big concern," Mr Dunlop said .
"Around about 50 per cent of all women who used to drink before pregnancy stop but still there's about 50 per cent who continue to and a small group who don't cut down ... and the healthcare system is not good at all at identifying those.
"If we do some population-based estimates, we should be seeing dozens, if not hundreds, of that particular group in these clinics across the state each year and we're not."
The NSW Government recently announced funds to expand the service.
Ice users opt for more dangerous crystal form
The AIHW report found use of the drug ice increased across the board from urban areas, to regional Australia and remote indigenous communities.
In 2013, 7 per cent of Australians said they had used methamphetamines — more than a third of them had used the drugs within the last three years.
One of the report's authors, Geoff Neideck, said all indicators showed that supply of methamphetamines had jumped in recent years.
"That's consistent with the picture that we see internationally," Mr Neideck said.
"Certainly in all the particular areas in relation to supply — so that's around detections, and that includes detection of clandestine labs, seizures by Customs or police, and arrests — we see they're all up quite significantly over the last five years."
And more of those who consumed the drug were using crystal meth, which Mr Neideck said was more addictive and dangerous than the powder form.
"It's highly addictive," he said. "It can lead to severe paranoia and psychosis, and often results in violent behaviour."
Mr Neideck said there were multiple reasons why the use of ice had increased.
"We've seen, for example, a downturn in heroin use in Australia — and maybe there's a substitution issue there," he said.
"Maybe it's to do with just increased availability. I think that there are a number of complex issues that would impact on the overall level of usage."
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has seized 10 kilograms of the drug ice, intended for a suburb in Canberra, and arrested a Nigerian national in a joint operation with Australian Border Force.
AFP officers said Australian Border Force in Sydney discovered the methamphetamine concealed in statues, which had been imported into Australia from China earlier this month.
The drugs, expected to have a street value of $10 million, were intended for the north Canberra suburb of Kaleen.
ACT police took control of the operation and continued with a controlled delivery of the drugs to Canberra.
One of three statues which contained 10kg of ice
PHOTO: Police said the drugs were contained within fish statues, which were about 80cm long by 20cm wide. (Supplied: ACT Policing)
Police said after the package was delivery to a residential address in Kaleen, the three statues were collected by the Nigerian national and driven to a second address in Kaleen, before being opened.
Yesterday, officers arrested Nigerian national at the Jolimont Centre in Canberra, when he tried to board a bus to Sydney.
Police said the man had on him the packages that had been removed from the statues.
The 32-year-old man had arrived in Australia in July this year on a student visa.
A search warrant was executed on one of the houses in Kaleen where police said similar packaging and statues were located.
The AFP also seized a car from the property.
The 32-year-old man is due to appear before the ACT Magistrates Court on Monday, where he will be charged with attempting to possess a commercial quantity of an unlawfully imported border controlled drug.
Deputy Chief Police Officer Andrea Quinn credited the seizure to collaboration between law enforcement agencies.
"We continue to work closely with our partners to prevent this destructive drug reaching our streets," Commander Quinn said.