Aus - Tony Abbott to announce new taskforce to tackle ice scourge

poledriver

poledriver

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Aus - Tony Abbott to announce new taskforce to tackle ice scourge

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Tony Abbott will open up a new front on Wednesday in the nation's gathering war against the pernicious scourge of the drug ice, said to be rampaging through communities and destroying lives at a colossal rate.

Former Victoria Police commissioner Ken Lay has been selected to head up a new "National Ice Taskforce" and will work closely with the Prime Minister, federal Justice Minister Michael Keenan and Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash to bring state and territory authorities together.

The aim is for the combined governments to develop a "National Ice Action Strategy" and to collate an interim report to be handed to Mr Abbott as soon as the middle of this year.

"The taskforce will be led by Ken Lay APM, who was chief commissioner of Victoria Police from 2011 until very recently," Mr Abbott said in a statement.

"The overall purpose of the taskforce will be to examine all existing efforts to address ice and identify ways to take a systematic, comprehensive and coordinated approach to education, health and law enforcement.

"Governments at all levels are taking steps to address ice but these efforts need to be targeted, efficient and effective.

"While these initiatives are being rolled out at the local, state and territory level, there is a role for the Commonwealth government to assist in coordinating and assessing their effectiveness in addressing the ice epidemic."

Fairfax Media recently reported on the scale of the problem of ice - also known as "crystal meth" and as "methamphetamine" - quoting Mr Keenan as saying "our nation's addiction to this mind-eating, personality distorting, life-ending drug" was undermining the social fabric in some communities.

Ice is regarded by health and law enforcement authorities as the highest risk drug to Australian society with heavy users becoming unstable, erratic, explosively violent, and succumbing to major mental and other health problems.

The situation is particularly bad in some regional areas where high rates of joblessness and limited life opportunities locally leave young people more open to its potentially deadly lure.

Among the worrying trends for police and health authorities is the growing tendency to multiple substance consumption - sometimes referred to as "poly-drug use" - including the consumption of ice.

According to a major Australian Crime Commission report released in March, as many as 1.3 million Australians have tried methamphetamine in its crystalline or powdered forms, known as ice and speed respectively. This level of use is among the highest in the world.

The report also said that 60 per cent of Australia's high risk criminals are involved in the methamphetamine market.

The street price of of methamphetamine in Australia is almost US$500 per gram, compared to China where it is US$80.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-polit...ce-to-tackle-ice-scourge-20150407-1mg80o.html
 
why do i have no faith about their ability to rehabilitate and create better opportunities for those that use meth..

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Somebody should do a proper case study of the province of Québec. They had the highest methamphetamine use in North America (as of 2008, might have changed since then) and it's never been a serious social issue. They haven't had any of these moral panics. Yet methamphetamine is a popular party drug and not nearly as stigmatized as it is in Australia and the U.S.

Methamphetamine is just another stimulant. Some people will be harmed by using it, many others won't, just like with any other drug. When it's made out to be so powerful and evil, you get a self-fulfilling prophecy.
 
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Feds came with this today on facebook -

Australian Federal Police

2 hrs ·

Crystal meth is ruining individuals, destroying families, and hurting communities.

In fact, the use of crystal meth (Ice) in our community has increased dramatically in the last 12 months.

That's why the Commonwealth Government today announced the establishment of the National Ice Taskforce to tackle this growing epidemic.

The National Ice Taskforce will examine all existing efforts in place to deal with crystal meth and will identify targeted, efficient and effective ways to approach education, health and law enforcement.

You can help. If you have information in relation to Ice in our community, call Crimestoppers on 1800 333 000.
‪#‎AusFedPolice‬ ‪#‎drugs‬

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Australian Federal Police - The drugs in this image were part of a $1.5 billion seizure that happened towards the end of last year
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Just a publicity stunt. They've been saying this crap for 15 years, but nothing is going to change until they actually address the real socioeconomic issues of why people turn to meth in the first place (or until the importers find a more profitable alternative, the way they cut back heroin imports to make way for meth around the turn of the millennium) - but that's nowhere near as dramatic as running around arresting low level dealers and having every other Today Tonight episode talk about the "ICE SCOURGE."

Somebody should do a proper case study of my province, Québec. We have the highest methamphetamine use in North America (as of 2008, might have changed since then) and it's never been a serious social issue. We haven't had any of these moral panics. Yet methamphetamine is a popular party drug and not nearly as stigmatized as it is in Australia and the U.S.

Methamphetamine is just another stimulant. Some people will be harmed by using it, many others won't, just like with any other drug. When it's made out to be so powerful and evil, you get a self-fulfilling prophecy.
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Don't you guys get all your meth in pill form? Big difference between pills, even street ones, and powders/crystal. Part of the problem with meth in Aus is that it's got such a wide spectrum of uses (recreational party users, utilitarian types who take it for work, then full time addicts, who often start out as one of the first two) users (it crosses most class/race/culture barriers here) and ROA's. When you've got crystal and powder all over the place from workplaces (especially in industries like construction, hospitality, nightlife, shift workers, truck drivers, etc) to house parties and clubs and festivals, not to mention in a lot of the suburbs with socio-economic issues, it's really easy to start out taking small dabs of shitty powder, to snorting that powder, to smoking a pipe someone offers you before hitting town/before your shift/at a house party/whatever, to hitting a pipe before doing anything, and then a lot build a tolerance and shift up to injecting. It's a smooth gravitational pull further and further into the fucked up addiction as the drug distorts their mental barriers and hijacks their brain's dopamine system.

I wouldn't call it "just another stimulant" either. Other stimulants lack that spread of uses and ROA's, most have shorter durations and are difficult to stay awake on for more than a single night, maybe two. I tried dexamphetamine as a replacement for meth once, and it was nice, but the high was nowhere near as consistently, smoothly euphoric, the physical side effects were much stronger, which made skipping more than a single night of sleep impossible - my body just wouldn't handle it - and I couldn't even snort it (5mg pills), let alone smoke it out of my pipe like I could meth (which, seriously, I think is a huge part of the addiction for people, even after extensive experience IVing opiates and dissociatives, smoking from a meth pipe is my favorite ROA and I'd take all of my drugs that way if I could, it's just such a fun way to get high). Even in Europe where they have plenty of amphetamine sulphate going around, it's not much of an addictive problem as far as I know (although I've heard it's the IV drug of choice in Sweden, but possibly because it's the only thing there they can shoot up, any Swedes here?) - stim addicts in Europe afaik go for crack or IV coke, or RC's these days I guess as well, and the sulphate rarely moves up beyond recreational use.
 
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Crankinit said:
Don't you guys get all your meth in pill form? Big difference between pills, even street ones, and powders/crystal.
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Yes, and that's probably the main factor for why there hasn't been a problem with it. In fact, most of the people doing methamphetamine (which is always just called "speed") here don't even realize it's the same drug as "crystal meth." It all goes to show that the way a drug is perceived, formulated, and packaged makes a massive difference in its potential for harm and that even drugs like methamphetamine can be used by entire populations in ways that are not terribly harmful given the right combination of these factors.

Also, don't get me wrong: I put methamphetamine on a pedestal above all other stimulants for the reasons you described. But there are lots of people who couldn't care less for the methamphetamine high and are out on the street due to cocaine addictions, for example.
 
S.J.B. said:
Yes, and that's probably the main factor for why there hasn't been a problem with it. In fact, most of the people doing methamphetamine (which is always just called "speed") here don't even realize it's the same drug as "crystal meth." It all goes to show that the way a drug is perceived, formulated, and packaged makes a massive difference in its potential for harm and that even drugs like methamphetamine can be used by entire populations in ways that are not terribly harmful given the right combination of these factors.

Also, don't get me wrong: I put methamphetamine on a pedestal above all other stimulants for the reasons you described. But there are lots of people who couldn't care less for the methamphetamine high and are out on the street due to cocaine addictions, for example.
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That's actually where the alleged 'increase' in meth use in Australia comes from - you'll notice that official reports are always really carefully worded. There's been no increase in number of people using methamphetamine - it's just that significantly more people have shifted to 'ice', or the crystal form of methamphetamine.
 
poledriver said:
The situation is particularly bad in some regional areas where high rates of joblessness and limited life opportunities locally leave young people more open to its potentially deadly lure.
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More great thinking on behalf of the Abbott government. ( not that any other party is much better regarding drug policy)

Rather than any attempt to deal with the underlying socio-economic issues driving use in Australia, throw millions more dollars into these initiatives that are proven to be ineffective.
 
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