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SA is nation's drug lab capital
DAVID NANKERVIS
July 25, 2009 11:30pm
AMPHETAMINE laboratories are uncovered in South Australia at a rate double the national average.
The alarming statistic has saddled the state with a reputation as the drug lab capital of Australia.
A database set up by the Australian Crime Commission also shows that, per capita, there are more of the highly dangerous clandestine laboratories found here than in any other state or territory.
Police say a jump in the number of drug labs in Adelaide homes in recent years has contributed to the alarming figures, released by the commission last week.
Police figures also show that the number of labs detected in the state soared from 25 in 2004/05 to 65 last financial year.
The officer in charge of the Drug Investigation Branch, Detective-Superintendent Scott Duval, said the ability of criminals to "do amphetamine cooking without a high level of knowledge means there are more people out there doing it".
"In our experience, there are more people attempting this, which is a concern because there is more risk of something going wrong and greater risk of explosions, fire and danger to the community," he said.
Criminologists believe organised crime gangs could be targeting SA as a "safe" place to produce amphetamine before exporting it interstate.
Adelaide University criminology lecturer Allan Perry said the commission's figures showed SA had around 20 per cent of the drug labs detected in the nation but less than 10 per cent of Australia's population.
"And I suspect the number of clandestine labs detected is a small proportion of the number of drug labs that exist," Mr Perry said.
"The obvious possibility is there is more drug lab activity in SA, which is why there is a higher level of detection. It may be that people engaged in this activity believe SA is a safer place to engage in it."
Flinders University Associate Professor in Environmental Health John Edwards, who is investigating the prevalence of drug labs in the state, said the amphetamines produced here "could end up interstate".
"There could be such restrictions in terms of policing and the risk of being captured interstate that SA is seen as a safer state to produce the drugs and then they are exported," he said.
Illegal labs producing amphetamines - known by street names such as speed, ice, whiz and goey - are found in homes across Adelaide, including blue-ribbon addresses, according to Supt Duval.
"We had a recent significant bust in Unley . . . and had one at Mawson Lakes where we had to clear residents from other townhouses because they were at threat," he said.
Supt Duval said the backyard labs were highly unstable and could explode or catch fire, posing a risk not only to the manufacturers but also innocent neighbours.
The crime commission said its new National Clandestine Laboratory Database "has been created to provide the most comprehensive picture of the manufacture of illicit drugs in Australia".
And it's a disturbing picture for our state. There was one drug lab detected for every 23,000 South Australians in 2007/08.
This is significantly higher than the national average of one lab for every 60,000 people.
It's also well ahead of the next closest state for drug lab detection, Queensland, which recorded one amphetamine lab for every 35,000 people.
In New South Wales, the rate of detection was one in 138,000.
Supt Duval said good policing with the help of public tip-offs had also contributed to the high number of drug lab busts in SA.
"We get a very good level of information from the public and we have a strong focus on organised crime as there is no doubt outlaw motorcycle gangs are involved in illicit drug manufacturing and trade," he said.
The number of people requiring treatment for amphetamine abuse was also on the rise, with latest SA Drug and Alcohol Service figures showing a dramatic increase from 937 people in 2001/02 to 1655 in 2006/07.
While SA Ambulance doesn't have any official statistics on the subject, the Ambulance Employees Association says paramedics are called to around 20 incidents involving amphetamine abuse across Adelaide every weekend and these could sometimes turn violent.
"There certainly has been an exponential increase in cases - especially since 2005 - which generally reflects the community's increased use of these drugs," association industrial officer Wayne Carty said.
The World Drug Report 2009, released last month, shows amphetamines in Australia and New Zealand trigger more treatments per capita than anywhere else in the world.
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,27574,25835558-2682,00.html
