Alarm as ecstasy users turn to ice
By Ruth Pollard Health Reporter
October 1, 2005
Hospital emergency departments are watching with alarm as the popularity of the methamphetamine known as crystal, which is highly addictive and often 80 per cent pure, increases.
Still mostly concentrated among those who use party drugs or inject drugs, crystal - also known as ice - is replacing the powder form of methamphetamine, speed, as the stimulant of choice, experts say.
A study of regular ecstasy users found 5 per cent reported having used crystal in 2000, but by last year 50 per cent of ecstasy users reported having used crystal, said Louisa Degenhardt, a senior lecturer at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre. "You have got average 80per cent purity with crystal compared to 10per cent purity with powder," she said.
While the overall prevalence of methamphetamine use across the country has remained steady at about 3.4 per cent of the population, there are increasing reports of a rise in harmful use consistent with people switching from a low purity form of the drug (speed) to one with higher purity (ice), she said.
The drug drives the part of the brain associated with mood, releasing a rush of serotonin and dopamine and promoting a sense of euphoria and invincibility. It is smoked in a glass pipe, snorted or injected.
There had been a 58 per cent increase of hospital presentations for methamphetamine-related psychosis, said Dr Peter McGeorge, director of mental health services at St Vincent's Hospital.
Crystal was affecting people from many walks of life, he said. "There is no doubt that the presentations have increased at St Vincent's, from 200 admissions per year to 1300. It is a dramatic increase. Clinically, crystal is not as addictive as heroin or nicotine, so we are still trying to sort out how much of the increase is related to how popular the drug is as opposed to how addictive it is."
A paramedic, Ian Johns, who has worked in the inner and eastern suburbs of Sydney for 17 years, said while crystal users were often aggressive, paranoid and difficult to deal with, nothing came close to the problems caused by alcohol abuse.
"You might have one crystal overdose in two months but you would have done at least 100 involving alcohol, where they want to fight … [or] they are unreasonable - every single case is completely unpredictable."
