NEWS: The Age - 04/11/07 'Violence, depravity the tip of the iceberg'

Violence, depravity the tip of the iceberg
Reid Sexton
November 4, 2007

MELBOURNE ice users admit they have stabbed innocent people, watched fellow ice addicts rape and bash others, gone without sleep for weeks and turned "crazy" while under the drug's violently mind-altering grasp.

The drug is so destructive that one leading social welfare campaigner believes it is preferable for people to inject heroin than to turn to ice.

The accounts are contained in a shocking new report on the drug's effects, conducted by Open Family Australia and based on interviews with 26 young Melbourne users.

The report, released exclusively to The Sunday Age, found that while most users turned to drugs to cope with personal problems, they used ice because it was seen as a "social" drug and there had been a shortage of high-quality heroin on the streets.

But unlike heroin, ice has had a devastating psychiatric effect on them. "Heroin doesn't send you crazy like the ice does," one user says in the report.

"When people use heroin they usually … sleep and just sit around and do nothing … (on ice) they bash people, they rape people and they do all these sorts of things."

The testimony from users reads like every parent's worst nightmare. "I stabbed people that I thought said something to me," says one. "They didn't do anything wrong."

"I couldn't sleep for a week," another Melbourne user says. "My friend and I stayed up for a week and went to Adelaide for a drive, just to kill time."

The study found that 21 of the 26 users surveyed were unemployed and more than half were homeless.

Open Family chief Sue Renkin says this is indicative of ice's corrosive effect on users, which makes it far worse for the community than heroin. She says it is so dangerous that she would rather see people addicted to heroin than ice (methamphetamine).

"I hate the effect this drug has on people," Ms Renkin says. "Every time you read of another family being broken up over this … you never get over the shock factor. I think the effect of ice is far greater than any other drug I've come across."

Especially its impact on mental health. "The psychotic episodes, the paranoia and the increased ability to self-harm — heroin doesn't do that … that's what is most shocking," she says.

The latest figures from the National Alcohol and Drug Research Centre show that recent ice use among injecting drug users dropped by nearly 20 per cent in the past year.

But Associate Professor Louisa Degenhardt says it is crucial that ice is not forgotten as authorities prepare for a potentially massive wave of heroin importations.

"I think the time has come now to really keep our eye on the ball for making ice treatments available," she says. "There are people who have already developed problems with their use who really need help."

Users in their own words

■AUSTIN, 24: "I'll go and get money even if I have to stick a gun into someone's face and do an armed robbery … I stabbed people that I thought said something to me … they didn't do anything wrong."

■ADONIS, 19: "I often feel like hurting myself and other people … I just think it's not normal to feel like cutting my arms, punching somebody or hurting my girlfriend."

■MOYA, 21: "I felt like my tonsils were dropping out and I was swallowing blood. I was scared that I was going to die because it was so real. I said … can you please take me to hospital because I'm swallowing my whole self?"

■KEVIN, 20: "I have an imaginary friend … I know it's killing my brain and sometimes I struggle to speak. I can't pronounce words properly … I feel like I'm losing my mind, losing the plot and going insane."

■VAN, 22: "(I) experienced excessive memory loss and for days I can't remember what happened. I get scabs and sores on my body."
SOURCE: OPEN FAMILY AUSTRALIA REPORT

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hoptis said:

The Age

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