Call for action on ice scourge,October 19,
2006
NSW Premier Morris Iemma has asked Prime Minister John Howard to
help draw up an urgent national action plan to tackle the growing
scourge of the drug ice.
Mr Iemma today said he had written to Mr Howard and all state and
territory leaders to hold a national forum on "this ice
plague" before the end of the year.
He said the leaders could use the forum to draw up an action plan
to work out ways to rehabilitate ice addicts and reduce crime and
family breakdowns associated with the drug.
"While there are no easy answers, we are determined that law
enforcement and health officials will work together as will state,
territory and federal jurisdictions," Mr Iemma told
parliament.
"It is appropriate that we take strong action to minimise the
damage caused by the use of this drug and its supply.
"It is a dirty, filthy, pervasive chemical cocktail and Australia
needs more prevention, more enforcement and more treatment
options.
"We want to know our kids are protected from this drug, that young
people who fall prey to its evil effects can be rescued in time and
that the vermin who pedal this menace on our streets are crushed
with the full and overwhelming force of the law."
The NSW government has announced that five new psychiatric
emergency care centres are being built to safely handle
people badly affected by ice.
"The responses that we get from people who use these drugs can be
quite impulsive, quite unpredictable, and sometimes quite
violent,'' Health Minister John Hatzistergos told reporters.
"We've had to modify some of our emergency departments to ensure we
can maintain an environment of safety for the individuals who are
affected, and for our staff.
"We've got psychiatric emergency care measures now in a number of
emergency departments and we are planning to construct
more.''
Psychiatric emergency care centres are already operating
alongside emergency departments at Sydney's St Vincent's,
Liverpool, Nepean, and St George hospitals.
Centres at hospitals in the Sydney areas of Campbelltown, Hornsby
and Blacktown, and at Wyong and Wollongong on the coasts north and
south of the capital, should be operational by the end of next
year.
Mr Hatzistergos said an advertising campaign using text messages to
mobile phones, promotions in pubs and warnings about the dangers of
ice had begun in the lead-up to this year's party season.
National Drug & Alcohol Research Centre information officer
Paul Dillon said ice had created a range of problems for frontline
workers, including police and emergency department staff.
"Instead of having a group of people attend a treatment centre who
are sedated, we are now seeing them come in a state of agitation
and quite manic,'' Mr Dillon said.
The 2005 Illicit Drug Reporting System figures on ice use
illustrated the upwards trend. Of injecting drug users surveyed, 14
per cent reported using ice in 2000. This jumped to 45 per cent in
2004 then fell slightly to 38 per cent last year. New figures are
due out next month.
Mr Dillon welcomed steps to improve psychiatric emergency care, but
warned against losing sight of problems caused by heroin and
alcohol.
"We still need to remember that the biggest cause of illicit drug
death continues to be heroin and the number one problem that
hospitals are seeing around the country continues to be alcohol,''
he said.
AAP and Elicia Murray
2.not just drugs problems. Sure corruptions involved.
if u stay in Aussie,pl share more here.
3.added 27.10.2006
This drug lives up to our worst nightmare,OPINION
Matt Price,October 28, 2006
"It's big, it's big," he exclaims. "It rots your brain and we
really don't know how to deal with it. The hype is completely
justified. People - parents - should be very scared."....
They saw for themselves the extra security guards deployed to cater
for the ultra-aggressive ice victims and the lock-up cells used to
placate patients lurching out of control.....
"It's as if after all these years experimenting they've finally
come up with the perfect drug, particularly suited to the
Australian lifestyle. It's cheap, it's small, it's easy to hide. It
works instantly and is insanely powerful. You can smoke it or
swallow it or inject it. You don't rely on the Mujaheddin or
sunlight or rain for supply, people can cook it up in their back
yard. The dealers are making huge profits and, unlike heroin,
you're not going to die straight away."
Where we're sitting is a short walk from the notorious Kings Cross
strip. Fulde waves his arms and grunts: "And don't think this is
confined to Darlinghurst and the so-called degenerative underclass.
Ice users are across every level of society. That's what's really
frightening; there are so many people using who we don't see here,
or haven't yet. They're in trouble and just barely coping."
.....
If u are sending kids to Aussie,just do some home works and Good
Luck.
