Page 1429 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 6 May 2015
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This sends a warning to us. On 11 November 2014 the Canberra Times reported that the targeting of high-end drug dealers in Canberra has led to a jump in the number of dealing, manufacturing and trafficking charges. There was a 52 per cent increase in the number of drug dealing and trafficking charges in the ACT in the financial year 2013—102 dealing and trafficking charges were laid compared to 67 in the previous 12 months. There has also been a 33 per cent jump in drug manufacturing and drug charges in the ACT, with 32 charges laid in 2013-14 compared to 24 in the previous year.
The ACT’s leading drug body has called on the ACT government to develop a more nuanced response to increased ice usage and its associated harms. The ACT Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Association has reported a rapid and profound shift from powdered amphetamines to the more harmful crystal meth. ATODA reported there has been a 36 per cent increase in demand for non-government drug treatment services in the ACT, which has been exacerbated by the rising of methamphetamine-related harms in our community. The ATODA chief executive, Carrie Fowlie, said the number of drug treatment admissions with amphetamine as the primary drug of choice more than doubled between 2010 and 2013, a trend reported across the nation. She said methamphetamine users experience different harms from other users and there are no specialist treatments currently available in the ACT.
Since ATODA’s establishment in 2010 the ACT budget has not included explicit funding for non-government specialist drug treatment. Similar investments in non-government services have not been made, and 90 per cent of ACT specialist drug treatment organisations are non-government. Non-government services are essential and equal partners in treating drug problems in the ACT. For years non-government services have endeavoured to proactively and positively develop their services within existing resources. However, they are no longer able to cope with increased demand and the complexity of ice usage that I have described previously in my speech.
Major Scott Warrington, who runs the Salvation Army’s drug treatment centre in Fyshwick, has described treating ice patients as terrifying, with some suffering from psychosis inside the facility. He said:
People on ice have a higher capacity to do something horrible like commit murder or carry out on some deep-seated resentment from their earlier family life.
The Salvation Army recovery services in Canberra advise that more young people have sought treatment for ice addiction than alcohol or cannabis use. Disturbingly, the ACT has the lowest number of rehab providers in Australia, according to the Productivity Commission, and many have spoken out to the Canberra Times in recent months about the difficult situation they are trying to operate in. Karralika runs one of Canberra’s main residential rehab programs, the Karralika therapeutic community, which currently has a wait of two to three months. The Karralika program’s chief executive, Camilla Rowland, said occupancy rates were higher than they had ever been and every drug user in its service now lists methamphetamine as one of the drugs they are trying to beat. She said the number of people seeking treatment for methamphetamine has doubled in the past few years.
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