Methamphetamine The Australian 28 September 2006

28 SEPTEMBER

ex John Stapleton

THE use of methamphetamine, including the potent form of Ice, has become the major drug problem facing Australia and the Asia-Pacific region, according to two new reports released yesterday at the first major Australasian conference focussing on amphetamines.

The Australian National Council on Drugs analysis of illicit drugs in the Asia-Pacific region reports that almost all the countries surveyed now rank methamphetamine and ecstasy as the major drugs of concern. China has shown a 15-fold increase in the number of registered drug users since 1990. The report records a flood of methamphetamine use since the mid 1990s, particularly in Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and increasingly in China.

Abuse of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) is now estimated to affect some 25 million people worldwide, with more than 60 per cent of abusers in East Asia and Southeast Asia.

A separate United Nations confrirmed the findings, recording that between 19999/2000 and 2004/2005 there had been a 56 per cent rise in the number of hospital admissions in Australia for abuse of stimulants. The growth in abuse of amphetamines was due to its ready accessability on the streets of Asia and a large vulnerable population. ``It is being marketed on the streets in Asia almost like candy,'' said Jeremy Douglas, Regional Project Coordination with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. ``It is very accessible. We are recording a very big increase in abuse in Asia. The impacts on the health system, the police and the judiciary are overwhelming.''

He said much of the supply in SE Asia was not destined for local markets, as evidenced by the enormous of size of recent seizures, including a half tonne seizure in Malaysia, and the trends were having a serious impact on Australia.

He said Australia, as one of the engine rooms of the region, with a relatively affluent population, was a major drawcard for exporters a flood of amphetamines would cause major social problems in Australia, including severe impacts on the health system and a distortion of the economy because of the size of the illegitimate trade.

Mr Alan Eade from the Metropolitan Ambulance Service in Melbourne told the conference yesterday that methamphetamine use had overtaken herooin in all jurisdictions in Australia. He said ambulance services had been set up for and educated on the management of heroin overdoses, and the emergence of amphetamine and ecstassy since the late 1990s had forced a review of the education of para-medics across Victoria.

Professor Ernie Drucker from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, an advocate for harm minimisation, told the conference a focus on law and order to combat the increased use of amphetamines was the wrong way to go. He said there was only a limited amount of money to go around in dealing with drugs and that money would be better spent on treatment facilities. ``Harm reduction is the alternative to tough on drugs policies,'' he said. ``Resources are better used providing treatment, education and prevention. We have to learn to live in a world where drugs are a reality. We can't make believe that we are going to have a world free of drugs. The Australian government approach of giving the most money to law enforcement is never going to work. You can't enforce your way out of drug problems.''

Organiser of the conference, John Ryan, from the Association for Prevention and Harm Reduction Programs in Australia, said they had tried to bring all sides of the debate together, from harm minimisation advocates to law enforcement officials. ``There is no single perspective that has all the answers,'' he said. ``We need to work together, the needle and syringe people, the police, health workers, we need to be celebrating and supporting each other, otherwise we are destined to respond inadequately.''