There continues to be very strong interest from a wide range of workforce and community groups in relation to ice. The Ice Taskforce presented its interim report to the Council of Australian Government meeting in Sydney in July. Media outlets continue to produce ‘special reports’ noting the ‘scourge’ of ice, on occasions drawing on circumstantial evidence to attribute crime, unemployment, and violence with ice use. Although such reports help generate public discussions about methamphetamine use, they often fail to provide the public, workplaces, and organisations with evidence-based information about:
- patterns and prevalence of use;
- treatment options available for users;
- the workforce development needs of services, including funding security, staff retention, and professional development needs;
- how to reduce the harms associated with methamphetamine use;
- how to respond and/or assist someone who may be using methamphetamine in the home and/or in the workplace;
- the best methods available to prevent first-time use.
NCETA responds to these information gaps by conducting research and undertaking a range of dissemination activities to provide policy-makers, community, specialist organisations, and workplaces with accurate and balanced information about the:
- prevalence and patterns of methamphetamine and ice use;
- harms associated with use;
- impact on communities, services, law enforcement, and the workplace;
- best practice options available to respond to methamphetamine and ice use.
Media
Sky News – Tuesday 11 August 2015: Associate Professor Nicole Lee was interviewed by Sky News in relation to Senator Jacqui Lambie’s private members’ bill seeking to allow parents to mandatorily detain their methamphetamine dependent children in detoxification facilities. Nicole highlighted a recent study which demonstrated detoxification and rehabilitation services did not necessarily reduce people’s methamphetamine use in the short and longer term, respectively. She suggested that greater resources needed to be directed towards supporting aftercare and in-home community care.
Read the article here: http://www.skynews.com.au/news/national/2015/08/11/experts-dispel-myth-of-ice-epidemic.html.
Channel 7 Sunrise – 22 August 2015: Associate Professor Nicole Lee also spoke with Sunrise hosts, Andrew O’Keefe and Monique Wright about the prevalence of Ice use in the Australian community. She noted that the proportion of methamphetamine users has not increased for over 10 years; however, there had been a shift in the severity of use. That is, methamphetamine users were now using ice, whereas previously they had consumed speed, and users were using ice with increased regularity. Nicole, however, cautioned that the greatest community harms were attributable to alcohol consumption, rather than ice.
Watch the podcast here: https://au.tv.yahoo.com/sunrise/video/watch/29323890/does-australia-really-have-an-ice-problem/?cmp=st&cmp=st%20#page1%20
Methamphetamine, ice and drug psychosis workshops
Dr Ken Pidd participated in a workshop about Ice and Drug Psychosis at the recent Australian Indigenous Doctors Associate (AIDA) 2015 Conference in Adelaide on 17 September 2015.
The workshop was coordinated by the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP). NCETA was also involved in the planning of the workshop which aimed to provide participants (eg general practitioners, registrars, medical students) with practical strategies for managing ice and other drug induced psychosis.
Dr Pidd’s presentation included an overview presentation about ice and its history. The presentation explained what ice is, its history as a ‘utilitarian drug’ during the early and mid-1900s and its subsequent criminalisation; the effects of methamphetamine use; and the patterns and prevalence of methamphetamine use among the broader Australian population as well as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
At the end of the workshop, Dr Pidd participated in a panel and audience discussion with other presenters. NCETA also used the workshop as an opportunity to promote its three methamphetamine resources and provided hard copies of the resources to the workshop participants.
Other upcoming presentations include:
- Professor Ann Roche is conducting professional development workshops on methamphetamine for the Western Australian Network of Alcohol & other Drug Agencies (WANADA) and the Central Australian Youth Link Up Service (CAYLUS) Forum: Ice and Central Australia: From Research to Practice in October and November, respectively;
- Roger Nicholas is giving a presentation on methamphetamine epidemiology and trends in use at the Northern Health Networks Ice Forum in Adelaide in October.
