Australia in the grip of an ice 'pandemic'

[CLICKHEREx]

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/illicit-drugs-report-to-be-released/story-fn3dxiwe-1226899164694

By Danny Rose
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AAP
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April 29, 2014 4:33PM

The annual Australian Crime Commission's illicit drugs report will be released in Melbourne. Source: AAP

AUSTRALIA is in the grip of an ice pandemic with the amount of amphetamine-type stimulants seized by border control hitting a record.

The nation's drug supply is also changing as drug dealers and users turn to the internet and use the mail as a drug delivery service, says the head of the Australian Crime Commission.

"Yes, we are seeing a very high increase in the numbers of parcel post seizures," commission CEO Chris Dawson said in Melbourne on Tuesday.

"It's telling us that - not dissimilar to online shopping - the market has changed in the way of both procuring and receiving drugs.

"What I can say, quite firmly, is Australia Post and most postal services are working very closely with law enforcement and there are a lot of operations underway."

The commission's latest illicit drug data report found there were 2138kg of amphetamines-type stimulants, such as ice, seized by border authorities during 2012/13 - up 516 per cent.

Amphetamine detections increased 85 per cent, to 1999, and the majority of these amphetamines were found "in the postal stream".

There were almost 87,000 drug seizures across all drug classes - the highest on record - netting a total 19.6 tonnes of illicit drugs during the period.

Authorities were most concerned by the rise in amphetamine detections, noting drugs such as ice are highly addictive and had triggered murders, violent assaults and robberies in city and country areas.

"We're intentionally using the term pandemic in terms of ice," Mr Dawson said.

"It's akin to the cocaine crack problem in the USA, and we're seeing the prevalence of ice and methylamphetamine as a major scourge in our nation."

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Tony Negus told reporters it was not known what percentage of drug imports went undetected by authorities.

Federal Justice Minister Michael Keenan said the numbers were "concerning", however the rising level of detections showed "our systems are working".

Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said law enforcement alone could not solve the problem.

"The whole community has to make it clear that those who would peddle and harm our young people, that we will fight it with all means possible," Mr Shorten said.

[bullit]

yeah baby , timE to TWIRl the pipe. 4 real this shit is hell on wheels everycunt is on it...

years ago it was weed and shrooms

now its redbul and crack .. the thing is teens aint ready to stay up all 3 days...... it takes practize

[mystical oyster]

it sure is spreading fast, its been down south for a while but its made its why up north, majority of my mates who swore never to touch it, now its the only thing they touch!

[mystical oyster]

i can see it getting pretty epic, becoming a real problem. most people are still in there baby years, few years time shits going to be a lot different

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

Goldie is apparently rife for this bullshit. I got a cousin locked up there for the shit, according to my family there every person on the strip after 10pm is on it nowadays :-/

When I was in the Riverina NSW is was all bikie goey, still is I think considering my last visit to my local dive lol. Makes it unbearable to go out for a drink when your bombarded with dudes on any of this shit

Edited May 1, 2014 by prioritise

[Jox]

Very sad .

Plants are a much better option . SHIT there illegal too !! Farken government

[Francois le Danque]

My local paper recently featured an article about a new police taskforce for ice. Interestingly, it was quick to dissuade readers from hating on ice users, saying that "people use drugs for a variety of reasons and deserve to be given access to treatment", and that 'law enforcement alone has no chance of solving the problem'. I thought it was a pretty well-done article.

However the corner of the article was cut out to make room for a smaller article saying the local area command now have access to tasers...

[Sallubrious]

"The whole community has to make it clear that those who would peddle and harm our young people, that we will fight it with all means possible," Mr Shorten said.

This mentality is to a large degree what created this problem in the first place. Politicians trying to score points by cracking down and getting tough on "insert substance of choice"

In the early eighties amphetamines were not a common drug of abuse in most parts of Aus. Sure there were areas where stimulants were common but for the most part pot was the drug of choice.

The Hawk government got tough on pot and busted some very large operations which took a lot of pot off the market and we started to see droughts where there was not much pot to be found in many areas. When people couldn't get their pot they turned to the next available thing which in many cases was amphetamines. Spotting a clandestine indoor lab from a helicopter is much harder than finding 10 acres of pot, so organised crime moved into that.

Du pont and complicit criminal politicians sent the world down this rabbit hole when they had pot banned. Now the the children of planet earth have to pay the toll with their lives.