Drugs in regional SA: Ice increasing in purity, decreasing in price and cheaper than booze

The ice crisis in regional SA is worsening, a peak law body says, as the purity of individual doses increases — all while the cost of the drug is dropping, making it cheaper to buy than alcohol.

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The lethal drug ice is increasing in potency and decreasing in price in regional SA, with doses of more than 50 per cent purity available for less than the cost of alcohol.

The Law Society of SA’s criminal law committee has called for the State Government to increase funding for anti-drug and rehabilitation programs in rural areas.

Community leaders in regional centres across the state have told the Sunday Mail ice was one of the biggest issues facing towns in areas including the Eyre Peninsula, the Riverland, Barossa Valley and Limestone Coast.

The criminal law committee says that while SA Police regularly stem flow of ice into the state, from Melbourne via Mount Gambier and Portland, that has not stopped the knock-on social impact.

Co-chair Craig Caldicott said the link between ice and violent crime was different to that of other drugs such as heroin, cocaine and ecstasy.

“Twenty years ago people were using heroin and they would do anything to get their fix,” he said.

“But heroin was and is expensive, so they would rob banks or commit armed robberies in order to be able to afford it.

“In 2019, we’re hearing it’s actually cheaper to buy ice than it is to buy alcohol, with a purity ranging from at least 50 per cent up to 70 and 80 per cent.

“These days people aren’t offending to be able to buy ice — they’re offending because they’ve consumed ice, and that offending is violent.”

Ice, also known as crystal meth, is a form of amphetamine — a highly-powerful stimulant that speeds up the messages travelling between the brain and the body.

It is stronger, more addictive and has a greater range of harmful side effects than the other well-known form of amphetamine, called “speed”, that is consumed as a powder.

In February, a joint SA Police/Australian Federal Police operation dubbed the Joint Agency Ice Strike Team was formed to combat the spread of the drug.

It was established after several surveys of the state’s waste water found one in 10 people in Adelaide used the drug every day, and use in regional SA doubled.

This week, Mr Caldicott told the Sunday Mail that policing could only achieve so much.

“The route of the meth, which originates in Melbourne, appears to be through Mount Gambier to the Riverland,” he said.

“The cycle seems to be that a drug ring sets up shop, operates for a number of weeks or months and then gets busted by police.

“A little while later, people are scrambling around to get their drugs from somewhere so a new ring is established and the cycle starts up all over again.”

He said it was “too easy” for would-be drug lords to start operating.

“If you know what you’re doing then, with a little bit of equipment, you can make your own meth, and that’s such a dangerous situation socially,” he said.

“Most of the products you need can be bought at the hardware store.”

Mr Caldicott said ice had replaced alcohol and cannabis as a familiar “aggravating factor” in criminal offending.

“Lawyers are starting to check clients for ice use as much as they have them checked for mental health issues,” he said.

“It’s becoming a case of ‘do I have a mental incompetency defence or a drug-induced psychosis?’.

“And, when you do have a drug-induced psychosis (case), you wonder if the mental illness would have developed anyway.

“People are self-medicating with ice like they once did with alcohol.”

He said that, in addition to police work, rehabilitative programs were needed.

“There should be an amount of government funding made available for rehabilitation, not just in the community but also within prisons,” he said.

“There’s far too many people self-medicating, and far too many people becoming addicted.”

Deputy State Director, Drug and Alcohol Services South Australia (DASSA), Mark Bandick said the fight against drugs in the regions was ongoing.

He said the state had invested about $3.6 million for extra alcohol and drug services across the state, including 18 rehabilitation beds in Mount Gambier, the Riverland and Whyalla.

The service had also expanded family support groups across the Riverland, Port Augusta, Murray Bridge, Barossa, and Adelaide.

“We have also provided funding for community sporting clubs to discourage drug use and funded 50 per cent more private treatment appointments since 2017.”

— with Brad Crouch

ICE CRIME IN THE REGIONS

Arrod Westley: Former Riverland football coach and community “role model” who was arrested for trafficking methamphetamine, including paying one of his teammates a match fee in drugs. Jailed in August, 2016 for two years and three months.

Operation Addenine: A five month long police sting ending in 2016 which identified the flow of methamphetamine between Mount Gambier and larger suppliers in Adelaide and Melbourne. Led to 15 people being arrested as well as guns, money, stolen cars and drugs being seized.

Travis Kirchner: A police manhunt launched to find Kirchner in the days after he murdered Murray Bridge woman Sally Rothe unearthed the seedy methamphetamine-fuelled underbelly of the regional town. Months after Kirchner was arrested, and as a result of a nine month operation, eight men and one women were taken into custody for their role in drug dealing as police swooped on the town as part of Operation Atlas.

Bo Olsson: murdered his partner and her mother in May 2019 in Millicent during an ice-fuelled rampage. Jailed for at least 26 years for two counts of murder.

Chad Badcock, Kym Wayne Barnes and Shane Matthew Muckray: Murdered 27-year-old Jayson Doelz near Kersbrook in the Adelaide Hills in 2012 over a suspected drug debt. Justice David Lovell said that while there was no doubt that the murder was linked to drugs, Mr Doelz’s debt was not more than a few hundred dollars.

Hillier murders: The relationship between murderer Steven Graham Peet and his victim Adeline Rigney-Wilson was dominated by methamphetamine. The pair had descended into daily ice use when Peet killed Ms Rigney-Wilson and her two children, Amber, six, and Corey, five, at their Hillier home in June 2016. Peet was sentenced to life with a non-parole period of 36 years.