Inside Australia’s drug epidemic: how ice is tearing our country apart

IT started out as a 9000km cross-country search for our ice capital. But it became the story of how ice is tearing Australia apart — and it’s the investigation every parent must read.

WARNING: Graphic content below may upset some readers

TWENTYFIVE towns and cities, 9000km, four weeks, three emergency departments, five rehab centres, 60 tragically addicted ice users, and 12 desperate parents — this was our journey around our “ice nation”.

As days turned to weeks on our journey down the east coast, across to Adelaide, then Perth and Darwin, it became clear that Australia’s problem with ice is not only real, its threat is potentially only beginning.

Nine medical staff and security try to control an ice addict in a state of psychosis in the Emergency Department of Royal Perth Hospital. Picture: Gary Ramage

It also became clear that despite some towns being branded “the Ice Capital” of Australia, no single place deserves the title. Ice is everywhere.

Ice, or methylamphetamine, has been around for years but in the past two to three years its use has surged as the drug gains a level of social acceptance that has caught Australia off-guard.

Many faces stand out from this 9000km journey, which I undertook with News Corp photographer Gary Ramage.

There’s the wild HIV-positive ice-psychotic guy in Perth, who spits at security guards and emergency staff trying to subdue him — and help him — with sedatives.

A man is brought to the Emergency Department at Royal Perth in a state of psychosis and is treated by the emergency medical staff. Picture: Gary Ramage

There’s the mum, aged 57, from Mt Gambier in South Australia, who had to give up a $65,000 job as a chef in the mines to come home to care for her ice-addicted 34-year-old daughter. She loved that job — probably the last decent-earning wage she’ll ever have.

Ev Gordon has a daughter who is an ice user. Picture: Gary Ramage

There’s a nasty statistic we picked up at the Orana Haven rehab facility, south of Brewarrina, in NSW, which shows how the authorities also need to clean up their act.

Four out of five people arriving at the rehab directly out of prisons test positive for drugs.

At this same place we met Gordon Byers, a self-proclaimed bad guy who became even worse on ice. “Ice,” he said, “is demon sh*t.”

Former ice user and dealer Gordon Byers is recovering at Orana Haven. Picture: Gary Ramage

There’s the Queensland cop, alarmed that they are now seizing ice with 70 per cent purity, destined for his small town.

We found a shop selling fake penises (coloured white, black or “Latino”) filled with synthetic urine so fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) workers can trick drug-testers on the work site.

Angela, 39, who we met in St Vincent’s emergency department in Melbourne, also stands out. Clearly malnourished, this 39-year-old woman began using ice back when in 1997, back when she said that “no one had heard of it”.

The Royal Melbourne Hospitals Emergency Department is the busiest in Victoria. Ice addict Shane leaves the ED after being treated by hospital staff. Picture: Gary Ramage

Being treated for a vein infection for injecting, she says she uses heroin to come down from ice, which she uses to treat her “depression”. What she means is ice makes her feel normal.

Asked if she’d like to stop, she says no. “I don’t think about not using it. I wish I could get more.”

We learned that people ought not get too hung up on whether ice should be described as an epidemic, pandemic, scourge or emergency. Australia has an ice problem.

To read Paul Toohey’s full feature on his journey around Australia, click here.

If you need help or support for a drug-related issue, the Australian Drug Foundation Drug Info page can help.

Originally published as Inside Australia’s drug epidemic: how ice is tearing our country apart