The vile scourge of ice tortures everyday Aussie families

HE was an ordinary, charming guy but ice turned Tracey Filicietti’s son into a monster. He threatened to kill his two young sisters and turned his pregnant girlfriend into a prostitute.

A MOTHER who disowned her addict son. The paramedics regularly attacked by drug-fuelled psychos.

A police chief devastated by the impact of drug lords killing his community.

The pregnant addict who turned to prostitution.

A terrified wife who fled the violent husband who cut off her horses’ ears and handed them to her.

Tracey Filicietti, 54, has disowned her ice addict son, whose behaviour on the drug became deplorable. Picture: Peter Lorimer

The lost generation of children who don’t attend school because their parents are too wasted to take them. These are the real people on the real frontline in the war on ice, living the nightmare inflicted on towns and cities across Australia by the drug.

And it could touch your life next.

“It’s like no drug we’ve ever had before,” said Acting Premier Troy Grant.

“Ice is a clear and present danger for every community throughout NSW.”

Like many around her, Tracey Filicietti’s family has been devastated by ice.

Her son James, 34, got hooked on booze and cannabis before turning to ice while living in Sydney during his late 20s.

He was an ordinary, charming guy but ice turned him into a monster and one day, after taking the drug, he flew into a psychotic rage and threatened to kill his two young sisters.

It was one in a series of violent episodes but the final straw for his mum.

“I just couldn’t deal with it ... I had to protect my babies, so I cut him out of my life,” Ms Filicietti, 54, told the Daily Telegraph.

“He still writes to me from jail. But I won’t reply. I don’t want him in my life. I can’t beat myself up about where it all went wrong, I just have to move forward.”

She doesn’t even own a picture of him.

Tracey Filicietti says her son still writes to her from jail, but she doesn’t reply. Picture: Peter Lorimer.

James pushed ice on to a girlfriend after telling her she was too fat. She fell pregnant while addicted and turned to prostitution to buy ice.

This is happening across NSW. The epidemic is real.

One of Ms Filicietti’s friends fled her violent ice-addict husband. A while later he cut the ears off her horses and handed them to her.

“It just turns people mad,” Ms Filicietti added.

She moved to Tamworth with her husband from their former home near Lismore a couple of years ago. But ice followed them.

Tamworth, like other regional towns is being flooded with the drug — so much so that local MP Kevin Anderson convened an emergency summit this week to find solutions to the epidemic.

One attending medical worker described how children aren’t attending school in Tamworth because their addict parents are “too wasted” to take them.

Tamworth Ambulance Inspector Ray Tait is concerned about the safety of his officers when it comes to dealing with ice users. Picture: Peter Lorimer.

You can buy ice for $60 a bag in Tamworth. That gives addicts two hits. There are plenty of drug houses to get it from. Manufacturers are driving Breaking Bad-style mobile labs into the bush to make the drug before it’s distributed to low-level dealers.

Many of the sellers and addicts live around the notorious Coledale area, to the west of Tamworth. Small gangs roam at night, looking for their next hit. It’s a no-go zone for most people. But drugs and misery thrive. Unemployment is high, just like the residents.

Ray Tait runs Tamworth Ambulance Station and his paramedics are regularly called to Coldale. They’re regularly attacked too.

A while back they were called to help a young boy suffering an epileptic fit. The boy’s dad, high on ice, threw a heater at the paramedics.

Ice can be bought for as little as $60 a bag in Tamworth, where Mrs Filicietti lost her son.

In another recent incident, paramedics prevented a man high on ice from killing himself — only for him to attack them. One of the ambos is still on leave because of his injuries.

Inspector Tait said Tamworth’s problem with ice has gotten so bad his crews need physical protection.

“You wouldn’t send a vet into a lion’s cage — but that’s pretty much what my guys are doing,” he added. “I’ve got kids and I’ve got grandkids and I hope and pray they don’t get caught up with this substance. It’s pure evil.”

Assistant Commissioner Geoff McKechnie, police commander for Western NSW, has received reports about children as young as eight taking ice in the bush. Teenage addicts are common. Some steal from their family to fund their habit.

“How do people deal with their property being sold off to buy drugs?” said Commissioner McKechnie.

“How do they deal with sleeping with their handbag under their pillow at night so their money is not stolen by their children? I’m not sure how you cope with that.”

Assistant Commissioner Geoff McKechnie has heard stories about mothers having to sleep with their handbags under their pillows..