‘Epidemic’: Statistics, sad stories behind scourge of meth across northern NSW
These are some of the faces of an “epidemic” destroying lives in northern NSW. Read their stories and learn about an inspiring woman who clawed her way from the grips of meth addiction – and is now fighting for others.
Regional News
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The meth scourge is one of the biggest issues facing northern NSW – there’s “nowhere to hide” from the impacts of the infamous drug tearing apart communities, says an addict-turned-advocate.
The highly-addictive illicit substance has shattered families, destroyed lives and left scars on regional communities – the impact can be seen in packed local courts each day of the week.
One man who unwittingly sold guns to undercover police to fund his addiction told a court “every living minute of my day revolved around using ice”.
NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) statistics shows almost every local government areas on the North Coast and Mid-North Coast have a higher rate of use and/or possession of amphetamines when compared to the state average.
For example, Coffs Harbour’s rate per 100,000 population was 125.7 in the past year, while the average rate across wider NSW was 78.5.
Even more alarmingly, the Richmond Valley LGA reported a rate of 178 per 100,000.
It’s far from a new problem.
When former Premier Gladys Berejiklian commissioned the Special Commission of Inquiry into Methamphetamine use in 2018, Grafton and Coffs Harbour were reported as having some of the largest increases in drug possession.
Coffs Harbour recorded 15 possession incidents in 2009, but by 2018 this number had soared to 163 — an increase of over 1000 per cent.
From addict to advocate
Andrea Simmons, former addict and the chief executive officer of Australian Anti-Ice Campaign (AAIC), knows all too well the harm meth can cause.
AAIC has a team based in Coffs Harbour and conducts work in schools, detention centres and through youth justice programs.
Ms Simmons said meth addiction is a nationwide problem, but it’s use can be more obvious in regional areas with smaller populations and tighter ties.
“Everybody knows everybody in smaller towns,” she said.
“There’s nowhere to hide.”
Ms Simmons also believes it is an even larger problem than the public is aware of, as illuminated by wastewater testing and research.
A report from the ACIC’s (Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission) National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program released earlier this year states methylamphetamine is the fourth most consumed drug in the nation, behind alcohol, nicotine and cannabis.
At the time, acting ACIC chief Matt Rippon said average consumption of meth had increased at regional sites through August-December.
Ms Simmons said she thinks the testing is the most accurate way to get a full sense of the scale of meth use in regional and remote NSW.
She said addicts will often deny using or lie about the amount of meth they use.
Ms Simmons’ own struggles with addiction spurred her to form the Anti-Ice Campaign.
She said she had never tried illicit drugs until she was in her 40s.
Ms Simmons experienced a divorce and a new relationship led the mum-of-two to make a regrettable decision when she was offered an ice pipe.
She thought it would be a one off occurrence – it spiralled into a two-year nightmare.
“I thought I’d just have a puff and see what it feels like,” Ms Simmons said.
“And that took me into a two year entrapment, into a vortex that absolutely destroyed my life — not only my life but also my body and my mind were destroyed.”
Ms Simmons left her children with their grandmother and her days and nights revolved around feeding her $500 a day habit.
She said ended up on the street and sick, suffering from a heart condition and bleeding kidneys.
Ms Simmons had a near-death experience when she overdosed on the drugs fentanyl and GHB – but continued using meth, demonstrating its notorious pull.
It was only when she had what she described as a “supernatural experience”, flew to the Gold Coast and locked herself in a room for three weeks that she began to piece her life together.
Ms Simmons has been clean for 12 years now.
She had been in recovery almost two years when she was asked to talk to school students about the dangers of meth.
One of the most common misconceptions she immediately encountered was troubling – teen girls believed the drug would lead to desired weight loss.
“You know, they thought they could lose a few kilos and look trim and terrific and have energy,” Ms Simmons said.
“But I could see the impact my speech had on those teenagers and what a lack of knowledge they had about what life entrapped in addiction is like.
“It was so important too because they all felt safe in an environment where they weren’t judged about asking questions.
“And so the organisation was born from there.”
The organisation also helps addicts to find detox services and offers mentors.
“Really, our central aim is to un-sell a dangerous chemical — it’s a poison,” Ms Simmons said.
“We want people to think about what they’re putting inside their bodies and how the effects can be, sometimes, irreversible.”
Ms Simmons wants to see more hard-hitting government anti-ice campaigns, similar to previous anti-smoking and drink driving messaging.
“We had hard hitting facts in these campaigns to show what that would do to the person, there was education in schools and we were really able to educate a whole nation,” she said.
Ms Simmons’ background is in film and television. Now, she wants to use those skills to expose the horrors of meth.
If you or anyone you know are suffering from addiction, Ms Simmons’ organisation has a national helpline: 1800 66 86 423.
All too often, the impacts of meth are detailed in northern NSW courts. These are just a small number of the tragic cases heard in recent times.
Leapt from moving car
A Northern Rivers father leapt from a moving car in a failed bid to evade police during a pursuit in which he hit 50km/h over the speed limit in a residential area.
Shane Richard Millwood, 39, pleaded guilty at Ballina Local Court in April to speeding, driving while disqualified, police pursuit and driving with an illegal drug in his system.
Millwood sparked a police pursuit and sped up to 100km/h.
Later, Millwood successfully got out of the car while it was still in motion and he ran across Serpentine Park, leaving the Falcon to crash into a tree, court documents state.
Millwood was arrested and taken to Ballina Police Station, where he was found to have meth in his system.
He was convicted and sentenced to a 16-month intensive correction order.
Repeatedly kicked police
Damien Claude Randall, then aged 31, faced Grafton Local Court in November last year.
He pleaded guilty to one count each of resisting an officer in the execution of duty, assaulting an officer, theft and dishonestly obtaining financial advantage.
Randall was addicted to meth during the offending, the court heard.
He pulled a Mazda up next to a grey Toyota and took a black handbag from the vehicle’s open boot.
Randall then drove off in the white Mazda along Pound St, but he was eventually found by police and missing credit cards were located on him.
He kicked out at police when he was arrested, striking the stomach of the officer three times.
In court, Magistrate Kathy Crittenden said Randall made “an extraordinary effort” to deal with the “grip of an ice addiction”.
“It is a drug that has the capacity to destroy people’s lives, and it is not an easy thing to do”, she said.
Randall was convicted and sentenced to a 12-month community correction order.
Real estate agent’s crime spree
Once a successful real estate agent, a Mid-North Coast man spiralled out of control on meth and alcohol in what the magistrate described as an “unfortunate and embarrassing episode”.
Brent James Kershaw appeared in Taree Local Court in August, where he was sentenced for a range of larceny, fraud and driving offences.
Magistrate Allison Hawkins said the 40-year-old let himself “get out of control very quickly”.
Kershaw was convicted and sentenced to a 12-month community correction order, fined $900 and disqualified from driving for six months.
He was ordered to undergo rehabilitation.
Selling guns to fuel ice addiction
A northern NSW man caught selling thousands of dollars of guns in a Bunnings sting operation told a court his actions were “a means to an end” to fund his meth addiction.
Junction Hill man Jeremy Cooper, 30, faced Grafton District Court in August.
He pleaded guilty to a string of firearm-related offences, including manufacturing a prohibited firearm, unlawfully selling firearms on multiple occasions and supplying a shortened double barrel shotgun.
Cooper sold eight guns and collected more than $16,000 in cash from a man who turned out to be an undercover police officer.
He spoke to Judge Clive Jeffreys in court and said his best friend had died in a car crash.
Cooper used meth to “self-medicate” daily at the time of offending.
He told the court his perspective was clouded because “every living minute of my day revolved around using ice”
“At the time of the (firearms) supply, it was more a means to an end for my drug addiction,” he said.
Couple’s ice-fuelled crime spree
A couple’s ice-fuelled crime spree across northern NSW and Queensland came to a terrifying end.
Georgia Eve Masterson, 22, of Illinbah, and Jonathan Michael Egan, 25, of Greenbank were sentenced at Lismore District Court in May.
They were trailed by a police chopper after a series of armed robberies in Queensland and NSW early last year.
Video footage showed the couple pull into a Caltex at Banora Point on Leisure Dr in a stolen Porsche.
Egan attempted to car jack a woman at gunpoint.
The victim froze but didn’t hand over the keys, so the couple hopped back into the Porsche and drove to Tweed City shopping centre.
There, Egan pulled a knife on a man and exclaimed: “Do you want to die?”, warning he would kill him – as Masterson brandished a gun.
The court heard Egan had been on meth during the spree and spent most of his 20s in and out of prison for drug-related offending.
It was also heard Masterson had an abusive upbringing and battled substance abuse issues – but had come to an “epiphany” about turning her life around.
Egan was convicted of possessing an unauthorised pistol, using an offensive weapon in company to prevent detention, attempted aggravated assault with intention to steal a car in company, aggravated assault with intention to steal a car in company, and two counts of driving a car while disqualified.
He was jailed for seven years with a non-parole period of four years
Masterson was convicted of using an offensive weapon in company to prevent detention, attempted aggravated assault with intent to steal a car in company, and aggravated assault with intent to steal a car in company.
She was jailed for six years, with a three-year non-parole period.
Paranoia causes servo lockdown
A young Clarence construction worker and meth user on a late night drive with a friend became paranoid their trip to the servo was an elaborate set up to have him shot, a court heard.
Brendan Hollett’s panic led to a Coles service station being thrust into lockdown.
In August, Hollett, 21, pleaded guilty to possessing a prohibited drug and having a knife in a public place.
He had been smoking meth at different locations in South Grafton over a couple of days.
Just before midnight in June, one of Hollett’s friends arrived at a Grafton house and “asked him if he wanted to go for a drive”.
Hollett agreed and the pair drove to the service station off the Pacific Hwy at Halfway Creek.
He came to think “the drive was a set up in order to have him shot” and informed authorities.
Police rushed to the scene from Grafton, Coffs Harbour, Woolgoolga and Dorrigo and instructed a service station worker to lock the doors.
But Hollett later told officers his friend had not made any threats and he had not seen a gun.
Hollett was convicted and sentenced to a nine-month conditional release order.
Caught selling meth to ‘pimps’ and sex workers
Rodney Jason Denyer, 51, was convicted and sentenced at Lismore Local Court in February for drug dealing, gun and weapon offences and possessing stolen goods.
Denyer was living in his mother’s garage, where police seized cannabis, meth, glass pipes, drug scales, prescription opioids, like oxycodone, and $1650 in cash.
A taser, a throwing knife, a black gel blaster pistol, four mobile phone and eight watches that were stolen were also seized.
Officers found a notebook containing names and amounts of money, which appeared to be a ‘tick book’ of people who owed money for drugs.
A CCTV system monitored the entrance to the garage.
Between March and November 2021 Denyer supplied 18.8 grams of meth worth about $10,200. Some customers were “pimps” and sex workers.
Defence solicitor James Fuggle said Denyer was a man with a troubled past and a history of drug use, who had since managed to put his life back on track.
Denver was convicted and sentenced to an intensive correction order for 10 months and a community corrections order for two years.
Wild police chase
A North Coast man had meth and cannabis in his system when he led police on a wild chase after he was busted leaving his ex’s house while subject to an AVO.
Liam Jade Arthur-Smith, from Whian Whian, faced Lismore Local Court in June.
He pleaded guilty to driving recklessly in a police pursuit, possessing prohibited drugs, possessing a restricted substance and drug driving, common assault and three counts of breaching conditions of apprehended violence orders (AVO).
The court heard Arthur-Smith, while subject to an order protecting both his ex-partner and her father, began arguing with them in August last year.
On one occasion, police were called and they tried to park in front of Arthur-Smith’s Holden, but he “reversed harshly”.
Police pursued the Holden down windy Terania Creek Rd for more than a kilometre.
The Holden fishtailed and lost traction.
Arthur-Smith stopped in a driveway and police pulled him from the vehicle.
He was arrested kicking and screaming.
Police searched the car and found a bumbag containing an ice pipe, scales and resealable bags.
Arthur-Smith later tested positive to meth and cannabis.
He was convicted and sentenced to 24-month community correction and 9-month intensive correction orders.
Do you need help? Phone the National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline on 1800 250 015, Lifeline on 13 11 14, or visit Alcohol & Drug Counselling Online.
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