From ambulance call outs to hospitalisation and drug possession, find out the impact of ice on your suburb

Ice was estimated to have cost Australians $12bn last year, mostly in police and court costs. Find out which Victorian suburbs are worst affected.

It took being hit by a garbage truck while coming down from ice to motivate a Melbourne woman to get clean of the drug she had been using for more than 20 years.

A recent report titled Understanding the cost of addiction in Australia found alcohol, tobacco, drug and gambling addictions cost an estimated $80bn last year, as well as having far-reaching impacts on workplace and household productivity, harmful consumption and healthcare.

Drugs, such as ice, were estimated to have cost $12.9bn, with justice and law enforcement costs accounting for about $5.8bn of this.

One woman who has personal experience with the cost of drug addiction is Reservoir’s Trinity Morris, who was first exposed to methamphetamine when she was aged in her early 20s.

“I’d never heard of ice until I got introduced to it with my partner. I never knew what a pipe was, what ice was. He introduced me to it,” the now 47-year-old said.

Trinity Morris has spoken out about her ice addiction. Picture: Liam McNully

Led down a path of disadvantage and homelessness, Ms Morris struggled with her addiction for more than two decades.

She largely spent her adult life living on the streets injecting herself with the drug, but has had brief periods of sobriety when she has lived in share homes.

Ice busts: Melbourne Airport raids, home busts, as police take on drug scourge

Ms Morris worries about the growing prevalence of the drug in the suburbs, especially in Reservoir.

“It’s becoming worse …. [with] teenagers, adults. It’s flooding the streets,” Ms Morris said.

“You hear a lot of people breaking into houses, breaking into cars trying to get their next hit.”

Her suspicions are backed up by the latest crime data as well as the prevalence of ice-related cases going through the courts.

According to the latest crime statistics for the year ending September 2022, Melbourne CBD topped the list for the most recorded drug possession offences, followed by Casey, Knox, Dandenong, Frankston and Brimbank.

However while ice possession offences remains high, the data shows recorded trafficking and dealing offences have dropped in the last two years.

It comes as a recent National Drug Strategy Household Survey found the proportion of respondents reporting frequent ice use has skyrocketed in the last decade, up from nine per cent in 2010 to 17 per cent in 2019.

The latest wastewater analysis reports similar results, confirming ice use has continued to increase in both regional areas and metropolitan cities across the country.

Finding a dealer

Finding a dealer is not difficult, according to Ms Morris, who was even able to score on dating apps such as Skout.

“It’s a drug affected app,” she said, “You go by their username. Some usernames have got clouds of smoke and you know that they’re dealing.”

Some profiles explicitly advertise the term ‘PNP’, meaning ‘Puff n Play’.

“It blew me away. I had to go off it because I knew it’s gonna be dangerous for me. It’s way too dangerous for women.”

Clogging up the court system

From serious stabbings,shootings and dangerous driving to drug dealing and trafficking, ice is a feature in a wide range of offending right across Victoria.

This includes thug Jack Aquino who bashed his father senseless, stabbed a bystander and threatened to run over a family during a Melbourne crime spree earlier this year.

It is why authorities have been working hard to intercept it before it hits the streets — finding it packing in with coffee beans, stuffed into shoeboxes and stashed around drug houses.

Hundreds of millions of dollars of methamphetamine has been uncovered by authorities in numerous busts all over Melbourne this year, in the fight to tackle the drug’s scourge on our city.

Ice in the health system

The increasing use and ease of access means the impacts are also streaming into the state’s health system.

According to data compiled by Turning Point, paramedics are called to hundreds of ice-related incidents every year.

Between 2012 and 2021 they responded to almost 25,000 ice-related jobs, with 80 per cent in metro Melbourne.

Most call outs were for men aged in their mid 20s to mid 30s in the Melbourne, Greater Dandenong, Casey, Port Phillip and Greater Geelong areas.

More than a thousand required police co-attendance each year, while transport to hospital peaked with more than 3500 patients transported in the 2019-20 financial year.

Hospitalisation data shows there have been 841 ice-related hospitalisations between 2010 and 2019, with the most in Frankston, Casey, Ballarat, Geelong, inner suburban Melbourne and on the Mornington Peninsula.

It comes as methamphetamine overdose deaths reached a new 10-year high in 2021, according to a Coroner’s report, with most of the 137 deaths occurring in Melbourne.

Trinity Morris has spoken out about her battle with drug addiction

While Ms Morris has overdosed on ice before, it took a frightening incident to hammer home the life-threatening situation her addiction was putting her in every day.

The now 46-year-old grandmother had been coming down from a hit when she wandered onto the road and was hit by a garbage truck in March this year.

She lost three toes and is now blind in one eye but is grateful she has been given another chance at life.

“It brought me back to reality,” she said.

With a clearer perspective Ms Morris has developed dreams for a happier and healthier future.

She wants to spend more time with her family and gain employment, while also advocating for people experiencing homelessness.

News Corp has launched a national investigation to examine the wide ranging impacts of the ice scourge – from destroying lives, taking up hospital beds, police resources and clogging up the courts – and what can be done to mitigate it.

It will continue to roll out into the new year.