Reformed addict aims to defeat toxic ice culture

JESS knows the simple truth behind an ice culture that’s ripping apart young Australians and their families.

Pride of Australia nomination for Jess, 20, a reformed ice addict. The young woman's courage in speaking out about the drug affecting so many exposed the issue and earned her a nomination for the Young Leader award. Picture: Tim Carrafa

JESS knows the simple truth behind an ice culture that’s ripping apart young Australians and their families.

It starts with a pipe shared between friends and ends with lost memories, illness and sometimes death.

“That’s the whole myth about ice,” the reformed teen addict said.

“People think they can handle it but they can’t.

“And before you know it you are smoking every day and you don’t even realise it.”

The young woman, who became the face of a major health campaign by telling her story of ice addiction, gets angry when at TAFE she overhears people conspiring to score.

“I don’t know what’s happened in the past year but I’ve just noticed availability is through the roof, it’s everywhere I go,” Jess, 20, said.

Her story of drug abuse began with a curiosity and ice passed around a circle at a junkie house.

Soon enough the then 16-year-old was smoking ice every day.

“I stayed in a squatters house for months, no running water. Months. I don’t even know how long I was there,” she recalled. “That’s the thing with ice, you lose track of your time so you think it’s been two hours and it’s actually been three days.”

Jess wants to see drug education in high schools, or at the very least, for schools to adopt workshops to teach students about ice addiction.

She already speaks at community forums but hopes to do talks at schools.

Her aim is to educate others on the signs of addiction and to help those struggling, to show them there can be a happy ending.

Jess has been nominated for the Young Leader medal in the Pride of Australia awards.

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