Amphetamine use charges rising sharply across the Hunter

The number of people being charged with possession of amphetamines has risen particularly sharply in the Maitland and Lake Macquarie local government areas, crime statistics show.

Police, crime researchers and welfare organisations have attributed the increase to the drug ice, which continues to plague communities.

Those charged with use or possession of amphetamines rose by 72 per cent in Maitland and 71 per cent in Lake Macquarie in the year to September 2015. 

This was about double the increase across NSW.

The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research considered the rises in Maitland and Lake Macquarie to be statistically significant.

Amphetamine use and possession charges also rose in Port Stephens (70 per cent), Newcastle (21 per cent) and Cessnock (15 per cent) in the year to September.

However, the bureau did not consider those figures to be statistically significant.

This could be because the figures were up “for just a few months, as opposed to up over the whole period”, the spokeswoman said.

Marked increases in Lake Macquarie and Maitland reflected a statewide problem, she said.

“We’re seeing increases in ice across the state – it’s at higher levels in regional NSW than the city,” the spokeswoman said.

The hike in charges could be a reflection of increased policing and more drugs on the street.

“Drug possession offences tend to be influenced by more police targeting those sorts of offences,” she said.

Police data showing increases in amphetamine charges was aligned with increases in border detections and hospital admissions for the drug ice.

Police were unable to comment directly on the bureau’s statistics.

Nevertheless, Lake Macquarie Police crime manager Craig Davis said police had been proactive in using powers to search people and vehicles when warranted.

“We’re addressing the issue of drug possession and drug supply locally with increased productivity and targeting areas based on intelligence,” Detective Inspector Davis said.

Hunter Region, Samaritans drug and alcohol program co-ordinator Helen Fielder-Gill said ice usage was a major social problem.

“It causes family breakdown, violence and big health problems,” she said.

When she hears about instances of sieges and violence in the news, she thinks of ice users.

“They behave in the most bizarre and erratic ways,” she said.

Ice users suffered “terrible health problems and particularly unattractive ones”.

They lose teeth, suffer rapid weight loss and don’t sleep for days, she said.

“They get scabs on their face and arms because they pick at themselves.

She said ice produced an addictive “euphoric feeling”.

Users would “never have that same feeling” as the first time they used the drug, but they kept seeking it.

Ice addicts wanting to enter rehab face waits of six to eight weeks, she said.

She was working with a specialist doctor to run a new program called “The Recovery Point”, which had been successful in America.

Craig Stephens, manager of The Salvation Army’s Dooralong Transformation Centre, said “we have a five-month waiting list to access treatment”.

Mr Stephens said the federal government had pledged money to address National Ice Taskforce initiatives through public health networks.

“This money must make its way into residential treatment centres, where evidenced-based outcomes are shown to be the optimum health-dollar investment.”