In your article No evidence of ice epidemic, forum hears, you quote psychopharmacological researcher Dr Jennifer Johnston as saying research was needed to establish whether we were seeing more people using drugs or former speed users increasingly switching to ice.
Can we please move beyond semantics, Dr Johnston, and do something about the problem?
It is a pervasive and hideous addiction with impacts that are all too clear. Behaviours indicative of ice usage are all too visible in regional areas, as elsewhere. It matters less whether ice addicts are previous users of other drugs, or new drug users, and more what is going to be done to address the escalating growth in ice usage.
Ice is out there, people are using it to the point that its impact on their lives and the lives of others is well and truly observable within not only this regional community but other regions across our nation, and its usage continues to escalate.
Frankly, any monies spent on research which states little more than that ice may not yet be epidemic in proportion would be better spent on urgently meeting the needs of those impacted by this addiction.
Linnie Lambrechtsen, Cawongla
