DRUG counsellors are reporting a surge in the number of “relatively normal, middle-aged and successful people” in Wyndham who are affected by crystal methamphetamine use.
The Werribee-based Stepping Up consortium, Wyndham’s only full-time alcohol and drug treatment service, says use of the highly addictive drug known as ‘‘ice’’ has soared because the availability of speed, another amphetamine-based drug, has declined.
Stepping Up general manager Shelley Cross said the “dramatic and rapid” shift had taken a massive toll on the Wyndham community, affecting a new demographic of middle-class residents.
“There is a perception that ice users have a long history with alcohol and other drugs, or a history of criminal activity, but this is not the case,” she said.
“Within the past six months, we have been able to identify a growing trend across all our sites in the increasing prevalence of methamphetamine.”
Ms Cross said the counselling service, with centres at Werribee and Melton, had received an increase in the number of first-time users referred on court orders, particularly due to domestic violence.
Last Wednesday, magistrate Sharon Cure, who regularly sits at Werribee Magistrates Court, slammed ice as “the worst drug out there”.
“Victorian psych hospitals are full of people with meth-induced psychosis,” she said in her remarks to a 22-year-old Werribee man applying to have his driver’s licence reinstated after being caught high on ice behind the wheel.
Latest data from Ambulance Victoria reveals the number of callouts across Wyndham related to ice abuse more than doubled within a 12-month period.
Paramedics were called to 19 crystal meth cases in the municipality in 2011-12, compared to nine a year earlier. Statewide, there were 592 crystal meth callouts last year, up from 282.
