Without doubt, crystal methamphetamine, or ice, is capable of causing immense harm. That’s true for many drugs, including alcohol. But, when facts are distorted to create fear and stigma, it helps no one. Not the people who use ice. Not their families. Not the health professionals supporting them. Not the police who enforce drug law.

Ice Wars, airing over the next few weeks on ABC, shows the dark side of crystal methamphetamine use. It shows the great but difficult work that police, mental health and substance use treatment professionals do every day.

It carefully explains some of the commonly misunderstood effects of the drug. It shows the breadth of the ice problem across police, treatment services and individuals. And it shows how people are suffering and the compassionate response that is possible from health workers and police.

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There’s no ‘ice epidemic’

Most of what is reported in this four-part documentary is not incorrect but it lacks nuance and context. It makes entertaining television but it contains the type of sensational language that can create community fears leading to the stigmatisation of people who use drugs and kneejerk responses from policy makers.

We are not “under siege”, or “at war” with ice. There is no ice epidemic. Ice is not “tearing apart the fabric of our community”.

Crystal methamphetamine, commonly known as “ice”, is one form of methamphetamine. The other main form is a powder, commonly known as “speed”. They are the same chemical but ice is more pure and therefore much stronger.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A promotional poster for Ice Wars. Photograph: ABC

We have seen a consistent decrease over the last 15 years in the percentage of the population using methamphetamine but a large proportion of the group who previously used speed are now using ice. From our best available data, 2.1% of Australians over 14 years have used methamphetamine in the last year and about half of those prefer ice over speed.

It’s close to the truth that 1.3m people have tried crystal methamphetamine – the figure is probably more like 850,000. It sounds like a lot of people but it’s about 5% of the population over 14 years old.

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The vast majority of these people have tried the drug not more than a handful of times and are not regular users. About 1% of the Australian population have used ice in the past year. About three quarters of that 1% have used not more than 12 times in the past year. That means only 0.25% of the population use more than once a month.

Yes, there is an increased risk of psychosis among people who use methamphetamine but 75% of people who use it regularly never have any type of psychotic experience. Yes, there is an increased risk of agitation, aggression and violence among people who use methamphetamine but 75% of people who use it regularly never become aggressive while using it.

Clearly ice is capable of causing significant harm to the person using it and to others, and significant distress to their families and friends. It’s a drug that, when it is bad, it can be very bad.

• Nicole Lee is a professor at the National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University. This article was republished from the Conversation, part of the Guardian Comment Network