The other morning my eight-year-old asked me why people who take ice are violent. She had just heard the federal Justice Minister, Michael Keenan, on the radio talking about the latest police statistics on illicit drugs. I found myself in a situation where I had to explain the difference between telling the whole truth and telling half-truths to scare people.

Despite what we might hear, the latest report from the Australian Crime Commission doesn't tell us that the problem with ice is getting worse. It simply tells us how police are doing their job.

Most hard drug users don't become addicts. Credit:AFP

So why are the crime commission and our Justice Minister spruiking this misguided idea that there is an "ice pandemic" in Australia?

Amphetamine use is stable and use across the population has actually gone down since 1998. The proportion of Australians who have used ice in the past 12 months is around 2 per cent.