PERTH, Australia — “My beautiful little family was destroyed because of my drug use.”

Now 27, Ryan Cameron was 20 and working in mining when he started using methamphetamines.

“I lost my family. My mum and dad disowned me. My two kids were taken off me by D.C.P.,” he said, referring to the state child protection agency. “My mum and dad took them in.”

Mr. Cameron’s problems reflect how Western Australia has struggled to cope with an epidemic of methamphetamine use. A mining boom drew an influx of mostly young men to the state, many of them single and spending long periods in remote communities with large disposable incomes, a combustible mix that leaves many vulnerable.

The national death rate from psychostimulants, including methamphetamines, has quadrupled since 1999, according to figures released Wednesday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. In 2016, they were the third-most-common cause of drug-associated death, after benzodiazepines and oxycodone, which are prescribed as tranquilizers and painkillers.