UPDATE: Federal Assistant Health Minister Fiona Nash has said a coalition government would never consider decriminalising the drug ice.

Ms Nash responded to a statement from Our Town’s Ice Fight lead project officer Mr Tony Francis, who called for a mature debate on the possibility of decriminalising ice.

“Legalising the drug would send the message that ice is not dangerous,” she said.

“This is the wrong message to send. Legalising what is arguably the worst drug Australia has seen is madness.

“A Coalition Government will never legalise a drug that destroys brain function, mental

wellbeing, general health, employment, relationships, lives and families.”

Premier Daniel Andrews also ruled out the possibility of decriminalising ice when quizzed by media.

In a Geelong Advertiser exclusive, Mr Francis said decriminalising ice could be the best way to fight the deadly drug epidemic sweeping through Australia.

He said the concept of decriminalising ice was being explored by the taskforce, but was not necessarily supported by police.

“The idea is so radical it might just work,” Mr Francis said. “We need to have a proper debate about this, without the discussion being hijacked by self-interested groups. We need to have the conversation.”

Manufacturing and distributing ice in a controlled way to addicts through clinics would not just make the drug safer to use but would undermine the underbelly of the country’s ice industry, by making the drug less valuable, he said.

Drug manufacturers and dealers – including bikie gangs – would lose their profits and drug-related crime would be reduced substantially because addicts would not need to steal in order to support their drug habits, Mr Francis said.

“Crime would drop big-time because people won’t need to go robbing and thieving from cars and the like to get money to pay dealers and get ice,” he said.

Victoria Police said in a statement it welcomed new ideas in the debate of how to tackle the “formidable challenge” of ice use.

type_quote_start ‘Crime would drop big-time because people won’t need to go robbing and thieving from cars and the like to get money to pay dealers and get ice.’ type_quote_end

“The ice problem poses a formidable challenge that won’t be met without new ideas,”

Victoria Police spokeswoman Cath Allen said.

“It demands a free thinking, collective effort across Governments and the community as a whole, and we thank Senior Sergeant Francis for his efforts in this space and his contributions towards the debate.”

The Geelong Advertiser Breaking Ice series revealed in early May families were being torn apart by ice, with a chronic shortage of detox and rehab beds across the State.

The Addy series also revealed desperate parents were taking out loans and draining their superannuation funds to pay for expensive, private treatment, and ice was being manufactured and distributed through Geelong on consignment by bikies, via a pyramid-selling structure.

Local crime was being driven by ice and the drug was readily available in local private and public schools, the series revealed.

Mr Francis said ice-related assaults and domestic violence levels could also drop if ice was made available to addicts, for free, through clinics.

- FAMILIES SUFFER REHAB NIGHTMARE- THE ICE BABIES- MY SON AND THE BEAST- SEX AND ICE- BIKIES REIGN OF TERROR- ICE, THE FAQs

Because addicts would have to present to clinics for their drug hits, services could respond to the mental and physical health needs of ice users in a timely manner, thereby treating the underlying reasons for their drug use and giving them more chance of getting clean, Mr Francis said.

Community and family services, and drug and alcohol counsellors, attached to the clinics could also support addicts and their families, he said.

It was time drug addiction was treated as a health issue, rather than a policing one, Mr Francis said.

“When we demonise illicit drugs we make them more desirable in many ways,” he said. “By making it clinical and making it a health problem, we remove the underbelly element and we take the money out of ice. We also make it less likely people will die from ice.”

Deakin drug and alcohol researcher, Associate Professor Peter Miller, agreed a debate about decriminalising methamphetamines was needed in Australia.

“There are a range of options and if you look at the best example, it’s probably Portugal, where they de-penalised all drugs, which means people can be in possession of a drug and they are not going to be arrested for it but it’s still not necessarily a legal thing to do. However, all the resources that would have been spent on police chasing (illicit drugs) are put into treatment, so you get lots and lots and lots of treatment,” Mr Miller said.

“Because here’s the thing, we’ve been gutting our treatment systems for a decade in Australia and then they go ‘oh no, we’ve got an ice epidemic’! Well, duh! We told you a decade ago ice was going to be a real problem and you’re going to have an issue with it.”

One of Australia’s leading drug health experts, Emeritus Professor David Penington, was against the idea of decriminalising ice.

“I do not advocate legalising crystal amphetamine,” he said.

“There may be a case for regulated supply as part of a program of long term treatment and rehabilitation.”

MORE ICE CAMPAIGN STORIES

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