Finance more drug help centres, says police chief

More funding was needed for treatment facilities to help drug addicts break the habit, Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan said yesterday.

As police shut down more small "addiction-based" makeshift drug laboratories, Mr O'Callaghan said he believed giving more users access to treatment would make a difference.

Mr O'Callaghan said his son Russell, who was badly burnt in a methylamphetamine laboratory explosion in March, had not been able to get help when he tried to beat his addiction three years ago.

"They said 'we can't take you, we've got no beds, you have to wait'," Mr O'Callaghan said. "What happens when you ask a meth addict to wait? It's a disaster."

He said his son was being treated at a therapeutic community since leaving the Royal Perth Hospital burns unit and was on a new path.

But the 30-year-old still had nightmares of the fireball sparked when chemicals exploded in the makeshift lab at a Carlisle unit where he was making less than 1g of speed, Mr O'Callaghan said.

Australian Crime Commission chief executive John Lawler said Mr O'Callaghan's experience showed no one was immune to the damage of illicit drugs.

He said the soaring number of backyard drug laboratories in Australia and the 8 per cent rise in the amount of cannabis seized last financial year were two of the most concerning elements of the Australian Crime Commission's illicit drug data report 2009-10.

Mr Lawler drew the link between people's behaviour and the broader impact of drug use, saying cocaine use contributed to the misery in Mexico where many people were murdered over drugs.

The ACC also revealed that illicit manufacture of ecstasy-type drugs was causing serious environmental damage because it relied on the use of safrole, a chemical substance almost exclusively sourced from the oils of rare tree species in South-East Asian forests.

Authorities do not believe much of the safrole-rich oil is diverted from legitimate industries - where it is used for flavouring, perfume and pesticides - and governments in the region have reduced legal harvesting in recent years.

Research found the rare trees were found in big numbers in the Phnom Samkos wildlife sanctuary in Cambodia, which supported more than 80 threatened species, including elephants and tigers.