$7000 a week for ice habit
The grim toll of ice addiction has been laid bare as local police revealed this week that affected individuals in the region are spending up to $7000 a week on crystal methamphetamine.
Broome Detective-Senior Sergeant Kevin Bradshaw said police had seized more than 2kg of the drug over the past 12 months with the street price in Broome up to $500 a gram higher than in Perth.
That amount could equate to local coppers removing up to 20,000 hits of the drug from the streets, as one gram generally provides about 10 hits.
The recently formed Yawuru Drug Action and Awareness group is trying to educate and raise awareness of the dangers of ice, with member and former ice addict Cornell Tolentino drawing on his own personal experiences to help others.
He started dabbling in the drug in his early 20s to cope with personal problems and said he believed it was "quite a big problem" in Broome and said it would probably "get worse before it gets better".
"I just think the nature of the drug is very addictive and is readily available for people," he said.
"It's not hard to get a hold of it."
Det-Sen. Sgt Bradshaw disagreed.
Speaking after the National Ice Taskforce meeting in town last week, he said more people were using the addictive drug, but that it wasn't out of control.
"It's like anything. If you ask the right people at the right time, yep, you can get it," Det-Sen. Sgt Bradshaw said.
"I don't think it is that easy to get. It is on the increase but it is not running rife.
"The average price here is about $1000 per gram while in the metro area it is $500 to $700, dependent on the quality.
"If we are talking $1000 a gram, that is a lot of money. If you are using one gram a day that's about $7000 a week."
He said he could not fathom how users could make that amount of money but denied it had sparked crime sprees.
"I don't know how people could make that," he said.
"In Broome there would be some associated crime with drugs but it is not the main driving factor for causing crime within the town."
Det-Sen. Sgt Bradshaw said a multi-agency approach was the only way the problem could be correctly addressed at all levels because of the wide-ranging effects.
"It is a health issue at the end of the day," he said.
"If we can stop the people wanting to use this stuff and the police can stop supplies, somewhere in the middle, somewhere in the future, we are going to meet together and make a significant impact on the ice trade within WA and in the Kimberley."
One of the major challenges facing police was attending situations where people were on ice.
"We are using more tasers today than we have before and that's simply because it is a way of stopping people being violent towards us," Det-Sen. Sgt Bradshaw said.
Kimberley Aboriginal Medical Services senior manager for Population Health Jill Coole said a community march would be held in Broome next month to raise awareness about drug use.
