Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise in support of the report of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the Australian Crime Commission, Inquiry into the manufacture, importation and use of amphetamines and other synthetic drugs (AOSD) in Australia. I congratulate the Deputy Chair, the member for Denison, on the report he has just tabled. I also thank the other committee members, in particular, the chair, Senator Macdonald, and Mr Richardson, who is the member for Kingston in South Australia. Mr Richardson is an ex-police officer, and his evidence to the inquiry and his expertise were highly valued.

Sadly, Australia has one of the highest levels of methamphetamine use in the world. In recent years, we have seen the usage increasing. The Department of Health and Ageing noted the following from the UN World Drug Report 2005:

In comparison with other data presented in the report, Australia has a substantially higher rate of amphetamine use than the other countries listed including the UK (1.6%), USA (1.4%), Netherlands (0.6%) and Canada (0.6%).

The annual prevalence of ecstasy in Australia was 3.4% of the population aged 15-64 years in 2001.

I am sure that figure has only grown. Deputy Commissioner Simon Overland of the Victoria Police highlighted the scale of AOSD problems in Australia:

Our estimation, our intelligence, is that there are somewhere in the vicinity of 100,000 tablets of ecstasy being consumed per weekend across Australia.

That is exceptionally sad. If you break that down into the 150 electorates, in La Trobe there would be approximately 666 people per weekend who are using some sort of recreational drug. It is very sad; they do not realise the damage that they are doing to themselves and eventually to their families. One in eight people aged between 20 and 29 years has used ecstasy in the last 12 months. The 20- to 29-year age group had the highest proportion of people ever using ecstasy compared with all other age groups.

We had some discussions regarding the various terms for drugs used around the country and how various states define drugs. Standardising the terms for drugs is one of the recommendations of the committee. AOSD is defined to include amphetamine, methamphetamine and methylenedioxymethamphetamine. In Australia, amphetamines have historically been associated with street drugs such as speed. In recent years, other forms of methamphetamine have become prevalent, including base and crystalline methamphetamine, commonly known as ‘ice’. Sadly, this has really hit the streets. In my days in the police force four or five years ago, we had not even heard of the drug. Now it is everywhere out there. MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy, also belongs to the family of synthetic drugs.

So who is using the drugs? You heard the age groups before, but AOSD users cut across all sectors of society and come from a variety of backgrounds. Users may range from well-educated professionals. For example, ecstasy and methamphetamines are used at dance parties. Ecstasy is called the party drug, but it causes great personal harm, with long-term mental health problems. When you look around the world—and in Australia we are hearing at the moment about AFL football stars—and at the popular stars in America, you see that these people have, no doubt, the ability to get the best sort of advice and support and go to the best clinics for rehab, but I feel very sorry for the people who cannot afford to do that. That is one of the greatest dangers that I foresee.

The committee made a number of recommendations—18, I think. One of the great things that came out of this was through the Queensland pharmaceutical guild and their STOP program, which is a database that ensures that all those people who purchase drugs are linked by a photo ID. The ID goes into the database and is circulated, so you cannot have one person going to different pharmacies to buy drugs. I think that is a great initiative which has to be rolled out across the whole country. (Time expired)

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