A non-assuming country town nestled 550 kilometres from the nearest major city is home to a dark secret that has ripped through generations of its citizens.
St George, a tiny farming area in Queensland with a population of just 3,000, is home to an ice epidemic of epic proportions, with the drug ravaging even the youngest members of the community.
Children as young as 10 are addicted to the drug, teenagers are being force-fed meth and drug dens forging the deadly substance are operating out of family homes.
One 14-year-old girl was medicated with ice because she complained she was too tired at school each day as her parents’ constant drug-fuelled benders were keeping her up at night.
‘One of the aunties has actually given her ice to keep her awake,’ the chairwoman of community support group Care Balonne, Robyn Fuhrmeister, told the Courier Mail.
The girl had a fit the next day in front of her shocked classmates.
St George, a tiny farming area with a population of just 3,000, is home to an ice epidemic of epic proportions, with the drug ravaging even the youngest members of the community
One 14-year-old girl has been medicated with ice because she complained she was too tired at school each day as her parents’ constant drug-fuelled benders are keeping her up at night (file picture)
The ice scourge has caused a ripple effect across different sectors of St George’s society, with young students emotionally unprepared to attend school and charities withdrawing their support because food stamps were being exchanged for drugs.
As a result, many children are forced to go to school ‘breakfast clubs’ just to eat each morning.
Discarded syringes are scattered throughout the town, often found in playgrounds and letterboxes. The spread of addiction is hereditary, with ice infiltrating lives from birth.
One woman gave birth to baby only to hand it to authorities moments later so it could be taken away from her for proper care. This was the sixth such time she has had to hand over her offspring.
The ice scourge has caused a ripple effect across different sectors of St George’s society, with young students emotionally unprepared to attend school and charities withdrawing their support because food stamps were being exchanged for drugs
Arrests have almost quadrupled in the past three years, going from 65 in 2014 to an astonishing 235 in the past 12 months, nearly 10 per cent of the population.
An 18-month sting by police resulted in the arrests, including eight locals for drug trafficking. Guilty charges of trafficking meth can result in a 25-year prison sentence.
Drug dealers and addicts work together to monitor local police stations and time their deals to coincide with officers’ movements. If sprung, they often hide the drugs in baby’s nappies because police won’t search there.
‘The majority of our jobs here are ice related. I’m not going to sugarcoat it,’ Detective Sargeant Isa Tolete said
Children are regularly front row spectators of raids. Watching their mothers and fathers be led away in handcuffs becoming a too common occurrence.
‘The majority of our jobs here are ice related. I’m not going to sugarcoat it,’ Detective Sargeant Isa Tolete said.
Partners and spouses accept domestic violence as a trade-off to keeping police away and a common after-effect of the abuse.
Drug-addled screams of anger and pain provide the soundtrack to the cursed town, and the proportionally tiny police force at times are only able to safely observe the carnage.
However the town mayor, Richard Marsh, believes the most pressing issue is not the older generations who are permanently tainted by ice, but the youngest residents who are going to school without shoes, going hungry without food and quickly heading towards the same bleak future to which so many of their family members have succumbed.