Ice addicts in Moree NSW so desperate to get clean they deliberately get locked up to detox

The town overrun by meth: Ice addicts so desperate to get clean are turning to petty crimes so they can get locked up and detox

• Moree has the highest amount of amphetamine use and possession in the state 
• Local police say rates of family violence has seen a spike in recent years 
• Some patients have lost more than 30kg and look ‘skeletal and malnourished’ 

By Alana Mazzoni For Daily Mail Australia

Published: 02:39 BST, 4 September 2019 | Updated: 02:46 BST, 4 September 2019

Ice addicts from a rural New South Wales town are so desperate to get off the drug they are committing petty crimes in order to get locked up and detox.

The small town of Moree in the state’s north is home to the highest amount of amphetamine use and possession in the state, the Daily Telegraph reported. 

‘I have seen patients who have committed petty crimes in order to get into custody to detox, to get into rehab,’ police cells nurse Kerry Cassells said in a statement at the special commission of inquiry into ice held in Sydney on Tuesday.

‘Upon entry into the cells, some patients look like they’ve been in a concentration camp – they are skeletal and malnourished’. 

The small town of Moree in the state’s north is home to the highest amount of amphetamine use and possession in the state

A special commission of inquiry into ice held in Sydney on Tuesday heard from a Moree nurse that said patients have committed petty crimes in order to get into custody to detox

Some patients have lost more than 30kg from abusing ice, and have been taken to correctional facilities. 

Ms Cassells said that while being locked up helps patients physically and mentally, the lack of support services after they are released means many relapse.

When the nurse first started working in Moree police cells, she said alcohol and cannabis were rife, but it has now shifted to oxycodones.

Ms Cassells said that in the last seven or eight years, people’s drug of choice has been predominantly ice.  

Ice-addicted Moree residents commit domestic violence crimes, malicious property damage, public disturbances and brawls – all brought on while under the influence.

Moree Police Commander Superintendent Scott Tanner said rates of family violence in the town of just 7,000 residents has seen a spike in recent years.

‘Nearly all the defendants highlighted in their reasoning to the court for their behaviour was the overuse of amphetamine-type stimulants at the time,’ he said.

Ice continues to wreak havoc across the country, with Finch Hatton – a sleepy town in the Mackay Region – experiencing a 350 per cent spike in crime rates in the past six years.

Moree police say rates of family violence in the town of just 7,000 residents has seen a spike in recent years

 

 

 

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