By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
TALK to people on all sides of this – magistrates, police, drug counsellors – there is no quick thaw to the ice scourge.
Sitting in Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on any given day, you see a person’s life spiral into a spree of violence and theft due to this highly addictive drug – otherwise known as crystal methamphetamine.
An offender may deny they use the drug but magistrates see the same patterns of erratic, audacious and out-of-character crimes. They often comment that an intensifying criminal spiral looks like the workings of an ice addict.
The offenders’ recklessness can take your breath away – attempts to ram another driver off the road, lock up family members and consecutive nights of burgling, often while out on bail.
Then there’s the sad tales of middle-aged parents losing their families, jobs and dignity – reduced to sleeping, using and dealing from their cars.
The drug became a State Election issue. Its “epidemic” levels were seemingly unable to be solved by effective treatments.
On the other hand, Dandenong Drug Court magistrate Tony Parsons boasted some success. He oversees about 60 substance-addicted offenders through a two-year program of drug testing, counselling and medical healing.
Every need of the offenders is met – including stable, safe accommodation. But slip-ups lead to a reprimand, homework or two weeks in jail.
He said about 10 per cent of offenders were “heroically successful”, about half completed the two-year treatment order and a third went back to jail.
“It’s the corrective power as well as the medical treatment that makes it successful.”
The savings are also sobering. The drug court keeps about 50 people out of jail each year at a cost of $1.5 million. To house those people in jail would cost $5 million.
The Dandenong court is the state’s first such drug court. There are plans to expand this pilot program to other parts of the state.
