Youth turn to ice.

* The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre reported in September that methamphetamines, including the drug known as ice, are now the second-most frequently used illicit drug class by young Australians, second only to cannabis in popularity. Australian National Council on Drugs chief executive Gino Vumbaca raised concerns that drug syndicates were targeting a younger market, shifting their business base from heroin to ice. NDARC senior research fellow Rebecca McKetin said that the emergence of ice in the Australian market has been accompanied by a 'noticeable shift' in the demographic of drug users in Australia, with 16-25-year-olds using ice socially as an alternative to ecstasy. 'The thing about smoking ice is it's much more addictive and a lot of young people are naive to the addictive tendency of ice,' McKetin said (Australian 27/9/06, p.5).

* A Courier Mail feature on the rise in amphetamine use in Queensland in recent years also notes the increasing popularity of ice among young people. Mirikai, the Gold Coast Drug Council's rehabilitation facility, has treated clients as young as 12 for methamphetamine use. Mirikai's clinical director Mary Alcorn said that in addition to amphetamines being used by younger people, users are increasingly becoming 'more unstable, require more intensive psychiatric intervention and longer-term support' (Courier Mail, 30/9/06, p.56).

* World-first research conducted among methamphetamine users admitted to the East Perth Neuropsychology Clinic suggests that the drug may cause permanent brain damage. Tests conducted on 90 of the clinic's patients found that methamphetamine use impaired users' memories, learning abilities and planning abilities, indicating damage to the frontal lobes of their brains. Marjorie Collins, a co-director of the clinic, said that the brain damage was still evident among users after a year of abstinence from the drug and could possibly be permanent. 'It's a young people's drug and it's a new drug, and as a result there's not much street knowledge about it,' Dr Collins said (Sunday Times, 20/8/06, p.30).