An emergency department doctor has told of the challenges and dangers when aggressive patients are brought in after using the drug ice.
Clinical toxicologist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, Sam Alfred, said he often saw patients with complications from their use of methamphetamines including ice.
“It’s a very common issue for us at the moment,” he said.
“One of the more common effects we see in an emergency department setting is aggression, agitation, violence either to the user or by the user to other members of the public or staff.
“We see episodes of psychosis, mental health disorders, depression, we see cardiovascular complications.”
Dr Alfred said the problem patients were very challenging for medical staff.
“Obviously managing a behaviourally disturbed, violent patient in the midst of everyone else there who is there with medical illnesses or trauma is challenging in terms of quarantining that risk, to prevent exposing other patients to it, so that’s an issue in a crowded environment,” he said.
“In terms of how we actually go about gaining control, I think we’ve got a fairly good handle on the sorts of medication interventions available to us to try to achieve a degree of control.
“Unfortunately we’re very well-practised at it now so we know what to do and we can do it, but the environment is challenging.”
SA Premier backs ice taskforce
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has appointed former Victorian police commissioner Ken Lay to head a national taskforce to deal with the prevalence of ice.
The South Australian Government says it fully supports the national effort, with Premer Jay Weatherill saying his Government was increasingly concerned about the impact of the illegal drug.
“It’s at the heart of extraordinary amount of violence and disruption to both the lives of individuals and families, so we fully support the Prime Minister’s push in this area we’ll offer him every cooperation,” he said.
“We’re seeing it show up in South Australia, it’s widespread, it includes our regional communities.
“There’s some anecdotal evidence that there has been a spike in suicides in certain regional areas, it’s not borne out by the statistics but nevertheless we know enough about ice and its effects to know that it is a major challenge for not only our state but our nation.”
Rise in drug use evident from wastewater analysis
Drug and Alcohol Services SA said an analysis of wastewater data from metropolitan Adelaide showed there was an increase in methamphetamine use between 2012 and 2014.
It estimated South Australian methamphetamine use at 2.2 per cent of the population, much the same as the national average of 2.1 per cent.
The organisation said use was most prevalent among people 20 to 29, at more than three times the rate for the overall population.
Drug and Alcohol Services director, Associate Professor Robert Ali, said more methamphetamine users were using ice.
“We haven’t actually seen an increase in the numbers of people who are using methamphetamine but what we have seen, and this has been an Australia-wide trend, is a change in the formulation,” he said.
“About half the people who use now are using ice instead of the powder or the paste form and disturbingly about a quarter of them are now using that at least weekly.
“We know that the more intensely you use the drug the worse the problems, so what’s happened is the way people are using it has changed.”
Professor Ali said behaviour changed rapidly after the drug was used.
“It’s a drug that can be smoked or injected so it’s a rapid onset of its effect and drugs that have rapid onsets, particularly releasing massive amounts of dopamine, have a lot of reinforcing properties but there is also a risk that you take more than you intend and we’re seeing that from toxic consequences of the use of the drug,” he said.
“It’s a national problem, country South Australia has not been excluded from it … these drugs are artificially manufactured, it’s not like plant-based drugs where you need to get close to the source of supply.
“You can make them anywhere and so regrettably regional and remote SA and in fact Australia has suffered that consequence.”