MediNat Australia

Brain damage 'crisis' looms from illicit drug use By Alina Eacott - ABC NEWS  ..........Dr Wilcox said the national household drug survey in 2010 showed 1.9 million people had tried ecstasy, and almost one million had experimented with drugs such as methamphetmine. "Australia and New Zealand have a two to five times higher rate of the use of stimulant drugs than anywhere else in the world," he said............... A high rate of illegal stimulant use in Australia has prompted fears of a looming health crisis. Researchers in Adelaide are investigating links between stimulant use and an increased risk of people developing Parkinson's disease. They said many drug users were developing a brain abnormality which also was seen in people afflicted with Parkinson's. "People who have used illegal stimulants in the past have a change in a brain region that's right in the middle of their brain called the susbtantia nigra," expla

methamphetamine use and addiction in Australia By Nicole Lee Associate Professor at the National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction at Flinders University More commonly known by the street names speed, ice or crystal meth, both amphetamine and methamphetamine belong to a group of stimulant drugs called amphetamines. Australia has one of the highest rates of illicit methamphetamine use in the world and the highest use among English-speaking countries. Around 2.5% of Australians over 14 years – around half a million people – have used methamphetamine in the last year. This rate is three- to five-times higher than the USA, Canada (0.5%) or the UK (1%). Illicit use The illegal manufacture of street amphetamines in Australia is almost exclusively methamphetamine. Illicit methamphetamine is manufactured in local “meth labs” and also imported from South-East Asia. The drug usually comes in powder or pills (speed) or cr

Battling Ice Addiction See the Today Tonight article here if you haven't already seen it: http://au.news.yahoo.com/today-tonight/latest/article/-/16141654/battling-ice-addiction/ So often we think it is someone else, far removed from our lives, our family our workplace! Reality is quite the opposite as with all drug use, there is someone in your circle (statistically) that is using illicit drugs, or has a problem with drug use in some form, and I am not excluding alcohol from the latter! The article produced by Today Tonight is a well balanced portrayal of the reality of drug use, parental anguish and the recovery process. My issue is with the prevalence of the drug Ice (Methamphetamines) in Australian society. Quote:  Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Stephen Fontana says "ice is really what's creating the greatest concerns to us in terms of harm out on the streets in the moment and in the home." He says "ice has been around for a long time