Call to boost emergency dept resources to care for 'ice' patients

Call to boost emergency dept resources to care for 'ice' patients. : "The study found 20 per cent of all amphetamine-related admissions involved the police, a third of patients needed to be sedated which requires extra staff, as well as high rates of repeat admissions by patients."
It is a very labour intensive drug. It is hugely destructive of the person and the community but we let it in here and we let people use it and the community makes drug use"cool". Still. Even though we see those poor guys sitting by the car park off Hindley Street. They don't sit together. They sit about 6 foot apart. They just sit on the ground propped up against the building. Their faces have aged and are lined. There is a hardness there because they have to survive another day. Why they sit there by themselves I do not know. Soon, they won't be sitting there. Others will be. I saw a guy at the shops yesterday when we were in the jewellry shop. He had to wait a while like the rest of us because it was busy. He was standing there, his face thin , immobile and yellowish, the dark piercing eyes you get ewith amphetamine users. I smiled and he looked at me almost puzzled. He was very guarded and almost did not want to twitch any muscles. His bald head was breaking out into a sweat and he was just thin. Trying to stay calm because he had to. Luckily he didn't have to wait too much longer but the voice was thick and odd like those guys get. Their brain is affected. It was horrible. It was horrible because he was addicted and he had chosen that and felt defenceless. He had made his choices and he was now in the seizing hands of a disease which is relentless. He could not accept any humanity from anyone because he had to stay hard. He was clear about staying calm but it was a trial for him and the beads of sweat growing on his head were the only real outward indication of his terrible discomfort. It's a lifestyle choice but the impact on us and them is traumatic. We need to stop them from making that choice. Drugs mean lots of money for some and bucket loads of misery for others.