HAWKESBURY youth workers believe ice is part of a bigger problem which needs to be addressed along with domestic violence, party drugs, alcohol and tobacco.
The Gazette spoke to four youth workers, who deal with 12 to 25 year olds across the region.
They all said ice wasn’t a prominent problem among that age group and hoped it remained so with education and awareness programs enforcing the right messages.
Hawkesbury case worker Julia Partington has been dealing with 12 to 18 year olds for six years and said ice was definitely there but it has been steady with no notable increase.
Among the hundreds of people she sees, she said she has worked with five young people who regularly use ice in the 18 months.
‘‘Some love it and some don’t want to live in that world anymore,’’ Julia said.
‘‘With the right education and awareness, young people may be able to make the right decisions and not touch it even once.’’
Julia said she believed ice was associated with mental illness, but said the shock tactics weren’t working.
‘‘There needs to be fair and accurate information out there not just extreme cases of long-term use. Some of the images are truthful but it all depends on the person and how they react to it.’’
North Richmond and Glossodia youth worker Rochelle Nixon said the people she dealt with were scared of the drug and weren’t likely to go near it.
She has been a youth worker for three years and said there’s been too much fear created around it but not enough around alcohol and cannabis.
‘‘The focus is purely on ice now when really we need to focus on other things,’’ Rochelle said.
‘‘When I ask the youngsters about ice, they always say they will never touch it but they would still drink, smoke and take party drugs.’’
During case work, Rochelle said she saw a small number of ice users but dealt more with people who had experienced domestic violence, had a problem with alcohol or smoked too much cannabis.
‘‘Young people aren’t likely to touch ice because they wouldn’t know how to use it,’’ she said.
‘‘The common age would be 25 to 30 year olds who have tried everything and want to try something new.
‘‘They’re just chasing the dragon.’’
From what she has seen, Rochelle said young people turn to drugs because something horrible has happened in their life or they just want to escape personal problems.
‘‘People need to know that there are other ways to deal with problems. Ice isn’t the solution it’s the problem. We need our future generations to understand that.’’
Bligh Park youth worker Ricky Atkinson has been there for three years and said ice has been around for years but it had just become more ‘‘brazen’’ now.
‘‘People used to smoke it in their house but now users are out and about even in our car parks after hours,’’ Ricky said.
Ricky deals with Hawkesbury, Richmond and Windsor high schools students and agreed there had been a lot more discussion around it now but he hadn’t seen an increase of users out there.
“I would ask students if they know someone who has taken drugs or who has tried it before and unfortunately almost all hands are up.
‘‘Dealers have recently been lacing other drugs with ice to create a market, just like the recent blue superman pill which was around the region for a while.’’
Windsor Youth Platform manager Jennifer Glavich agrees there is no increase, but the drug itself needs to be addressed.
“We don’t want to see what we saw in the 90s with heroin,” Jennifer said. “It’s a deadly drug. We need younger people to know that so we have better chances to deter them away from it. Young people are curious by nature. They will try different things but if we send them in the right direction, we could deter them from ever touching ice.’’
