Drug Use And Its Effect On The Global Increase Of Death And Disease

23. The illicit manufacture and distribution of methamphetamine in the United States today is due to the involvement of…

Crystal meth, or ice, is the perfect destructive drug. It’s easy to make, cheap to buy, highly addictive, and it’s everywhere. And you don’t need to touch ice to be its victim. It is intersecting with every aspect of Australian’s lives, destroying families, causing carnage on our roads and murder in our homes.

Methamphetamine is the most addictive drug used today. It appeals to people of all ages, and is not a respecter of person. It is creating a society with no future. Unless we as a society can contain and stop this issue, there will be no hope. What is the federal government doing to stop this problem? How are Pharmaceutical companies reacting to this issue? What are the effects on the general public? This is just some of the issues that were discussed in Frontline’s ‘The Meth Epidemic’ video. We will attempt to answer these questions throughout this paper.

It has been widely published within the Australian media that there is currently an ‘ice’ epidemic and the Australian Government has established a national Ice Taskforce in response to the drug problem the country is facing (Australian Government 2015). Ice is also known as crystal methamphetamine and comes in a translucent or white crystal or crystalline powder (Buxton & Dove, 2008). The illicit drug can be smoked, snorted, injected or swallowed and is the most potent form of methamphetamine because of its high purity (Buxton & Dove, 2008). Methamphetamine is an extremely addictive psycho-stimulant that affects the brain and central nervous system, resulting in the release of high levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine into areas of the brain that regulate feelings of pleasure (Caplan, 2008). Other types of methamphetamine include speed and base which are lower in purity then crystal methamphetamine which results in ice having worse side effects and a higher likelihood of addiction (Lewis, 2008). The consequences of ice use encompass all components of life including health, social and economic. This briefing paper aims to determine the extent of crystal methamphetamine usage in Australia and particularly Queensland. The paper will also discuss and develop recommendations on drug policy intervention that will best combat ‘ice’ usage and ultimately prevent future illicit drug use as well as minimise the harm caused to drug users and the community.

Drugs are illegal chemical substances that can be used by many people to feel delighted, excited and relaxed. Those drugs are harmful to individual’s lives and might affect their health, social relationships and budgets. Ice is considered as the most destructive and powerful stimulant drug in Australia and people can be addicted easily to this drug by a single use. Many Australians are addicted to this dangerous and toxic drug, which affects Australia socially and economically. This harmful drug can be made easily at home with some chemical substances that can be found in any pharmacy. This essay will discuss the main problems of the drug ice in Australia and suggest possible solutions to decrease the effects of this harmful drug socially and

First of all meth is a super strong kind of speed that packs a punch three and half times more powerful than cocaine. As mentioned in the documentary it shows how meth is a cheap drug that can be catastrophic to one. A quarter gram can cost as much as twenty five dollars. The documentary says users can smoke it, snort it, swallow it, or shoot it straight up their veins. Out of twenty-six million that use this drug only twelve millions Americans say they have tried meth. In Australia over seventy-thousand people are addicts. Australia's population is only twenty-three million so seven hundred-thousand is a good amount of civilians to show that over 4 cities in Australia can be overly filled with meth heads. As mentioned before meth has a lot of street names such as crank. Crank came from bikers who would hide all there meth in crank boxes of their motorcycles. Another street name, ice, came from how meth looks because of its crystal like features and because of its pure white color. Although meths popularity exploded during the late 90’s and early 2000’s, it has been around since the

The Alcohol and other drug (AOD) field is dynamic and fluid and is constantly being shaped by a variety of forces (The Department of Health, 2004). Illicit drug use is a widespread issue around the world, posturing significant social and economic costs to the health care system, justice department and social welfare systems in both developing and developed countries (Damrongplasit, Hsiao, & Zhao, 2012). Criminal Justice and addictive drugs have been tangled in Australia and internationally for a century or more. Ever since the addictive and destructive properties were discover within certain drugs, officials have declared the production, distribution, sale and possession of drugs to be illegal (Sherman & Valenta, 2015).

Methamphetamine is a highly, addictive stimulating drug that affects the central nervous system. Although it is a drug obtainable through prescription, it is more commonly abused due to cheap costs and street availability. Commonly termed as chalk, crank, crystal, glass, ice, speed, wash, etc., it can be orally ingested, injected, smoked or snorted (What is Methamphetamine? What is Crystal Meth? How is Meth Used?). The number of meth related addictions have peaked since its production, distribution, and use has rapidly escalated in rural areas in the past decade. According to Hutchinson, “It is the number

The widespread use of synthetic drugs in Canada is becoming increasingly concerning, particularly in BC and Alberta, where overdoses have been far too common in recent years, with eight deaths related to contaminated ecstasy occurring in a two year span in Alberta alone (Hudson et al., 2014). After several tragic fatalities from ecstasy, the RCMP in Alberta and British Columbia started a successful public awareness initiative which informed the public about the dangers of using ecstasy (Hudson et al., 2014). The extensive media coverage and constant warnings from the RCMP about contaminated ecstasy may have caused users to change to different legal highs where the substances are deemed to be pure, but not for human use, thus evading

Over the last two decades, there has been an alarming increase of methamphetamine consumption from 4.8 million individuals in 1996 to 12 million in 2009 (Substance Abuse and Mental Services Administration, 2010). Methamphetamine abuse is not exclusive to the United States, according to Degenhardt el al. (2008), East Asia is believed to be the largest methamphetamine producer and consumer in the world. Due to its powerful effects on the mesolimbic reward system, methamphetamine has a very high potential risk for abuse. With the alarming number of consumers increasing, methamphetamine addiction posses a significant public health concern similar or

In recent times, Australia has been facing an ice epidemic which has been directly linked to having severe ramifications for Australian individuals, families, communities and frontline service workers (1). As a result, the Australian Government has recognized the imperative for swift but considered action to be taken to reduce the lingering impact of ice by labelling it as a top priority. As a first step, in April 2015, the Government formed the National Ice Taskforce, which later informed on the establishment of the National Ice Action Strategy (NIAS) (1). The Taskforce findings found that the fallout from ice-dependent drug abusers was shown to be reaching a point where current public health policy regarding the issue was

However, despite these claims the media seldom reference any reputable data to support this. Whilst 13% of Australian’s reported using an illicit drug in 2016, the overall use of illicit drugs remained steady, but the use of methamphetamines had significantly decreased (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2017). Furthermore, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2018) found that illicit drug offences had actually decreased for the first time since 2008, and that overall offences proceeded against by police had decreased for the first time in five years. These findings suggest that media reports about dramatic increases in illicit drug use and related crime appear to lack any real merit. Despite this, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2017) reported that the number of people reporting victimisation from an illicit drug-related event rose by 11%, to levels where one in 10 Australians were victims of an illicit drug-related event. This data highlights that illicit drugs may actually be responsible for a greater proportion of crime, even if the actual crime volumes have

Pure methamphetamine, commonly known as ‘P’ in New Zealand, is a powerfully addictive synthetic stimulant, which dramatically affects the central nervous system. Methamphetamine was first synthesized in Japan in 1893 from ephedrine and by World War II it was being widely used to combat battle fatigue. After the surrender of Japan large stockpiles of amphetamine made their way into civilian markets, while in the United States it had been prescribed and used for ailments such as weight loss and depression until the early 1960s. After being banned by health officials in 1963, the first Clandestine Laboratory for the illicit manufacture of methamphetamine was discovered in the United States. Since the re-emergence of methamphetamine on the global scene, it is estimated by the United Nations that the number of world-wide users of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) has stabilised at about 25 million people, with levels of ATS use in Oceania considered higher than anywhere else. New Zealand has been considered in recent years to have some of the highest prevalence rates in the world. With world-wide production of methamphetamine thought to have stabilised in 2005 at between 360 and 880 tonnes, countries have struggled to contain the trade in precursor chemicals and the resulting manufacture both domestically and internationally with organised criminal entities seizing on the demand for the drug and the ease of manufacture.

Drugs are illegal chemical substances that can be used by many people to feel delighted, excited and relaxed. Those drugs are harmful to individual’s lives and might affect their health, social relationships and budgets. Ice is considered as the most destructive and powerful stimulant drug in Australia and people can be addicted easily to this drug by single use. The generic name for this drug is methamphetamine and it has many trade names such as meth, ice, crystal, glass, base, crank, creak, chalk, fire and speed. Many Australians are addicted with this dangerous and toxic drug, which affects Australia socially and economically. This harmful drug can be made easily at home with some chemical substances that can be found in any pharmacy. At

For the epidemiology of this patient we focused on the effects and causes that illicit drugs can have on patients and diseases, which in this case is some sort of myocardial infarction or compromise. Epidemiology is defined by the CDC as “a method used to find the causes of health outcomes and diseases in populations;” and also as “the study (scientific, systematic, data-driven) of the distribution (frequency, pattern) and determinants (causes, risk factors) of health-related states and events (not just diseases) in specified populations (neighborhood, school, city, state, country, global)” (Dicker, 2006). The cause of this patient’s cardiac issues most likely may be directly related to his drug use. Most illegal drugs can have adverse reactions on the cardiovascular system. One drug of significant interest and importance is that of cocaine, which is considered “the perfect heart attack drug” by the American Heart Association (AHA, 2015). A study done by the AHA showed that young and healthy individuals that use cocaine and other illicit drugs recreationally are still at great risk of heart attack from higher blood pressure, thickened heart muscle, increased heart rate, and stiffer arteries (AHA, 2015). Many people also combine other drugs with cocaine such as amphetamines increasing the effects of the drugs (National Institute of Drug Abuse, 2016). Cocaine is a very prevalent drug in American society and is not limited to one age group or demographic. It is