By REBECCA BILLS
“IT’S LIKE you are two different people – the devil and you.”
This is how former ice user Jason (not his real name) describes his experience with the drug.
“And I can say now that the last thing I would ever do is get back on the ice,” he said.
“Your brain would be that wired for days after that you don’t feel human.
“It’s the devil’s drug, that’s what people are calling it, it really is f**king people.”
The 24-year-old said it got to the stage where he could not even go for a night out without a pipe.
“You go to a cubicle and have a burn then go back out – it’s just like going to the toilets and snorting some coke,” he said.
“The motion is addictive, so is the high.”
However this is not a drug that is just circling the nightclub industry, young teenagers are getting their hands on it too.
“There is a big problem, I’ve seen kids as young as 15 on the drug, in saying that I first tried it when I was 16,” he said.
“Depending on your friendship group, there is a lot of pressure, and I would say it has become part of the social culture in this area to at least try it and it is very easy to get your hands on.”
Jason said ice prices had decreased over the last few years, as well making is more accessible.
“You would be paying, depending on how good the quality was, between $800 to $1000 a gram, but now it’s around $400 to $500 a gram,” he said.
When asked where people get the money to feed the addiction he said “you tell me”.
“That’s where crime does come into it – stealing generally from their family and friends as they just need that hit,” he said.
“I know people that would rather spend their last $100 on a few points of ice than go to the supermarket and have food for the week.
“They just want more and more and more, it’s sad.”
He said although he only dabbled in the drug, his brother was an addict for about five years.
“It was really getting the better of him these last few years though,” he said.
“He could even start to see the changes, he wasn’t liking it, he wasn’t happy.
“For him to cut it out of his life he had to cut out the people that were still doing it, and that still hurts him.”
Jason said he watched as the drug took hold of his older brother, a man he looked up to, and the distress that caused him personally.
“He became very moody, and relied on the drug to get him to work,” he said.
“It wasn’t a good sight, he would stay up for three to four days at a time then sleep for two days straight – it was very upsetting.
“And I guess for young people wanting to try ice you can’t really stop them, but at the end of the day I can say from experience it is no good.”
