Pubdate: Sun, 01 Mar 2015
Source: Straits Times (Singapore)
Copyright: 2015 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd.
Contact:  http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/429
Author: Jonathan Pearlman, For The Sunday Times In Sydney

AUSTRALIA'S DRUG SCOURGE GROWING, CRIME DATA SHOWS

Drug Seizures and Arrests Hit Highest Levels in 2013; Spike in the Use of Ice

The imminent execution in Indonesia of two Australians caught there 
for trafficking drugs comes as Australia faces its own worsening 
narcotics problem. PHOTO: REUTERS Mr Suhandro Putro, representative 
of The Javanese Christian Church funeral home, says they usually 
receive orders for caskets when executions are carried out on 
Nusakambangan, an island off Java.

The extent of the problem can be seen from the Australian Crime 
Commission's most recent report on illegal drugs, released last April.

The grim report found that drug arrests and seizures in 2013 were at 
their highest levels, including a record level of heroin abuse even 
though there were fewer users, as were cannabis detections at the 
border. The volume of amphetamines seized at the border leapt by a 
staggering 516 per cent, from 347kg in 2012 to 2,139kg in 2013.

The figures prompted Prime Minister Tony Abbott to warn that the 
nation must keep up its effort to bolster border controls and crack 
down on drug labs. "We are ensuring that the war on drugs is fought 
as fiercely as we humanly can," he told Radio 3AW last year. "The war 
on drugs is a war you can lose  you may not ever win it, but you've 
always got to fight it."

Separately, a government survey on drug use done every three years 
showed the most commonly used drug in Australia in 2013 was cannabis. 
About 10 per cent of people had recently used it, a figure that has 
remained stable in recent years.

Heroin use dropped from 0.2 per cent, or 46,000 of the population of 
23 million, to 0.1 per cent between 2010 and 2013. Analysts said this 
appeared to be due to a drop in supply, perhaps because of successful 
police operations in intercepting shipments from abroad.

But the use of Ice, or crystal amphetamine, doubled between 2010 and 
2013 to about 1 per cent, or 230,000 persons. Among Ice users, the 
proportion who used it at least once a week rose from 12 per cent in 
2010 to 25 per cent in 2013.

The spike in use of Ice has meant that this has replaced heroin 
addiction as the main front for the nation's war on drugs.

The ready availability and relative cheapness of Ice have taken a 
growing toll on families, police and the health system and left state 
and federal governments struggling to find a response.

Some parts of Australia have even gained the nickname "Little 
Antarctica", for the ice-covered continent, because they are being 
swamped by the drug. Much of the supply is produced in domestic labs, 
often by organised crime gangs using chemicals smuggled from overseas.

A former addict in the New South Wales town of Wellington, Mr Joshua 
Toomey, 29, told ABC News last November: "You'd be surprised how easy 
it is to get (Ice). There could be four or five dealers who live five 
to 10 minutes apart from each other."

The drug problem  brought to the fore now by the likely executions of 
the two Australian heroin smugglers in Indonesia  has prompted calls 
to increase penalties, step up police numbers and promote education 
campaigns about the risks.

But Australians have mixed views about whether the two traffickers, 
Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, should be executed, with some 
calling for the Indonesian authorities to show mercy.

A Lowy Institute poll conducted in mid-February found that 62 per 
cent of Australians opposed the executions. It found 69 per cent of 
people generally opposed executions for drug traffickers.

But a poll in January found that 52 per cent of people thought 
Australians sentenced to death in another country for drug 
trafficking should be executed.

An editorial in The Sydney Morning Herald said the drug trade was 
despicable but voiced opposition to the use of capital punishment, 
which was abolished in Australia in 1973. "It is no attempt to excuse 
or mitigate the crimes of drug makers, merchants and dealers, to say 
that the death penalty in every case is simply wrong," it said.

The two men were caught in Bali after overseeing a plot to use 
couriers to smuggle more than 8 kg of heroin into Australia.

Mr Abbott and Australian diplomats have urged their Indonesian 
counterparts to let the men live.

Australia does have tough penalties for users and suppliers of hard 
drugs, however. Supplying large commercial quantities comes with a 
maximum penalty of life in prison. In the largest state of New South 
Wales, such quantities would consist of 1kg or more of heroin or amphetamines.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom