
To call methamphetamine the drug of our generation is an understatement.
Immortalised in popular culture though classic shows like Breaking Bad, ice is a drug that transcends age, race, culture, nationality and religion. It touches every part of society with such ferocity and violence that the Prime Minister has declared ice as the worst drug problem Australia has ever confronted. Now the government has released a $9 million awareness campaign that will broadcast anti-ice commercials on both major television networks and across social media for the next six weeks.
A 45 second version of the ad includes a young man stealing money from his mother before violently assaulting her in front of his infant sister. Then there’s a young woman picking at bloodied wounds on her arm in an attempt to rip out the ice-induced bugs crawling beneath her skin. Finally, the ad finishes with another man, casually dressed for a night out, lashing out at doctors and nurses as police bring him into a hospital for psychosis treatment.
Suffice to say it’s pretty gruesome stuff, but how effective can another anti-drug public service announcement really be?
For starters, this advertising campaign marks the unofficial beginning of the government’s newly announced national taskforce into the use of methamphetamines. This taskforce will examine how law enforcement, education, community groups and healthcare services can better address the problem at a local, state and federal level.
While the government says this ad aims to dissuade the uninitiated from trying the drug and deterring new comers from using again, some experts have cautioned against another scary, anti-drug PSA. Social worker Cameron Francis works at Dovetail – a youth orientated support service for drug or alcohol abuse. Speaking to media, Mr Francis said ads like these risk normalising the use of ice.
“In school-based drug prevention, the message is around how many young people actually use drugs,” he said.
“We tell them 97 per cent do not use methamphetamine. That’s a very powerful message. But when ads turn up on TV, people believe ice use is way more common than it actually is.”
The statistics seem to back up what Cameron Franics asserts. A three year study conducted by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare published in July 2014, found that the proportion of Australians aged over 14 that use methamphetamines had not actually increased. But while the number of users stayed relatively stable, the study found that the percentage of regular users (once a week or more) that used the crystal form of the drug rather than the powdered (otherwise known as speed), more than doubled to 50.4 per cent. In other words, while the number of ice users didn’t increase, the intensity of their abuse has gradually increased. The study also found that the use of ice in combination with other illicit substances like alcohol and ecstasy has increased, while the regularity of its use has also risen. This all results in more ice addicts coming to emergency rooms, more arrests, more drug busts, and eventually, more public concern.
Yet there are lessons from other countries that can offer some guidance for the government’s anti-ice taskforce.
Since 2005, an American program called the Meth Project has pursued a strong anti-ice agenda in eight US states. Focusing of gruesome images and horror stories, the Meth Project is similar to these new Australian ads in that it aims to deter young people from trying the drug. Yet in the first three years since it began in Montana, researchers from the School of Psychology at the University of Western Australia found that the campaign actually increased certain ice related myths.
For instance, the number of people who thought that there were no negative side effects for ice use increased from 3 per cent to 8 per cent. Moreover, the Meth Project, like these new Australian ads, failed to specify how users can access treatment services. So while blasting non-users with images of physical pain and emotional torment, there is no message of hope for those who have already taken the plunge into methamphetamines.
If the government wants to reduce the number of ice addicts in Australia, then it needs an awareness campaign that offers users a way to get help. While the motto of this advertising blitz is “ice destroys lives – don’t let it destroy yours”, there is little evidence to show that campaigns like these actually decrease drug use. The only hope is that the government takes the experience of other anti-ice campaigns conducted overseas, and implements a strategy that involves more than shock factor and fear mongering.
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Words by Dominic Cansdale.
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