Methamphetamines Killing Twice As Many As Natural Causes

A study by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre has uncovered alarming news: the number of deaths relating to methamphetamines has doubled in the past seven years.

More Drugs In The Bush

The other alarming statistic is that illicit drug use in regional areas of Australia has reached an all time high.

Of all of the deaths caused by Methamphetamines since 2009, almost half of them (41 percent) occurred outside the big cities.

Ice Will Kill You

Not only does the drug, Ice, kill people it is the way it is consumed that is killing them. The research found that 43 percent of deaths between 2009-15 were caused by drug overdose.

To put this in perspective, there were more Ice-related deaths than dying from natural causes such as heart disease. That was just 22 percent.

The Centre said this is the first time Ice use has been studied and the results are very worrying.

Professor Darke from the Centre said the image of Ice needs to change because it sounds like a ‘cool name’…it is very marketable.

He said this is a drug that causes as much damage as heroin and since 2009 it has taken 1,649 lives.

The Lost Years Due To Ice Use

The Professor said the statistics also revealed that Ice use stole decades of living from each drug user. He said on average thoses 1,649 people lost an extra 44 years of living. That is, had they not been taking methamphetamines they could have lived to be 44 years older.

 

He said they all died far earlier than their average life expectancy.