Ice age: Meet 'crank', the new scourge of the Australian community
People are turning to the drug from the less harmful methamphetamine known as speed
Ice, crystal meth, whizz, crank … call it what you like, methamphetamine in its strongest form can deliver a hit 1,000 times greater than cocaine and it has never been easier to score in Australia - and Hong Kong plays a key role in this disturbing trend.
Whole communities ravaged by the highly-addictive stimulant, which can be smoked, snorted, injected or ingested orally, bear testimony to a growing illicit drugs trade at the centre of which is Guangdong province, the world's biggest single producer of the drug.
In Australia, one of the biggest markets, the potency of meth sold on the streets of Australia has skyrocketed to an all-time high, bringing a growing toll of death and misery.
Coupled with a switch from the less powerful powder form called speed to the stronger crystalline version also known as crystal meth or Ice, there is little wonder that the word epidemic is gaining currency as the army of addicts grows.
"All the data we have indicates a strong upward trend in problems related to crystal methamphetamine," said Professor Michael Farrell, director of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre in Sydney.
The centre's latest figures published this month found that 97 per cent of Ice users reported it was "easy" or "very easy" to get access to the drug this year, compared to 86 per cent last year.
The figures are based on annual surveys with people who inject drugs and those who take other drugs such as ecstasy.
