Police, health services fear sharp increase in drug-related crimes

Darling Local Area Command (LAC) takes in Nyngan, Cobar and Bourke, and crime manager Detective Inspector Mark Gorton said, while it was hard to find data linking ice use and crime, anecdotally the two were connected.

He said in terms of crimes such as break-and-enter and theft, ice was no worse than any other addictive substance.

"All drug-related crime sees an increase in break-and-enters," Inspector Gorton said.

"It's the addiction to the drug that drives it, and the need to fund the habit. Anecdotally the use of ice increases the incidences of violent crimes [such as assaults and domestic violence]."

Alan Bennett, a drug and alcohol worker at Orana Haven Drug and Rehabilitation Centre, south of Brewarrina, said he was concerned by the increase he had seen in ice use by people of all ages.

"In the last 12 months there's been a big increase in it," he said.

"It's still present in Brewarrina and there doesn't seem to be a decline in the use. It's across the board."

Life Education NSW chief executive officer, Jay Bacik said he had also heard of an increase in ice use, and some of the reports were disturbing.

Mr Bacik told the ABC last week of children as young as eight using the drug, but could not confirm where those children came from.

"The incidents that I heard about the other day, was about these children getting ice from their older siblings," he said.

There is a serious gap in the services available for young people struggling with drug or alcohol addiction. Orana Haven's services are only available to men over the age of 18, with those under 18 often forced to travel as far as Sydney or Wagga Wagga to get help. '

Mr Bacik said he was worried that by the time people get into rehabilitation, it was already too late.

"We've got to get rehabilitation services to people in trouble, but we've got to invest more wisely into prevention as well," he said.

It is a fear echoed by the state's police, who say the impact upon society goes beyond a rise in crime.

In January, Superintendent David Simmons warned of the cost a rise in ice use would have on the community as a whole.

"It's not a nice drug," he said in January.

"Ice users don't discriminate who they hurt. If they are going to be aggressive they'll be aggressive to anyone. They won't pick and choose who they put into hospital."

"The average person will feel it in that the more health problems we have as a result of ice, the more their Medicare levies will rise, health insurance goes up as there is that greater burden on hospitals and the state."