Meth deaths rising in Australia as injecting users turn to ice: researchers

Deaths caused by methamphetamines jumped significantly in Australia from 2010 to 2011 and ice is increasingly popular with injecting users, Australian researchers announced on Friday.

Researchers from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) found a 19 percent increase in methamphetamine-related deaths in 2011 to 101.

The drug was the underlying cause in 23 cases.

Official data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics are yet to be released for 2012 and beyond but UNSW researchers' preliminary predictions estimate up to 170 deaths in 2013 were methamphetamine-related.

Another report released on Friday surveying injecting drug users found they were increasingly turning to methamphetamine's crystallized form -- known as ice -- with its popularity jumping 50 percent in the past decade. 62 percent reported using it in the past six months.

Ice is a powerful, highly addictive stimulant that can induce euphoria, increased alertness and repeated scratching and itching, according to the Australian Drug Foundation. Ice users can take days to 'come down' from the drug, during which time they can experience long bouts of sleeplessness, paranoia and irritability.

Chief investigator of the studies, UNSW Associate Professor Lucy Burns, said while methamphetamine use had not increased, there had been a "marked shift" towards ice as its preferred form.

"Of the 2.1 percent of the general population who reported recent methamphetamine use in 2013, over 50 percent had used it in crystal form, up from 21.7 percent in 2010," said Burns on Friday.

"It is clear that there has been a change in use of the drug and we are now seeing increasing harms in terms of related deaths, amphetamine related hospital presentations and treatment episodes, " she said.

"What is not clear at this stage is whether the main change is a change in use among people already using drugs or whether new users are coming onto the market."

Frequency of ice use has also increased, with the average rising from fortnightly to almost once a week. Users in Canberra, the nation's capital, boasted the country's highest usage rate at twice a week.

Speed, the street name for powdered methamphetamine, remains the drug's most popular form for recreational psychostimulant users, of which only one in five reported taking ice in the last six months.

Burns said the data from the two national surveys of drug users served as an early warning system of changes in drug trends.

The National Ice Taskforce will present an interim report to the prime minister by the end of July detailing the issues related to the use and impact of drug on Australian communities. Endi