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Drug blamed for more police assaults in Australia's Victoria state: research

Xinhua, July 30, 2015 Adjust font size:

Almost three quarters of Victoria's police officers have been assaulted in the past three years, according to a recent research from the Victorian Police Association, and the spate of violence is being blamed on Australia's ice epidemic.

Victorian police association secretary Ron Iddles said on Thursday that the drug had changed the law enforcement landscape.

"(Ice) has made the job of the average police officer on the street far more unpredictable and dangerous," Iddles told News Limited.

"Like petrol on a fire, it turns a situation that was already highly charged into something explosive."

Based on the 3,500 serving police members surveyed, 90 percent believed violence directed towards them had increased since 2012.

Another 80 percent said they felt less secure carrying out their duties than three years ago.

Ice, crystallized methylamphetamine, is more potent and addictive than the amphetamine known as speed.

In March, The Australian Crime Commission (ACC) released a report on the toll of the "mind-eating, personality-distorting" drug was having on the community.

"Ice is causing untold harm to communities," ACC chief executive Chris Dawson told the Australian Broadcast Corporation ( ABC) following the release of the report.

"Use is increasing, the purity of ice is also increasing, and we are seeing greater seizures (of the drug), but more does need to be done."

Victorian premier Daniel Andrews earlier this year said data, taken from the 2013 National Drug Strategy Household Survey, indicated 80,000 Victorians aged 14 or over 1.9 percent, used ice last year, slightly below the national average of 2.1 percent.

Iddles said attacks on the state's law enforcers were becoming the norm, with domestic violence and strains on the mental health system also pushing up the rate.

"The level of violence that our members are confronted with these days is staggering," he said.

"Not a week goes by where we do not hear that a (police) member has been threatened, assaulted or injured at work." Endi