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Australia's taste for illicit drugs a "national disgrace": police commissioner

Xinhua, March 3, 2016 Adjust font size:

Almost half of adult Australians have tried illicit drugs at least once, prompting one of Australia's top cops to label the country's drug use a "national disgrace."

In comments published in News Corp newspapers on Thursday, Victoria's Assistant Police Commissioner Steve Fontana said that drugs were becoming "normalized" in Australian society and that something needed to be done to stop the scourge.

"That's a national disgrace," Fontana said of a study which showed 42 percent of Australians had taken illicit substances at least once.

"We should be ashamed of that. We're becoming a nation that appears to be moving into normalizing substance abuse."

He said drug dealers had begun to notice Australia's insatiable appetite and willingness to pay premium money for illicit drugs, meaning internationally based crime syndicates continue to push substances such as ice through Australia's borders.

"We are well and truly being targeted by international crime syndicates as a nation," Fontana said.

"Even though the price (of ice) has come down (due to the high supply), we're still paying a lot more than any other country. Unfortunately, there's demand here. We've got to stop demand -- pure and simple."

Ice currently demands up to 73,000 U.S. dollars per kilo in Australia, down from historical highs of up to 400,000 U.S. dollars, but Fontana said flooding the market and lowering the price was a "deliberate ploy" to drive addiction.

"These syndicates are not stupid. They're run like a business." Fontana said.

"This is a targeted strategy. I know from feedback from some of our partners that it's a deliberate strategy to increase addiction."

Last month, Australian Federal Police officers busted almost one billion U.S. dollars of ice coming from Hong Kong, in what was described as one of the largest drug busts in the nation's history.

Late last year the government announced a crackdown on drugs entering Australia, with Australian Border Force officers working closely with authorities in China to stop the flow of ice from coming into Australia. Endit