Précis

His name is 'Jake'. At 15 years old, he was an ice dealer, a user and a crystal meth cook.

'Jake' is the new face of crystal meth, or ice, in Australia. It's the drug that's ravaged our major cities. But now it's destroying country towns one by one.

Four Corners, reporter Caro Meldrum-Hanna travels through the regions of two states, riding with police and users, to tell the shocking story of towns and people in the grip of ice.

She pieces together a disturbing picture: major international drug cartels are working with locally based outlaw motorcycle gangs to push ice out of the cities. It's a massive illicit corporate enterprise; sophisticated and highly organised.

Their targets? Captive markets of bored teenagers in country towns, where there's a desperate lack of treatment facilities and under resourced or non-existent police.

Four Corners goes to one community of less than 4,000 people where up to one in ten people are using ice. Meldrum-Hanna meets teenagers who began using in their early teens, sits with them as they smoke ice and with others as they inject, and discovers how bikie gangs use other children to "cook" methamphetamine, destroying their health and leaving them with ruinous addiction.

In short, the program tells the story of a generation that is being condemned to a life of drug abuse, crime and ultimately early death. The most alarming element of this story is the age of the people involved, as one clinical nurse at the coalface in regional Australia explains:

"The demographic for ice is changing all the time. We're noticing the age actually dropping, there's been reports of 10 year olds presenting at the Emergency Department here."

Seventeen-year-old 'Ethan' is a prime example of the power and spread of ice, the reality of what's happening beyond city borders. He was injected by a local drug dealer when he was just a boy. He says it took just one night for him to get hooked. This sent his life into a downward spiral that saw 'Ethan' leave school, join a crystal meth pack of fellow young addicts hopping from town to town chasing ice, stealing from people night and day to feed their addiction.

Not even his family was safe.

"Mum locked the door on me and I remember thinking... if I get in there I will hurt her for money. I will get money out of her some, one way or another."

As each person's story unfolds it becomes disturbingly clear: there is almost nowhere for young addicts in regional Australia to go to get help. That leaves health workers in despair:

"We're going to talk about the utter devastation of small rural communities where we're going to have a lot of mental health issues, criminal activity. It's going to be a nightmare."

This program contains language, drug use and scenes that may disturb some viewers.

St Arnaud town

00:14

The sun’s out in the small country town of St Arnaud, north-west Victoria. It’s a beautiful day. But 19-year-old Jake is spending it indoors, inside his bedroom.

00:20

Jake and friend in room

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: And is this how you spend a lot of your days? Hanging out with mates?

JAKE: Yeah pretty much.

00:42

It’s a small room with no natural light and no fresh air. The windows are covered. Jake’s friend is here too. We can’t show you his face. He’s about to get high. 

00:50

Jake’s friend is smoking ice – the crystallised super-charged speed, the purest form of methamphetamine. It’s remarkable to watch, because Jake himself is a recovering ice addict.

01:11

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Jake, how is it sitting with your mate here who’s smoking ice?

JAKE: Oh it’s no different than sitting here having a cigarette really. Comes down –

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: It’s not tempting?

JAKE: Oh everything’s tempting but it comes down to mind over matter a lot of the time.

01:29

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Would you say that you’re addicted?

FRIEND: Um.. maybe like a tiny bit, like if that’s possible. (laughs)

01:44

Jake’s friend says he suffers from depression. He smokes ice to make him feel good.

01:55

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: So it makes you feel happier?

FRIEND: Yeah, yeah for sure.

02:02

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: So how popular is it around here, you know?

FRIEND: Um, very. (laughs)

02:09

St Arnaud town

Music

02:14

The town of St Arnaud is home to just three and a half thousand people. But we’re told ice is rampant.

02:20

JAKE: High demand.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: High demand?

JAKE: Yep.

02:30

Jake and friend

Pretty much gold around here, a lot of people would see it as, and it’s worth more than its weight in gold as well. Like, and that’s an actual fact unfortunately.

02:33

Animated map of Victoria

Music

02:43

So how has crystal meth made it all the way out here? And how big is the problem in rural Australia?

02:45

Jake

JAKE: It’s as common as weed, which is ridiculous.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: So how has it got to this point?

JAKE: Well, there’s a lot of money in it. A hell of a lot of money and a hell of a lot of dodgy c***s.

02:54

Canola fields, rural Victoria

Music

03:10

Animated map

Two hours’ drive south is the regional hub of Ballarat, once a gold rush boomtown.

03:15

Ballarat

Today it’s grappling with a sudden influx of crystal meth. Here, and right across regional Victoria, the age of ice users has plummeted, defying national trends.

03:22

Cutts. Super
DARREN CUTTS
Withdrawal nurse, Tabor House

DARREN CUTTS: The demographic for ice is changing all the time. We’re noticing the age actually dropping. There’s been reports of 10-year-olds presenting at the Emergency Department here in Ballarat.

03:37

Tabor House

DARREN CUTTS: All right mate, let’s head off and do a bag search.

03:48

Darren and young person

Just outside town is Tabor House – a youth residential withdrawal centre for 12 to 21 year olds. Clinical nurse Darren Cutts is checking a new arrival for drugs.

03:53

DARREN CUTTS: So sorry about this mate, we don’t like to go through anyone’s stuff but it’s part of the program.

04:07

Darren and young person in office

DARREN CUTTS: Take a seat.

04:15

A four-bed facility, Tabor House has a waiting list of up to two months. That’s because, unbelievably, it’s the only one of its kind for all of regional Victoria. In the past 18 months, admissions for ice-affected young people have leapt 80 per cent.

04:17

Darren and Caro

DARREN CUTTS: The youngest client that we’ve actually seen here at Tabor at the moment for ice withdrawal is 14.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: 14 years old?

DARREN CUTTS: Yep. Ah for me it’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen.

04:35

Music

04:47

Aaron feeds horse

AARON: I had a harder trouble getting it in the city than I did out here.

04:51

It’s 19-year-old Aaron’s last day at Tabor. He’s been here for two weeks to get off ice.

04:55

Photo: Aaron smoking

Originally a city boy, Aaron began using when he was 15. His addiction has left him painfully thin and highly anxious.

05:03

Aaron

Aaron: It’s dark, it’s scary, it’s dirty.  You know, like personal hygiene falls to shit and your appetite is just gone. You don’t eat, you don’t sleep.  Life’s chaotic.   

05:13

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: What was your lowest point?

AARON: When I tried to hang myself in my mum’s shed. 

05:28

Aaron covers hand with paint

Before Aaron leaves Tabor, he has one last thing to do. It’s a symbolic act – a handprint to mark two weeks being clean.

05:38

Aaron puts handprint on wall

AARON: Want to stay clean. But it’s easier said than done.

05:04

Aaron’s handprint is one of hundreds spread across three walls – the lucky ones who managed to get in to Tabor House. It’s a confronting display, evidence of a problem out of control in regional Victoria.

05:59

Darren

DARREN CUTTS: Here in Ballarat we’re only seeing the crest of the wave. We certainly haven’t,, you know reached the peak. It’s still increasing. It’s in every little town that these clients are presenting. They will tell you that the town is running amok on ice.

06:16

Handprints on wall of Tabor House

Next to Aaron’s handprint is the imprint of a set of knuckles belonging to a boy named Ethan. He’s been to Tabor House twice in the past year.

06:33

DARREN CUTTS: He’d actually arrived from a psychiatric facility.

06:44

Darren

His life completely and utterly fell apart, when Ethan found ice.

06:48

Penny. Super
PENNY  Ethan’s mother

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Must’ve just taken your breath away.  Watching your child...

PENNY: This… destroy himself? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. It did.

06:54

Animated map

Penny and her son Ethan live an hour’s drive north east of Ballarat in Castlemaine.

07:10

Castlemaine/ bikies

When we visited, bikies were in town.

07:17

Ethan. Super 
ETHAN

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Did you rack up drug debts?

ETHAN: Yeah, yeah a few times.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Who did you owe?

ETHAN: Well, I’d actually generally owe someone that owed bikies.

07:23

Bikies/ town

Music

07:37

Out here, it’s called shard. An addict for over a year, Ethan says crystal meth turned him into a monster.

07:44

Ethan

ETHAN: I just wanted to see blood. That’s all I wanted. Because you know I wanted to kill someone almost, like I was ready to.

07:54

Full moon on cloudy night/ public toilets

Ethan says it took just one night on ice to get hooked. First he smoked it. The next morning, his friend – a local dealer – asked him to come to the park. To the public toilets.

ETHAN: And he pulled out two syringes.

08:02

Ethan

two sterile syringes. And at first I was like “Ooh that seems a bit, you know, a bit dodgy” but then after a while I looked… he put it in a spoon and started crushing it up and got a bit of a water in there and all I could think was “Yeah, fuck yeah, I don’t care how it goes in me, I just want, I just want that”.

08:20

Darren. Super
DARREN CUTTS 
Withdrawal nurse, Tabor House

DARREN CUTTS: So it unleashes this massive amount of dopamine. It’s the pleasure drug. So it causes this enormous rush within these young minds. They simply can’t cope.

08:36

Animated graph

This is the brain’s usual level of dopamine – the neurotransmitter responsible for feeling pleasure and happiness. Watch what happens when ice enters the equation – a massive spike in dopamine, bigger than any other drug. Over time, ice destroys the brain’s ability to produce dopamine naturally. It’s a drug – and an addiction – like no other.

08:48

Ethan

ETHAN: As soon as that needle went in my arm it was just, that was… I just couldn’t, couldn’t live without it.  I felt like it was my… it was the way… it was my way of life.

09:15

Ethan riding pushbike

Ethan stopped going to school, disappearing for weeks on end.

09:28

Photos. Ethan

Hopping from town to town, chasing ice, crashing in meth houses often run by adults. Physically and mentally Ethan quickly fell apart.

09:32

Penny in kitchen

Ethan would come home looking for money to buy more ice. He was violent and filled with rage.

09:44

Ethan

ETHAN: Mum had locked the door on me and I remember thinking that, you know, if I get in there I will hurt her for money, kind of thing.  I will get money out of her some, one way or another.

09:53

Penny and Caro

PENNY: And he just, he just, his mouth opened like a furnace and he looked like he could’ve lifted the house up. He could’ve just… his rage was so immense.

10:06

Penny/ outside Penny’s house
Super
May 2014

Terrified, one night Penny called the police and recorded the sounds of her son being capsicum sprayed.

ETHAN (recording): (inaudible yelling) You c***s, fucking hell (crying). I hate the fucking system (crying).

10:19

Ethan and Caro

We played this recording to Ethan. It’s the first time he’s heard it.

ETHAN: Is that me?

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Do you remember that night?

ETHAN: No.

10:49

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Who was that person you were just listening to?

Ethan: I got a bit of a shock just then. That was… that was the bad side of me I guess. That was… I don’t even know what that was.

11:11

Penny

PENNY: I was worried that Ethan had damaged his brain so much that he was a sociopath, he was going to potentially be somebody that was going to need incarceration for his life.

11:26

Penny and Ethan play video game

PENNY: Is that you?

ETHAN: No.

PENNY: That was you.

ETHAN: It wasn’t me.

PENNY: That’s you, passing me now.

ETHAN: (laughs)

11:44

This was Ethan’s turning point. He went to rehab, and is now four months clean.

ETHAN: I beat you.

PENNY: Whatever.

ETHAN: Congratulations for losing.

11:50

Ethan walks towards shed/ band practicing

But staying away from ice is a daily battle. In his town, it’s everywhere.

ETHAN: I could get onto ice right now.

12:08

Ethan

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Where would you go to get it?

ETHAN: I’d probably just go up the road, you know. It’s just up the road and it’s easy to get.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: You can walk up the road and buy ice?

ETHAN: I could walk up the road and get it, yep.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: In this small country town?

ETHAN: In this small country town. 

12:25

Ross. Super
ACTING SUPERINTENDENT PAUL ROSS
Victoria Police Western Region

ACTING SUPERINTENDENT PAUL ROSS: It is probably our biggest driver of our crime, our biggest current driver of crime, in some form.

12:37

Police presence in town

Music

12:45

In Ballarat, police are struggling with a surge in ice-related crime.

12:50

Ballarat town

Robberies and theft, assault and family violence are all up. And users are also dealing.

12:55

Animated map

Equally situated from Victoria’s two biggest centres, Melbourne and Geelong, ice is being trafficked into town with speed and ease – in cars, on trucks, aboard trains – leading to an explosion of local dealers.

13:03

Police station

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: How often would you be busting a dealer then?

13:19

Acting Superintendent Paul Ross

ACTING SUPERINTENDENT PAUL ROSS:  It’s a regular occurrence, two to three times a week.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Two to three times a week?

ACTING SUPERINTENDENT PAUL ROSS:  At various levels.  Some bigger dealers than others, obviously. 

13:23

Bags of ice next to mobile phone

Music

13:33

This is what police are regularly finding on local dealers. This bag of ice contains around 20 points or hits with a street value of around two thousand dollars.  Next to it – what looks like a mobile phone. Case off, it doubles as a set of scales.

13:34

Traffic through city/ highway

Music

13:52

Four Corners understands they’re distributing on behalf of outlaw motorcycle gangs, moving ice from city to country.

13:57

The Vikings, the Finks and the Bandidos have all established chapters in Ballarat.

14:07

Ballarat

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  Is it being cooked here?

14:18

Acting Superintendent Paul Ross

ACTING SUPERINTENDENT PAUL ROSS:  Some of it will be getting cooked here or somewhere else,  but the easy transportation of it just makes it easier to bring it in from elsewhere.  When really, think about it, if you’ve got an easy supply chain, why would you risk trying to manufacture it locally?

14:20

Music

14:42

Motorbike gang

Outlaw motorcycle gangs aren’t just major players in the distribution and supply of ice in north-west Victoria. Four Corners has discovered they’re also cooking it.

14:44

Jake and Caro

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  The motorcycle gang you were working for, how many cooks did they have in the area?

JAKE: I wouldn’t be able to say.  I knew of a fair few but I wouldn’t be able to say.

14:57

You’re looking at a former dealer and local crystal meth cook. Jake’s story is like no other – where poverty, addiction and organised crime intersect.

15:10

Photos. Jake as a child

A lonely child in a tiny country town, preyed on by members of an outlaw motorcycle gang.

15:22

Jake

JAKE: Pretty much like training an attack dog. If you get them young, sky’s the limit.

15:30

Music

15:34

Animated map

Jake’s story begins when he was 11 years old in the town of St Arnaud.

15:37

Photo. Young Jake with father and brothers

Abandoned by his father and older brothers, left alone at home to pay the mortgage and care for his mentally ill mother.

15:42

Jake

JAKE: For a while I didn’t really know what to do but when it really came down to it I knew I had to make some form of income. And you can’t really get a job at that age.

15:51

Motorbikes/ Gang flags

Music

16:01

Jake was approached by an older man with a job opportunity. For Jake’s protection we cannot name him or tell you which motorcycle gang he belongs to.

16:03

Jake and Caro

JAKE: Someone offered me to move certain amounts of marijuana for them. Started off simple like that. 

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  And what happened next?

16:15

JAKE: When I hit you know mid-13, is when it all started to develop a lot more because I had a fairly big clientele for my age.

16:23

Travelling on country road and through town

Music

16:31

Jake was dealing drugs to small towns around the clock, barely sleeping. When he was 13, Jake’s new-found family, a brotherhood of men, gave him a present.

16:34

Jake/ crack pipe

JAKE: I was given a sweet puff as a present. As a present they call it. Isn’t really a present in the end.  More of a burden.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  A sweet puff?

16:49

JAKE: Sweet puff is just a crack pipe.  It’s the most common brand. I didn’t have much explained to me about the drug or anything to do with it in a sense. It just was around like everything else was. I had constant access to pretty much whatever I wanted.

16:57

Jake in his house

But nothing comes for free. Over the next year, Jake used more and more. He was also being taught the tricks of the trade.

JAKE: …Drug testing kit.

17:17

Jake and Caro

JAKE: Getting taught you know different methods, different ingredients, different parts. Profit margins especially – the difference between buying it and selling it, and making it and selling it.   

17:29

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  So you were taught how to make crystal meth?

JAKE: Unfortunately. 

17:43

Jake in his house

Jake was now locked into a business arrangement.

17:49

Jake

JAKE: At the time seemed like the best decision I ever made. It was like winning the lotto or pretty much getting a license to print money.

17:54

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  So when did you start cooking alone?  When were you trusted? 

JAKE: About the age of 15, mid-15.

18:00

Music

18:08

Jake in car/ remote sheds

Jake says he’d be picked up from home by members of the syndicate, driven to a remote location, and left alone. He says the group constantly changed labs, erecting 20 by 40 sheds, dismantling and setting up elsewhere, in shipping containers, old farm houses, to keep ahead of the police.  He wouldn’t give us specific addresses.

18:15

Farmhouse at sunset

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  How long would you cook for per session when they’d drop you off?

JAKE: It varied over times but long periods could be even up to four days. 

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  Four days straight?

JAKE: Mm.

18:42

Jake

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  Did you sleep?

JAKE: Um.. no. 

18:53

Farmhouse at sunset

Jake says he was left with as much ice as he could possibly smoke.

18:57

Jake

JAKE: You’d OD before you got anywhere near through any of it.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  Why do you think they left you with so much?

19:03

JAKE: Oh because at the time you think they’re being nice. Realistically they want you to stay awake and alert so you can get the job done, and secondly because they’re making a lot more out of it than you think or than what you’re being told. 

19:10

Crystal meth lab

Music

19:26

At his most productive, Jake says he was cooking an ounce a day –  that’s 28 grams or 280 points – with a street value of up to 28 thousand dollars. At the end of a four or five day cooking stint, he’d be picked up and taken out to party.

19:28

Photo. Young Jake with dog

Or, pictured here, taken home to try and sleep.

19:48

Country roads

All up the cycle continued for four years.

19:53

Music

19:56

Jake and Caro

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  How did you get out of this?

JAKE: Everything’s got its price. Um … 

20:00

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  You can’t tell me what that way out was?

JAKE: I don’t yeah, I don’t think it’d portray me as a very… or even human to really talk about it.  It’s the thing I’m least proud of in my life, but something which should never be asked of anybody. 

20:15

No one from Jake’s family would speak up for him on camera.

20:37

Tabor House handprint walls

But Darren Cutts did. He’s cared for Jake through his four stints at Tabor House.

20:42

Darren and Caro

DARREN CUTTS: Jake has been scared for a long, long time. You can see that in his eyes. 

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  You think it’s brave though what he’s done?

DARREN CUTTS: Absolutely, absolutely. Yep. One of the bravest young men I’ve ever met. 

20:49

Jake

JAKE: There’s not much that can be done to me what hasn’t already been done so, there’s a point when fear leaves and you just want to go on with your life. 

21:04

Jake in his house

Jake says he was one of many young cooks being used by bikie gangs. He’s also been charged with multiple assaults. If convicted, he could be facing two to four years gaol. But local police – despite their efforts – never found the stashes of ice he once had at home.

21:19

Jake and Caro

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  Did you keep large quantities of ice here?

JAKE: I did in the past, but they’re not very smart. I could do their job better than they do.  The ones up here are useless.

21:43

Stephen Fontana

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  Are you confident that your counterparts in country areas are able to deal with this?

21:55

Fontana. Super
AC STEPHEN FONTANA
Victoria Police Crime Command

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER STEPHEN FONTANA: It’s difficult. Some are better resourced than others. You know because we’ve got a lot of competing priorities out in you know just general policing, so they’ll put their resources where the greatest harm is being caused.

22:00

CCTV footage on bus/ attack on driver

Music

22:13

In Melbourne city the effects of crystal meth are playing out on the streets.

MAN: (screams) Drive the bus!

Ice users are highly unpredictable and often violent – one captured here assaulting a bus driver. Purity is high and crime is up.

MAN: (screams) Drive the fucking bus!

22:16

Police raid on meth lab

Music

22:35

Victoria police are on track to bust a record number of meth labs this year, with 120 already discovered and shut down across the state.

22:39

Photos. Meth lab/ equipment

Labs are becoming increasingly mobile. These photos show crystal meth being cooked in the backs of trucks, transported in suitcases.

22:49

AC Stephen Fontana and Caro

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  What does that say to you, that you are eclipsing your records every year in the… in your number of lab busts?

23:00

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER STEPHEN FONTANA: We’ve got a problem.  We’ve got a big problem.  This is the worse substance we’ve seen – by far. 

23:05

Motorbike riders at night

Music

23:12

According to police intelligence, several major international cartels have shifted manufacturing operations to Australia, with the Bandidos, Rebels, Finks or Mongols, Comancheros and the Hells Angels all involved in distribution. Some are cutting ice with heroin – to guarantee mental and physical addiction. It’s a massive illicit corporate enterprise.

23:14

AC Stephen Fontana and Caro

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  Why is Australia such a lucrative market for ice producers?

23:42

ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER STEPHEN FONTANA: Because we are a wealthy, ah… we are a wealthy country and we pay a lot more for ice. So you know if you’re running an organisation and particularly an organised crime syndicate, you’re going to come to a place where you’re going to get best bang for buck. And unfortunately Australia is one of those places.

23:47

Spirit of Tasmania ship

Music

24:04

And it’s leaving the mainland – bound for the island state, the final frontier.

24:07

Devonport docks

Music

24:13

It’s 6 a.m. in Devonport, north-west Tasmania. The daily ferry from Melbourne is pulling in, carrying passengers and cargo. Four Corners understands that the Spirit is increasingly being used by outlaw motorcycle gangs The Rebels and The Outlaws to ship ice from state to state.

24:15

Drug squad prepare in police station

Across town at Devonport police, the drug squad is preparing to raid a known meth house.

24:38

SERGEANT STEVE KEISELIS: Essentially guys, information and intelligence has been received that suggests methamphetamine and amphetamine is being sold, distributed, used from this residence.

24:47

Drug squad driving to raid

Music

24:57

Amphetamine-related drug offences have doubled in north-west Tasmania in the past year, and seizures are up 25 per cent.

25:00

Drug squad raid house

POLICE: Open the door!

25:11

Inside, police quickly find what they’re looking for.

SERGEANT STEVE KEISELIS (subtitled): Yep, that was in here?

POLICEMAN 1 (subtitled): Yeah I was just sitting in that chair and thought I’d look in that box.

25:35

SERGEANT STEVE KEISELIS (subtitled): Yep.

POLICEMAN 1 (subtitled): And I just found it, so first place I looked.

SERGEANT STEVE KEISELIS: Right.

25:45

Sgt Keiselis and detective after raid

SERGEANT STEVE KEISELIS: That’s a fairly sizeable quantity of ice.

Lab tests pending, it’s the second time in as many weeks the occupants of this neat and tidy rental home have been busted for ice.

25:50

Gunton. Super 
DET. INSP. ROBERT GUNTON
Tasmania Police

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  More of these popping up around north-west Tasmania?

DETECTIVE INSPECTOR ROBERT GUNTON: We certainly see… we started seeing meth methamphetamine about two years ago and we’re certainly seizing more of it.

26:03

Motorbike rides away

Music

26:14

Animated map

The spread of ice hasn’t stopped in Devonport. It’s crept through towns dotted along the coastline into the city of Burnie.

26:21

Burnie, Tasmania

Music

26:30

A 15 minute drive away is Serenity House, a two week time out facility where addicts come to withdraw before going to rehab.

26:33

Janette leads Caro into Serenity House

JANETTE JENSEN: At the moment we’ve got three people who are recovering from ice use. Welcome to Serenity House.

26:44

Janette and Caro

There are seven beds at Serenity House. Yet only two of them are funded by the government. And only for alcohol.

26:51

JANETTE JENSEN: And here, these are our two place of safety sober up beds. In here we take people that the police send, a place of safety and this is our funded… these two beds are funded, but the five beds upstairs are not.

26:59

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  Yeah these are empty. But you’re funded to fill these?

JANETTE JENSEN: Yes.

27:13

It’s a damning indictment for Tasmania, a state in the grip of a sudden ice scourge. In addition to being the only one of its kind for the whole state, Serenity House is also desperately under-funded.

27:18

Janette and Caro. Super
JANETTE JENSEN
Supervisor, Serenity House

JANETTE JENSEN: We are really under-resourced, we are really under resourced. I can get four phone calls in a day and have to knock people back. I am known for putting a sixth person on the sofa upstairs for a couple of days you know while we get an empty bed. I’d do that rather than knock someone back who was in real crisis. 

27:33

Bradley in garden

Bradley, a poly-drug user and a recovering alcoholic, has been to rehab four times for crystal meth. He says he was also a dealer.

27:55

Bradley prepares vegetables in kitchen

BRADLEY: It just ruins your life. Well it’s ruined my life.

Bradley is 40 years old. He’s lost all but three of his upper teeth.

28:07

Bradley

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: How’d you lose them?

BRADLEY: Just drugs. And I ended up pulling them all out myself. Like some people pick their hands, they’ve got insects in there, well I had a thing with pulling my teeth out and I only have three left.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  How did you pull them out?

28:19

BRADLEY: With a pair of pliers.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  You’re just sitting at home and you ripped your teeth out of your head?

BRADLEY: Yeah with a pair of pliers.  That’s what… that’s what ice can do to you, I’ve just… yeah.

28:31

Group therapy

At 10 a.m. Janette takes the residents of Serenity House to group therapy at The Bridge in Burnie – a drug and alcohol treatment program. It’s where we meet Kym.

28:44

KYM: With me I have a… like a good Kym and a bad Kym sitting on either shoulder and they have these fights. And it goes on all day! It’s weird.

28:56

Janette

JANETTE JENSEN: What I’ve seen ice do to her brings me to tears.  Brings me to tears to see her.

29:10

Kym and Caro

KYM: This drug is addictive. Very, very addictive.  I don’t care what anyone says. And people reckon you can’t hang out for it. Oh yes you can, believe me.

29:18

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  Right now are you hanging out for it?

KYM: I’m starting to, yeah.  Starting to get a bit agitated.

29:37

Kym and Caro/ Exterior of Kym’s house

Kym’s an injector. We meet at her housing commission home, where she lives alone.

29:50

Aloysia and Kym inside house

Her eldest daughter Aloysia is also here.

ALOYSIA: Take your cuppa tea for starters.

KYM: Thank you! Thank you.

It’s 10 a.m. And Kym is getting ready for the day.

29:57

Kym in her bedroom

KYM: After a certain amount of days you start picking at your skin and it starts off like this but then it ends up like the whole side of your face peeling away.

30:08

Kym’s 55 years old. Her skin is starting to break out. She’s been using meth for three days straight. She’s trying to put her earrings on.

30:21

KYM: Ah! Good on ya. It’s the worst thing getting the shakes and not being able to do anything. I don’t know what effect this is going to have on my family but I don’t care really. I’m trying to help younger people. Eh?

30:33

Kym and Aloysia

Kym wants to show us the devastating effects of long term meth use. She’s been using for six years – up to a gram a day. Kym is shaking and twitching uncontrollably. Meth targets the central nervous system.

30:59

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  Why are you putting a straw in your tea, Kym?

KYM: Because I can’t drink it without spilling it.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  You’re shaking too much?

31:17

KYM: Yeah.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  Why are you shaking so much?

KYM: It’s because of the gear. It’s because of the gear. Mmm! Much better.

31:23

Last night she was hallucinating, talking to people that weren’t there. She woke up covered in her own vomit.

31:38

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  Did that scare you?

KYM: No. I know I’ve got brain damage. If I hadn’t known I had brain damage it would scare me. But now I know what’s wrong – it doesn’t scare me. It’s always in the knowing, isn’t it?  

31:47

Music

32:03

Photo: Young Kym

Kym’s a recovered heroin and morphine addict and a recovered alcoholic. The longest stint she’s ever been totally clean is 18 months.

32:05

Kym shows her scarred arms

Kym shows us her arms scarred by years of self harm, track marks, and ice sores.

KYM: And that’s where I’ve been picking at myself.

32:16

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  Why are you picking at yourself?

KYM: Because I think there’s things there. Like pimples or blackheads or something.

32:28

Kym

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  Is there?

KYM: No. No, there’s not. It’s just what speed and methamphetamine do to you. Yeah, like talking to people that aren’t there. When you’re coming off, you know.

32:35

Kym texting messages/ Aloysia off camera

As the afternoon wears on, Kym gets more and more agitated.

KYM: No one tells me what to fucking do.

ALOYSIA: No, I’ll give you a little bit. You’ll most probably waste it.

KYM: I’m not gonna!

32:51

Kym leaves house/ Aloysia sitting in lounge room

She texts her dealer who responds almost immediately.

33:03

KYM: Fuck! Two seconds! Two seconds! Oh! All right, I’ll be back in a minute. See yez.

ALOYSIA: See you Mama.

33:08

Kym won’t let us meet her dealer. She returns minutes later.

33:29

Kym re-enters house

KYM: Because I owed heaps of money. And I said “Oh! Aren’t I a good girl? I cleared my debt on Wednesday!” He said, “You fuckin idiot, today’s Wednesday!” (laughter) Oh no, I’m losing my mind!

33:35

Kym in kitchen/ Aloysia prepares drugs

Kym’s shaking too much to mix it for herself.

KYM: Aloysia?

She asks her daughter to do it for her.

33:55

Today it looks like she’s scored meth – a cut down version of ice.

KYM: Oh jeez smells like petrol.

34:07

Kym injecting drugs

She puts her glasses on and inserts the needle in her arm.

KYM: Fuckin’ hell! Grr!

34:21

She can’t find a vein, so Kym tries her hand.

34:40

KYM: Ah!! Stings a bit. Phew… fuckin’ hell.

34:59

KYM: I can taste it. Yeah I’m… yeah. Weird. Phew. Just give me a minute.

35:12

KYM: My hearing’s gone like… loud. I can hear…yeah. Everything’s loud.

35:34

Kym cleaning television

Kym will now spend the rest of the day at home. A calmness has come over her. She’s also stopped shaking.

35:47

Kym in front of portrait photo

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  How long ago was that photo taken of you there?

KYM: Right. I’ve forgotten. Sixteen?  17, 18, 19 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 – nine years ago.

35:56

Meth makes the time go quickly. It also speeds up the ageing process.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  Do you still have all your teeth?

KYM: No. They’re my teeth, the ugly-looking ones. They’re false.

36:09

Kym shows Caro her teeth

High on meth, Kym used to picked at her teeth and gums with a pin. Infected, they all had to be removed.

36:22

Kym

KYM: Ice does this. Well yes, ice does this. Sometimes it doesn’t give you the get up and go in your body, but it gives you the get up and go in your brain. So you’ll sit there because you don’t feel energetic but your brain is going round, round, round, round, round. So you do all this weird shit like pick your teeth, pick your face. Pick holes in your arms, you know.

36:31

Music

36:55

Photos. Kym and children

Kym has had four daughters to four different men, and drug abuse has been passed down to some in the next generation.

36:57

Aloysia

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  Have you ever used   with your mum?

ALOYSIA: Yeah I have. Yep, I have. At least it’s not some random off the street.

37:05

KYM: That’s what I’ve always told her.  At least you’re safe with me.

ALOYSIA: Exactly. And I know if anything happens to me she’s there, and vice-a versa.

37:18

Aloysia and Kym

Kym’s eldest daughter Aloysia is 37 years old. Mother to three sons, she says she’s stopped using. She’s 13 weeks pregnant. But drugs are all around her. Her ex-partner and her son have repeatedly torn through her house in meth rages.

37:26

Aloysia shows Caro damaged walls

ALOYSIA: This is my hallway of destruction.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Okay.

ALOYSIA: That one and that one, my ex-partner coming down off Ritalin. My son, who I think was on ice. That. That in one kick.

37:44

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  It’s gone right through the wall into your room.

ALOYSIA: Yep.

37:56

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  It’s a lot of violence and chaos to live in.

ALOYSIA: It is. It’s awful. Yep.

38:00

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  But, what… do you find that a lot of people in your world, in your life, in this town are using ice and speed and…?

ALOYSIA: Yeah it’s everywhere you go. Everywhere. Everywhere. It’s crazy.

38:07

Kym and Caro

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  So Kym we’re looking at three generations?

KYM: Mmm. Sad, isn’t it?

38:20

It’s something Kym is deeply ashamed of, but she’s suffered herself – both sexual and physical abuse since childhood.

38:27

KYM: I don’t like myself very much. I haven’t been a very good role model for my kids. It seems like everything I touch, I muck up. But I’m going to beat this thing if it kills me.

38:36

Kym

Kym reads us a text message from one of her daughters.  She wants Kym to go back to rehab and get clean for good.

KYM (reads): I really do understand and it’s scary and it’s hard to ask for help again. As I said, I’m not judging you. My love for you will never waver.

39:09

Aloysia/ Kym

Kym’s body has begun to break down. If she doesn’t stop using, she won’t live to see her beloved grandchildren grow up. And she has a message for young people.

39:37

Kym

KYM: I would say get help now before it gets its hooks into you. Otherwise you are damned. You will end up with nothing. And you will end up lonely, and you will end up with brain damage.

39:49

Burnie, Tasmania

But getting help in regional Australia is easier said than done. There’s a desperate lack of treatment facilities. It’s a disaster waiting to happen. And there’s no time to lose.

40:09

Darren and Caro.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  If the treatment of ice in young people is… if nothing is done, if it remains the same as it is now, what do you foresee in five years?  Tell us the ugly, real truth.

40:23

Cutts. Super
DARREN CUTTS
Withdrawal nurse, Tabor House

DARREN CUTTS: We’re going to talk about just utter devastation of small rural communities where we’re going to have a lot of mental health issues, a lot of criminal activity etcetera, etcetera. It’s going to be a nightmare.

40:35

Hospital emergency department/ Exterior of hospital

PROFESSOR GORDIAN FULDE: Come through. Just on the chairs here, have a seat there for a minute.

40:48

This is what governments can expect if nothing is done to stop the ice scourge.

40:53

PROFESSOR GORDIAN FULDE: You’ve got all these injection marks right. You’re in bad way buddy, I think you’re really sick from infection.

MAN: (inaudible).

It’s 11:30 p.m. in Darlinghurst, Sydney, Australia’s original ice city.

40:58

Lunar eclipse/ St Vincent’s Hospital/ emergency department

The night of the lunar eclipse. Inside the emergency department at St Vincent’s Hospital, Professor Gordian Fulde is tending to a 35-year-old man in acute distress. He’s an ‘end of the road’ ice addict.

41:14

PROFESSOR GORDIAN FULDE: You got the itches, the bugs? Got the bugs? Show me your tongue buddy. It’s a bit dry. No wonder you want some water.

MAN: (inaudible).

PROFESSOR GORDIAN FULDE: We’re looking after you. I’m the boss here, we’re going to look after you.

41:29

Addict and Professor Fulde

We can’t show you the man’s face. He’s covered in sores, his body is septic. His brain is permanently damaged and he’s losing control of his muscle movements. He’s close to death.

41:41

PROFESSOR GORDIAN FULDE: How long you been in trouble with the ice?

MAN (subtitled): Well I started off with speed years ago when I was like, about, I don’t know, 15 or something.

41:54

PROFESSOR GORDIAN FULDE: Yeah. All right. Okay. Just a minute, I’ll put the bed up a little bit for you.

MAN: Thanks.

42:07

PROFESSOR GORDIAN FULDE: There you go, that’ll make you more comfortable. All right, I’ll get you a drink.

42:14

He was a 15-year-old boy when he began using – when he began to leave this world. Twenty years on, it’s likely he’ll never be coming back.

42:20

Fulde. Super
PROF. GORDIAN FULDE
Director, Emergency Dept. of St Vincent’s Hospital

PROFESSOR GORDIAN FULDE: It is such a tragic event. And I reckon he’s a nice guy. Under that he’s not nasty, he’s not horrible, it’s just…

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA:  He’s not violent?

PROFESSOR GORDIAN FULDE: No. He’s not what you – if it was a dark room you’d say well this was an average nice guy. But he’s fallen prey to the demons.

42:32

Lunar eclipse

Music

42:51

Outpoint

43:01