SA-BEST leader Nick Xenophon has called for bipartisan support to slash the level of ice use in South Australia by half within two years.
A report released late last year by the National Wastewater Drug Monitoring program revealed South Australia reported some of the highest ice consumption levels nationally.
Across the nine sites monitored in South Australia in August 2017, which included four Adelaide sites and five regional sites, findings showed average ice use increased in both capital and regional sites.
Mr Xenophon said a cross-party approach was needed to address the state’s escalating methamphetamine issue.
“With SA having one of the highest rates of ice use in the world, and with all the chaos and crime it brings with it, we must go out and tackle this scourge in our community,” he said.
“Mandatory rehabilitation has to be part of a suite of measures to attack this head on.
“What Labor and the Liberals are proposing is half-way houses.
“It cannot be 14 days or just for children, it needs to cover all ages and they need to be up to six months in a well-resourced rehabilitation facility, as is done in Sweden where their levels of ice use are dramatically lower.
“It must involve intensive support once people are out of the facility and into the community and back with their families.”
Mr Xenophon was critical of “civil libertarians” opposing mandatory rehabilitation, saying victims of the ice scourge needed to be protected.
“What about the civil liberties of a mum in her car with her kids driving through a green light only to be hit by an ice addict going through a red light?” he asked.
“It is an all-too-common occurrence of people minding their own business on the street, in a hotel or nightclub being assaulted by someone on ice.
“They have rights too.”
Mr Xenophon pledged to reduce the level of ice use by 50pc within two years and support provisions to strengthen laws to seize drug dealers’ assets, with funds used for rehabilitation programs.
