It?s cheap, highly addictive and ultra-powerful. "Ice", or crystal
methamphetamine, is now more popular than heroin, playing havoc with
the minds and the bodies of nearly 50,000 Australians.
Ice is filling emergency wards with psychotic, dangerous patients, to
the alarm of doctors who thought they?d seen everything. "They?re the
most out of control, violent human beings I have ever seen in my life -
and I?ve been around for a long time," says one. "It makes heroin seem
like the really good old days."
Four Corners goes to the heart of this destructive new epidemic. Reporter
Matthew Carney takes his camera into a netherworld inhabited by hardcore
ice addicts ? or skaters as they call themselves ? who live for
their next hit.
This tribe of junkies roams the inner city, scoring and shooting up. They
stay manically high for up to a week, without food or sleep. Finally,
they crash and eat, before the welfare cheque arrives and the cycle
starts all over again.