Senator Jacqui Lambie talks about her son’s ice addiction, urges government to help sufferers

Independent senator Jacqui Lambie has come out in public with her inability to help her son recover from ice addiction. Her 21-year–old son, who is addicted to the consumption of ice, has become uncontrollable.

"I can't involuntarily detox my own son, because I am not talking to my son anymore, I'm talking to a drug,” she said. As she noted, there are thousands of other parents who share a similar plight.

According to the ABC, the senate has been trying to move a legislation that is likely to strip welfare payments from people convicted of serious offence and those confined to psychiatric treatments. Lambie spoke of going against it and taking the “hard road.”

"It is very easy to take a populist position and vote for legislation that takes a hard line against people who are alleged to have committed terrible crimes and have serious mental illnesses," she said .

Lambie said she would push the government to bring in broader measures to help improve the mental health of drug addicts. She asserted that people suffering from drug addiction don't seem to have control over their actions and should fall under a special category

She argued that she would be wrong in pushing for the legislation as it reduces the chances for quicker recovery and, most importantly, infringes basic civil rights. Instead, she believed that a national legislation allowing parents to force their drug-addicted children into rehab should be articulated.

Seeing the impacts of ice on her son, she said it was highly “phenomenal,” warning addicts would end up one of three ways: They might end up on slab, put in a mental institution or might even go to the extent of killing someone else as they fail to control their actions.

Liberal senator Chris Back praised the senator for sharing her personal story and said that none of the Australian communities are free from drug consumption. However, he favoured the government’s legislation as he believed that extending benefits to those already taken care of by the state was unnecessary.

"The only difference in this circumstance is that the people about whom we speak have been determined to not be able to stand trial," he said.

According to the Illicit Drug Data Report published by the Australian Crime Commission (ACC), 26,269 amphetamine users were arrested by the police in 2013-14, which is believed to have doubled up since past five years. Crime authorities said the extensive use of ice, which is a slang for amphetamine, has the possibility of creating havoc in the country and nothing was more destructive than crystal methylamphetamine, or ice.

ACC chief executive Chris Dawson said ice, which is a stimulant drug, is generally stronger, more addictive and has more harmful side effects which could ruin lives of families and communities. "In my 38 years in law enforcement, I have never seen a substance as destructive as crystal methylamphetamine," he said.

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