A comment from one of our readers – a recently retired doctor.
This version may be a bit easier to read.
As a Medical Student I didn’t have a single lecture or tutorial on Addiction. In 1961/62 as a junior Resident Medical Officer at xxxx hospital I saw no cases of Drug Addiction but did see a few Alcohol intoxicated people in Casualty. I went into Family General Practice in a Working Class District in 1963 and saw a few cases of prescription medicine anD Alcohol abuse. In 1983 I moved into a Middle Class University District and had no cases of addiction in my practice.
By 1985 problems with “Speed” were being reported in some poorer districts and in the 1990’s a Heroin epidemic developed. In 1997 I started working 10 hours a week in an Addiction Clinic then opened my opened my own Addiction Clinic in xxxx in 2001 and treated 736 new cases of addiction in 2002, mostly Heroin. Now you can rarely read the paper, listen to the radio, or watch TV or meet a group of friends without encountering the problem of Crystal Methamphetamine and Related Crime Accidents Violence and Deaths.
When I consider how much the Addiction industry has grown in Australia in the last 30 years and how rapidly it now seems to be accelerating I get very concerned. Within 10 years why won’t 100’s of 1000’s of Australian be a the mercy of almost unstoppable Psychopath Methamphetamine Billionaires a few hours flight away? Why won’t our Mental Hospitals, Prisons and Morgues be full of Meth users?