Mum’s plea to fight our ice scourge
“HELP!”
Chinchilla mother Debbie Green speaks for thousands of desperate Queenslanders as she pleads with authorities to throw everything they can at fighting the ice scourge.
“We’re all looking to (the authorities) and saying help because that is what it comes down to,” she said.
“Do we have to stand before you or fall on our knees crying before you see the pain?
“This affects the children because they are children of addicts, it affects parents of the addicts, brothers and sisters, the whole family.”
Mrs Green knew virtually nothing about crystal methamphetamine four years ago. Then her daughter, who she asked to remain anonymous, collapsed in the shower.
“She was carted off to hospital and that’s when I found out she was using ice,” she said.
Her daughter was deep into her ice addiction, having been on the drug for three years. The addiction stripped her of nearly everything.
A marriage to a non-ice user broke down and she lost custody of five children. A second marriage to an ice user was violent. She was bashed in public. She had twins with the new partner. Authorities placed them in the care of Mrs Green when they were four months old.
Mrs Green’s unwanted ice expertise is now in demand in Chinchilla where she gets asked for advice. She wants to help. But she has no answers. That is why she is pleading with the government for help.
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Do we have to stand before you or fall on our knees crying before you see the pain?
— Debbie Green