Parents crave ice over alcohol
AN “ice corridor” has surfaced on the Gold Coast as more parents of young children prefer the killer drug to alcohol.
In a disturbing trend, the majority of parents addicted to the drug are known to the child protection system and have much younger children.
A tougher system of drug testing also shows those parents are using ice more frequently than alcohol.
The latest Child Safety Performance data reveals 142 children on the Coast needing protection in 2016 had a parent using the dangerous drug.
In the Coast region, Nerang had the highest number of children on the department’s books (34), followed by Beenleigh (33), Labrador (20) and Mermaid Beach (7). By comparison, Logan had 13 cases, Brisbane’s Bayside 12 and 17 were recorded at Browns Plains.
“Queensland parents known to the child protection system are using ice more frequently than they are drinking alcohol,” Child Safety Minister Shannon Fentiman said.
“Alarmingly, 60 per cent of children whose parents were using ice were aged under five.
“That’s why we introduced tough new mandatory drug testing for parents ... and I make no apologies for being tough on parents who are doing the wrong thing.”
Mothers Against Drugs founder June Hintz said the figures back up what counsellors are seeing on the front line.
A report in the Bulletin in February revealed drug overdoses had climbed by 66 in the past 12 months and drug intoxication cases by 100.
Ms Hintz said a new drugcounselling service which had opened in Beenleigh was taking clients from Pimpama and Nerang. “That’s how swamped they are around Nerang. You are looking at an area (for ice users) from Eagelby to Mudgeeraba,” she said.
“I’m really concerned for Child Safety officers and police. They must be exhausted from the demand.”
Ms Hintz said her volunteers had noticed a spike in calls for clothing and toiletries from the families of ice users receiving hospital treatment.
“The kids come in there with nothing. They are so neglected. Real estate agents handing over paper work to people living in public housing say they are finding 10-year-olds looking after hordes of little kids. There’s no adult there.”
The latest quarterly child safety data for the South East Queensland region shows the number of calls to the Department of Child Safety increased from 19,620 to 20,033.
“The number of notifications increased from 3856 to 3964 and we are seeing 91.0 per cent of our most urgent cases within 24 hours,” Ms Fentiman said.
The number of children in need of protection has decreased from 562 to 551.