Contrasting faces of ice epidemic
IT was on the face of it a pleasantly simple portrait of a middle-aged dad enjoying some quiet time kicking the footy with his kids in the park.
When you look at the photograph again you can see that the father in question was none other than fallen AFL star Ben Cousins, the West Coast Eagles premiership player and Brownlow medallist, who has the unfortunate honour of being Australia’s bestknown victim of crystal meth.
Cousins and his ex-wife and children were photographed and featured this week on the online pages of Australia’s loosest news website, The Daily Mail, playing with a footy in a Perth park near his parents’ home. The article was billed as an interview, but was really anything but that. The only new quotes from Cuz sounded more like a polite “p***-off” to the paparazzi photographer who was stalking the former football star as he tries to piece his life back together and enjoy some normal time with his family. “I’m good, mate, really good,” Cousins said.
“I’m just enjoying a nice day with my kids.”
The remainder of the article was rounded out in typical Daily Mail style, repurposing quotes from previous interviews conducted by more credible news sources.
I am not sure what kind of help Ben Cousins needs to turn his life around and shake the scourge of addiction for good. I am pretty sure it doesn’t come in the form of being hounded by photographers while he relaxes with his family.
Privacy would seem an important part of cure for the bloke, who has suffered more, and inflicted more suffering on his loved ones, than any normal person could bear.
There is a compelling but flint-hearted view that addicts have only got themselves to blame for the predicament they are in.
Without wanting to absolve people of the need to take responsibility for their own actions, when it comes to crystal meth, this is the one drug that can actually grab hold of you in an instant and send your life completely off the rails.
As a kid I can remember the admonitions from my parents as a teenager about the dangers of drugs such as cannabis. It is as if all parents get handed the same script for that speech – I will undoubtedly use it myself soon enough with my teenagers – in warning that it only takes one toke to get you hooked. With crystal meth, that cliched old warning actually appears to be true.
Ben Cousins is a household name but Thomas Aldcroft is not. He is also a meth addict. Aldcroft, 39, hails from the northern Adelaide suburb of Modbury, and appeared in the Adelaide District Court this week where he pleaded guilty to two aggravated counts of theft using force, one aggravated count of assault causing harm and one count of dishonestly taking property.
To feed his drug habit, Aldcroft robbed three people. They were all in their 70s and 80s, one of them a lady with Parkinson’s disease, whom he attacked as she was parking her car in a disabled space at a local shopping centre.
The woman gave evidence in court this week through her victim impact statement about the effect of Aldcroft’s crimes.
“I felt defenceless and vulnerable, and leant on the car horn constantly to try to get attention and assistance… a security guard came to my aid,” the lady said.
“I was parked in a disabled space, and I feel fearful parking there now because I don’t want to be targeted because of my disability.”
Another of Aldcroft’s victims was an 82-year-old man.
The pitiable Aldcroft was so addled by his meth use that he made a total hash of his attempt to rob the guy.
The old bloke was sitting in his car when Aldcroft bailed him up at the driver’s door and demanded his wallet. The man told him to go away, at which point Aldcroft lunged through the door, grabbed the car keys and bizarrely ran away, succeeding in stealing neither the car, nor the wallet, but a completely useless set of keys.
They were the same keys that the cops found at Aldcroft’s house, and the basis on