Five years ago, Chris Smith's life was controlled by ice.
"From the minute I got out of bed in the morning, I was on it straight away."
The 23 year old was living in the Victorian town of Shepparton - far away from any drug rehabilitation facilities.
He says he got addicted to the drug very quickly, leading his life to spiral out of control.
"After the first time I took it it literally took me a week until I was going 'where can I get some more of that? Because that was pretty awesome. I wanna have another go at it.' It is very hard to resist. It's the hardest thing to resist that I have ever had."
Shepparton Magistrate, Stella Stuthridge says Chris' story is one familiar to rural communities across Victoria.
Magistrate Stuthridge says she's seen children as young as 11 appearing before court addicted to ice.
"In Victoria, across the state, all regions I think are experiencing a dramatic increase in the amount of people who are coming before court for drug related offences. "
She warns the number of people addicted to the drug could increase in regional towns.
"The growth of methamphetamine us in Victoria has not stopped. It's a drug that quite honestly you can't experiment with, it has a very high uptake of immediate addiction because it is so powerful and so I don't think we've reached a peak in Victoria at all. I think that's still to come," she said.
A recent state parliamentary inquiry into the drug called for more rehabilitation beds in regional areas.
Ms Stuthridge says the lack of these facilities exacerbates the problem.
"The most frustrating thing in terms of my day to day work is that we cannot access good quality detoxification facilities quickly in the country, it is just not possible. "
The wake up call for Chris Smith to quit the drug came accidentally - when he broke his neck.
"That's the sad part about it - I nearly had to kill myself to realise what an issue I had and if it wasn't for that then I wouldn't have had that compulsory rehab period through hospital," he said.
He's since begun a new life, moving away from Shepparton and taking up an environmental science course at university.
"My life's changed dramatically. If I didn't stop doing it, I couldn't imagine what could have happened, but since then it has been positives most of the time you know."
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