Regional Australia is being hit harder by the growing use of crystal methamphetamine or ice, a member of a national taskforce says.
Senior emergency physician at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney Sally McCarthy says ice is having a disproportionate impact on regional centres where the connectedness of local communities allows its use to spread more rapidly.
"Having said that, the connectedness is a definite strength because communities can get together readily to reverse the uptake and to fight the negative consequences," she said.
The taskforce conducted its first community consultation in Mt Gambier on Thursday after it was set up by the federal government last month to tackle what Prime Minister Tony Abbott described as the "growing scourge" of ice addiction.
It will deliver an interim report to the government in June that will form the basis of a national strategy to tackle the problem.
Dr McCarthy said ice had become increasingly available, both because of growing imports and local production, and was the drug of choice for many because of that availability.
The price in Australia is expensive compared with other markets but still falls well within the scope of individuals to buy, she says.
Karen Judd, from a parent support group in Mt Gambier and who lost a son to a drug overdose in 2010, said his drug addiction changed him from a loving, gentle person to "the devil who walked in the door".
He became violent and abusive and a shadow of his former self, she said.
Ms Judd said the impact of ice addiction was not to be underestimated.
"This drug has the power to take away the love that the addicts have for their own family," she said.
"Some of them would sell their own mother if they could, just to obtain what they need."
