Australian Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione wrote for Australia’s Daily Telegraph on March 31: “[I]f we don’t adequately address this problem, it’s not an overstatement to say that it could bring us to our knees as a nation.” He was referring to the nation’s latest addiction: crystal methamphetamine—also known as “ice.” The drug is ravaging Australian society, and Scipione knows it is beyond his ability to defeat.

Reports estimate that methamphetamine has been used by 1.3 million Australians—more than one out of every 20 people; 400,000 people have used the drug in the last 12 months. Usage more than doubled between 2010 and 2013, replacing its close cousin “speed”—powder methamphetamine—as the preferred drug. In the same time period, Australia had a higher ice usage than the United States and United Kingdom.

The new-found popularity among drug users has caught the attention of dealers worldwide. From the cartels in Mexico to the dens in the Middle East, dealers and producers are peddling ice to Australians. Reports indicate that more than 60 percent of Australia’s major crime figures now deal in ice. With prices among the highest in the world, Australia is a lucrative industry for those looking to sell crystal meth.

The police are doing all they can to stop the drug from reaching the streets and ripping lives apart, but there is no end in sight. One captured shipment in November 2014 had a street value of more than $1.5 billion. That was a tenth of the estimated $15 billion criminal economy in Australia. Yet the numbers of users and incidents is steadily rising.

Ice is now considered “the most dangerous and highest risk to our nation” according to Australian Crime Commission Chief Executive Chris Dawson. But not only because it funds the gangs. As Minister for Justice Michael Keenan said, “Our nation’s addiction to this mind-eating, personality-distorting, life-ending drug” is crippling the social fabric of communities. “In recent years, we’ve seen the creep of ice use stretch across the nation, with individuals from all levels of society succumbing to its depravity,” Keenan added.

According to Scipione, the problem has reached epidemic proportions. “[T]he effects of the methamphetamine set off a dangerous combination of euphoria, confidence, energy and strength, coupled with anxiety, paranoia and severe panic attacks,” Scipione said. “The end result is that users, including slightly built men and women, can become incredibly formidable for even the biggest and most experienced of my officers to deal with.”

Ice deals a dire combination—near superhuman strength combined with a mind susceptible to sudden swings of paranoia and aggression. The bloody results are routinely making their way into the news. Fueled by “ice psychosis,” the user has paranoid delusions, hallucinations and sudden bouts of aggression.

Torture, murder and dismemberment are all common occurrences in ice-related violence. Most often it isn’t the user that suffers the most horrific kickbacks, but those that come into contact with the addict.

But of course, ice also destroys the life of the user too. While the drug may give sudden strength, it removes hunger, eventually leaving addicts thin and emaciated. It also brings on heart and kidney problems, aches and pains, and dramatically increases the risk of stroke or heart attack.

And producers are finding more chemically effective ways of turning people into addicts—from just one hit.

Law enforcement can’t tackle the problem, as the police commissioner and others are now willing to admit it. They also acknowledge that if the problem is to be dealt with, it must begin at the building block of society—the family. Discussing the problem “must go right across our nation, across education, across industry, and in particular, across our kitchen tables from parents to children,” Dawson said.

Scipione continues, “This monster could steal everything we as Australians cherish so very much, and it could be taken from right under our noses.”

Must the monsters always have the upper hand?

The answer is a definite no! We can experience happiness and joy in abundance—without drugs! God wants us to be happy. He outlines a way of life that will bring it to you! Read our reprint article “This Is the Life! Real Abundant Living.” It will explain how you can fill voids with real, lasting happiness. Remember, Christ stated in John 10:10 that He came for a purpose: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”