Tackling Crystal Methamphetamine Supply in Rural and Regional Australia

This ARC DP will tackle one of the leading drug policy and organised crime issues in Australia: namely the supply and distribution of crystal methamphetamine (ice) in regional and rural Australia. Following a decade of unmatched growth in the availability, purity and consumption of ice and associated public health, social and economic harms this project will provide the first comprehensive analysis of ice supply to and within rural and regional Australia. It will bring together a comparative longitudinal design crossing three states and six rural and regional communities (Port Pirie SA, Murray Bridge SA, Broken Hill NSW, Dubbo NSW, Mildura Vic and Horsham Vic) as well as an optimal combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques to examine and compare how and why ice supply has gained a foothold in such communities, to capture the impacts on regional communities (e.g. social, health, economic) and to identify new ways of tackling supply and associated harm. With ice use and supply costing the Australian government $5 billion per year, the project stands to provide significant social, health and economic benefits.