FORMER Riverina MP Kay Hull has called for community ice forums to be held in more local towns.
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Doubling as the Australian National Council on Drugs chair, Mrs Hull’s sentiment follows the highly successful information meeting in Gundagai last Thursday.
“I would love to see these community forums (elsewhere)," Mrs Hull said.
“(They are) exceptionally valuable to the community.
"I can’t understate it.”
Mrs Hull explained crystal methamphetamine was having unprecedented impacts on users, their families, emergency services and the broader community.
“We are confronting a different beast,” she said.
“It is the damage, the resultant damage and the impact on the community that is of greatest concern to me.
“This does not discriminate.
"This is everyone’s issue.”
Mrs Hull said a community response was needed to tackle the ice scourge at local, state and federal government levels.
“The community forum is positive because it shows the community are concerned and taking responsibility," she said.
"(The community) needs to be part of the solution.”
More than 600 people packed Gundagai High School’s hall to hear from health professionals, former users, police officers and paramedics.
Gundagai Shire Council’s community, library and information services manager Cindy Smith hoped the successful forum would be repeated in other Riverina towns.
“I think it’s something that every community should hold,” Ms Smith said.
“The only way to fight the drug is for the community to know about the drug. The feedback speaks for itself.
“People are crying out for (more information) and it has to come from the community.”
Just last week, in Wagga District Court, Judge Jennifer English said ice was hideous and one of the most destructive illegal drugs on the market.
It follows revelations that Wagga paramedics would not touch ice-affected people upon responding to an incident until police backup arrived due to safety fears.
Other towns are following suit.
In Young on Tuesday, town leaders, health and emergency services representatives held a two-hour round table forum to discuss ice in the local community and determine the best way forward in the form of suggestions from the floor.
