Impacts-of-methamphetamine-in-Victoria-Community-Assessment-Penington-Institute

provision of wrap around services being in place to support individuals and families is particularlyimportant.It is apparent that strategies for communities to better understand this, particularly those in ruralareas, need to be evidence based, but be operationalised locally in a real and meaningful sense. Thisalso applies to the need for local-led formal responses, such as counselling and treatment andnecessary inter-agency referrals..It is essential that communities have access to evidence-based information that encompasses thespectrum of methamphetamine-related harm from occasional use to problematic use. Workers whospoke about the needs of families noted that a range of supports were required to assist them to helptheir loved one, as well as supporting them in making decisions, such as involvement of childprotection.Collaboration was essential for effectively responding, in a timely fashion, to client and families’needs. This is especially true when a drug use is outside of an agency’s core business, reinforcing theneed for local level task-forces that consider alcohol and drug use more broadly and have flexibility tofocus on a matter such as methamphetamine as early as possible.The Waste Water Analysis showed that prevalence of methamphetamine use in the regional and ruralareas sampled was lower, on a population basis, than in metropolitan Melbourne, and higher onweekends. However, methamphetamine was certainly present in regional and rural areas. This findinghighlights the possibility that effects of problematic methamphetamine use may be more visible andfelt upon regional and rural communities than in Melbourne. Again, this is most likely anotherqualitative difference between a methamphetamine ‘problem’ than the more customary opioidmisuse.WWA has the potential to be used across Victoria to monitor and show changes in licit and illicit druguse over time. For this to be most effective sampling would need to occur more frequently andpotentially across more sites.This assessment presents an important question concerning methamphetamine. Is the apparentincreased availability, and attractiveness to many people, just a drug market trend, or is it morestructural and perhaps longer term? If it is to be longer term, and there is a possibility it may be, thenfundamental structural changes to response systems predominantly geared for alcohol, cannabis andopiates need to be made.64