Last week the New South Wales Labor opposition announced its plans to combat ice addiction in the state if elected to government – but the measures proposed by Labor leader Luke Foley have left drug rehabilitation specialists bewildered.
The NSW opposition leader proposed mandatory detox and rehab for ice addicts of all ages during his Budget reply speech on Thursday. Six clinics with capacity for 150 beds in total would be opened across the state to help with the service, with with patients being referred by police and health professionals.
The state government currently offers 24-hour counselling and funds six stimulant treatment clinics across the state. In 2015, the government committed $4 million over four years for non-government treatment services to tackle ice use.
But it's the use of the term "mandatory" that has left some addiction specialists, including the Noffs Foundation's Matt Noffs, scratching their heads.
Noffs told BuzzFeed News he spoke with Foley on Friday and believed there was confusion over the word.
"The words that I believe the opposition leader is looking for are 'diversion' and 'coercive'," he said.
Noffs says mandatory treatment, especially for young people, just doesn't work. "Millions have been wasted in the punitive boot camp exercises and the evidence just doesn't cut it."
Instead, the Noffs Foundation CEO recommends a coercive method that gives young people a choice between detention or treatment. It is a system already in place in NSW. Drug courts in the state, which Noffs said were brilliant but underfunded, would also need expansion.
"The money and lives saved would be countless," he said. "The state would be singing his praises."
Despite the Friday phone call, a spokesperson for Foley told BuzzFeed News there has been no change in the member for Auburn's position.
"Just like Matt, he too wants to divert young ice addicts away from the criminal justice system towards rehabilitation and treatment," said the spokesperson.
"This is a health-based therapeutic approach and not a punitive response to ice addiction."
A NSW Labor government would also aim to hold a drug summit next year, modelled on Bob Carr's historic 1999 summit, that would bring experts, police, politicians, former addicts, and family members together for discussion.
Noffs applauded Foley's decision to potentially host another summit, but said it was wrong to do so while also calling for "uninformed, opinion-based policy".
"I'm hoping this just needs wordsmith-ing as opposed to outright campaigning," Noffs told BuzzFeed News. "The latter will simply be a waste of everyone’s time leading us to conclusions found by science decades ago."
The next NSW state election will be held in March 2019.