Eye on the world: Healing a drug epidemic

In “Ravaged by meth, Australia’s rural ‘ice towns’ get creative in fighting backThe Christian Science Monitor reports on how Australia is finding new ways to address the drug epidemic that is gripping communities across the country. Australians are among the world’s biggest consumers of crystal methamphetamine—a drug that is very expensive and highly addictive. Communities in rural areas are hit especially hard because of their remote status. “One study last year found that more than twice as many ice users lived in rural areas as cities. Far from the teeming coastal metropolises, jobs are often hard to find, leading to the boredom and despair that can feed initial interest in the drug.” In these hard-hit “regional communities with limited government support to draw on, townspeople are largely relying on themselves.” One small rural community, Wangratta, has shown signs of success in rehabilitating its town after investing in educating the community members and having an open dialogue in order to expel the stigma surrounding drug abuse.

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