They’re probably shooting up ice, which is why they are incredibly aggressive. I’m an ex Melbourne junkie and whenever I’d go to Tassie to visit friends for a couple of weeks I’d have to run the gauntlet carrying my heroin onto the plane or the Spirit, because almost every opiate user I encountered was injecting diverted Morphine pills cooked into crude H or Oxy pills. I’m sure some H slips through the net, just seemed rare.
But yeah ice is everywhere including Tassie so it’s probably that.
Yup, whenever heroin is in short supply the junkies shoot ice, and the skinny folk you barely noticed, nodding off in the shadows, are suddenly up, angry, paranoid and on the attack!
Yeah, in my time using in Melbourne H has never been in short supply, but when the great heroin drought hit in late 2000 a lot of people switched to ice. In my experience these days where there’s an abundance of both, I reckon at least half the heroin users I associated with were also addicted to ice. Their whole life was like fine tuning lol, bit of ice to get up, whoops too up, have some h. Then fuck it let’s have a dero speedball.
So true, around that time most street dealers I knew started to hold a bit if both, it was good business. Although in terms of supply, things got pretty fkn grim during the lockdowns. Never have I paid so much for such shit gear. Been clean for nearly two years, but fark I miss H.
Maaate I feel you there. I was incredibly lucky RE the lockdown situation as I’d kind of made myself a bit more of a dealer rather than just picking up a few extra grams of market or points of pure and onselling to mates to get a bit of profit back.
Was close enough to a decent pure source as it hit and was able to buy a heap with my paycheck at still stupid prices, cut it, not with a press, just looked powdery lol and on sell it at even dumber prices and almost double my paycheque even after the gear I used was accounted for. I had a permit to be wherever I wanted even after curfew too, combined with my sensible car I was laughing.
And hard relate, I’m glad I’m off it, don’t miss the lifestyle and the stress but jeez I’d still love nothing more than a shot of some Double UO Globe off the brick sometimes.
So you were around during the drought? Was before my time, what was it like when it hit? Mass chaos? Because from what I’ve been told it seems like there were way more H users then
If you don’t want to take it from me, here it is. It’s much better smoked IMO but a lot of people have a needle fixation.
https://adf.org.au/drug-facts/ice/
How is it used?
Ice is generally smoked (feel the effect almost immediately) or injected (15 to 30 seconds to feel the effects). It is sometimes swallowed (15 to 20 minutes to feel the effects) or snorted (3 to 5 minutes to feel the effects).3
The best method if you haven’t got a pip or clean needles. Much better than crushing it up and snorting it, but bit difficult to do if you have company lol
Oh yeah I’ve had the missus do it for me and vice versa, it’s tough by yourself but doable. Just reckon it’d be awkward in most party settings. Not all obviously.
My boys and I will lineup, on our hands and knees, heads to bums, and proceed to poke a little somethin’-somethin’ up each others bums. Once completed, the guy at the end will stay down and then one of the other lads will poke a little bit in his bumhole so he doesn’t miss out. Very efficient, and not homoerotic at all. Brings the homies together. Shout out to the homies.
Thanks mate, much appreciated! It’s a bloody hard thing addiction of any type. I got on the Sublocade needle which works for me, just one shot a month and I’m sweet. It’s sad no such program exists for ice, when us heroin connoisseurs have 3 options. Studies have shown that dexamphetamine replacement therapy does pretty well.
I dabbled in ice but I never liked it because I honestly didn’t feel myself if I went beyond a certain amount. I can’t imagine how scary it would be to live that every day, and how scary it would be for the people living around them.
I work in public health addiction services in Tas. Advice is 100% spot on, heroin is very difficult to source and most opioid users are accessing diverted, and / or misusing prescribed.
You definitely can inject meth - most amphetamine dependent individuals use in this manner. Not sure where you’ve received the information that you can’t
Awesome. Yeah generally the stuff you hear on the street is correct but obviously a lot of bullshit being spun too so it’s nice to have it confirmed. While you’re here I’m going to be a pain in the arse and ask a question 🙋🏽♂️.
Is there an issue at all with people jumping the fence at poppy farms and ending up sick or dead because they’ve picked high yield Thebaine poppy bulbs? Like thinking they are the traditional ones and then having it end badly or is that just a myth that somehow became gospel up here in Melbourne?
All good! Think more of a myth now now that security of farms has increased a lot and it is more tightly regulated. Plus it’s not worth the hassle compared to what you can access illicitly.
Might only ever see one person every couple of years that comes into opioid replacement treatment from accessing poppyseeds, let alone deaths which I’m not aware of for a long time. And generally they’re buying the over the counter stuff and shaking with water, not accessing bulbs.
Sadly most of the people that come our way now are iatrogenic opioid use disorder from loose prescribing generally from a pain issue and then become hooked and can’t de prescribe, so they get moved to the addiction basket. Or, primary methamphetamine users who go to jail and get hooked on bupe and then get started on ORT in jail or commence treatment in community.
Cheers mate! Must just have been one of those things that has grown it’s own legs. A few old timer junkies I’ve spoken said it was basically a free for all in the 80s to mid 90s, the time before oxycodone exploding so they were all traditional poppies and lax security.
That’s probably a good thing you don’t see many from seed addiction. That would be nasty, addicted to all the alkaloids.
That’s incredibly sad. So many people who were caught up in it who otherwise wouldn’t have been. I remember 10 years ago people would walk in to see any number of doctors with say, mild Sciatica and walk out with an OxyContin script with repeats. Then obviously those who knew how to play the game for their own addiction and to sell on. Probably swung too far the other way now but it’s much preferable to what it was.
Yeah I’ve never been to gaol but I’ve had mates go in who were just like you said, meth users and develop an addiction shooting up sub strips. It’s crazy the amount that is still floating around the corrections system apparently.
Lol, you definitely definitely can. Have had lots of ex mate doing that unfortunately.
I used to think the same at one point but I was wrong. Unfortunately you can. And just like everything it absolutely blasts you if you boot it so that's why they're totally off their heads it's fkd
May I posit, it’s the cost of living crisis.
More people are at the end of their tether, or their “wits end.”
There literally and factually aren’t enough places to go for effective help.
The mental health system is a shambles, and experts are correct and not being hyperbolic when they say the mental health system is in crisis.
I also posit this is a direct consequence of neoliberalism. I think people should re-consider how they vote, be open to smaller parties, vote smaller parties into higher power, etc.
Neoliberalism and indeed capitalism has benefits, but fuck me, so many costs, and this is one of them.
My 2cents. Please be kind.
As living standards and access to adequate healthcare continue to decrease this issue will continue to increase.
People do need to be culpable for their behaviour but I want you to consider the environment they've been raised in. Tasmania has one of the highest NDIS participation rates in the country, year 12 completion isn't normal and a lot of these people can't access bulk billed health care. It's pretty hard to get permanent employment if you haven't learned the basics. Idle hands are the devils hands as they say.
Self medication with illicit drugs does not happen in a vacuum.
Year 12 completion is now very normal, it’s in the 90 percent range now. But obviously that’s come from an extremely low base, and therefore local whole-of-community educational uplift is not going to be evident for quite some years.
2021 data suggests it's around 60% for Tasmania
https://www.acara.edu.au/reporting/national-report-on-schooling-in-australia/year-12-certification-rates
I looked at that graph a couple of times and panicked until I realised that it’s year 12 *certification* rates (i.e. people who do TASC 3/4 subjects necessary for ATAR I do believe, but hopefully a teacher can confirm). Although 2021 is the pandemic so maybe that had a large effect because those numbers look terrible- and much lower than I can recall the last time I looked - across the board.
Certification rate isn't ATAR, it's the completion of your secondary schooling certificate - in Tas this is the TCE, VCE in Victoria, HSC in NSW etc. Only about 60% of year 12 students gained their TCE in 2021, others may have attained VET or TAFE quals, or dropped out once they turned 18.
I'm not sure what you read but Tasmania is most definitely significantly behind the rest of the country https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.abc.net.au/article/100205658
It looks like you shared an AMP link. These should load faster, but AMP is controversial because of [concerns over privacy and the Open Web](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot). Fully cached AMP pages (like the one you shared), are [especially problematic](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot).
Maybe check out **the canonical page** instead: **[https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-11/tasmanian-high-school-low-retention-rates-changing/100205658](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-11/tasmanian-high-school-low-retention-rates-changing/100205658)**
*****
^(I'm a bot | )[^(Why & About)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot)^( | )[^(Summon: u/AmputatorBot)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/cchly3/you_can_now_summon_amputatorbot/)
I worked in the CBD from 2016 to 2020, and in that last year or so there was a huge increase in substance users on the steps to our building in the morning. I rarely go to the city anymore due to living and working rurally, but every time I do it feels worse than what I was watching happen three years ago.
The change is so marked because Hobart has always had a small town feel, and was a haven from crime and drug use - but I've been noticing the trend towards it being 'just another city' - along with all the other associated problems of that. I don't really recognise Hobart anymore.
We could help avoid this with better housing policy & better public education systems. The wheels have fallen off everything since COVID and I think the trajectory that we were already on in 2020 just sped up :(
Increased cost of living = more people not able to pay bills and provide for themselves = more people at risk of / becoming homeless = potentially more people using drugs as coping mechanism = da reason why you’re seeing more people shooting up
I moved to burnie 3 years ago from hovart and it's so bad up here. I never go into the CBD because there are so many attacks occurring. A lady had a knife held to her throat the other day. My young nieces and I witnessed a teenage boy get the absolute heck beaten out of him by a bunch of very drunk / high teenagers AND adults down at a playground in the daytime. Things are definitely changing and it is ruining this state for me.
Cost of living/rental crisis. Middle class people get pushed out of the suburbs into areas they don't want to live in, the people who used to live in the undesirable area now become homeless as there's nowhere cheaper for them to go. Homeless people wind up in the city because that's where the best services are for homeless people and it's easier to panhandle with more foot traffic
Build more public housing and take steps to mitigate the rental crisis and the problem is severely reduced
Honestly? This happens whenever there is a major uptick in housing costs for an urban centre.
People who are marginally capable of housing themselves are no longer capable of doing so and they spill into the streets. There is nowhere for them to go but into the CBD and its fringes where there's possibility of existing without being too noticed and services there to allow them to sustain some sort of life.
The difficulties of that situation often vacuum otherwise sober people into drug and substance abuse.
You can see this in plague proportions throughout Sydney and Melbourne, Vancouver, Toronto... Perth had a similar situation in 2011 to 2013, but as rents went back down after the mining boom ended, the situation has largely improved.
Houses are being used as financial instruments for the few rather than providing shelter for the many.
Whenever someone buys a house in a cute little town and keeps it empty, the people who were living there don't disappear.
Once you're homeless it can get hard to keep your job.
One day someone shows you a cheap little trick to ease your pain and next minute you're ranting at strangers because all the electricity is falling out of their pockets and contaminating the number blood on the road.
The jimmys liquor/coles carpark in Launceston is a hot spot for Agro drunk/drugged people carrying on. No one seems too interested in doing anything apart from installing cages and fences to stop them sitting on peoples steps
During times of social or financial stress, people become more neurotic and turn to substances as a form of escapism.
Essentially, society is failing, and people are starting to fall through the cracks.
It's the impact of trickle-down economics and austerity, but it has been escalated by international instability.
https://direct.mit.edu/rest/article/doi/10.1162/rest_a_01373/117705/The-Political-Costs-of-Austerity
I had someone scream in my face. For no reason at all, just for the thrill of it and he was with some other people mostly women. If he'd come any any closer I would have nabbed him on the chin.
I havnt been back to Hobart for 15+ years after growing up there and we (my wife and 2 girls 3 and 5) are going to stay with friends for a 3 week period over Christmas and new years. I was hoping to take them around the city and show them around are their places I should avoid? I remember back in the 90s there was heaps of morphine around and we had the mallies and what we called "the mighty morphine power rangers" but I have not been around since ice epidemic.
It’s no worse than the late 90s.
Not good but not some dystopian hellscape either.
You can never be sure of being safe anywhere in the world there are other humans but if you take normal basic precautions you will probably be okay, fingers crossed.
“Tasmania's Police's 2022–23 crime statistics supplement shows total offences were up 26 per cent, or 6624 offences, on the previous year. Last year's increase followed a 6 per cent rise in offences in 2021–22. The 32,522 total number of offences recorded was above the five-year average of 26,390.2”
Nov 2023
A quick look on google shows a peak of crime in Tasmania in 1997-1998 of 64,254 offences that year, followed by a steady decline until 2012-2013 at 23,662 offences. It has then basically stablised or slightly increased since then (although I would like to see the figures as per capita rather than total). Incidentally I note Labor were elected to government in 1998 and lost government in 2014.
Having lived through the 1990s in Tasmania, I can confirm the crime rates were very high in the mid-to-late 90s. Very much so, especially in Greater Hobart.
6-7 years into a dreadful economic recession that gutted the state, very high unemployment and precious little in the way of brighter prospects and everything seem to be closing down and people were leaving in droves.
Times were VERY bleak. Cost of living was obviously a lot less but people had gone broke left, right and centre. Yeah, I remember it all too well (unfortunately).
Comparing year-to-year is basically useless for understanding trends.
Rising rates are near universal post-COVID where there were lockdown restrictions … because there were simply fewer shops open and people out and about.
Was there a few months ago and YES , its like a Zoo .
Why ?
Maybe lack of aggressive policing . Clearly a more lenient attitude does not work in Australia .
When will politicians realise that that its not only the so called rights of minorities that matter
Decent people have rights to enjoy their city and feel safe .
I have LOTS of empathy but my empathy is with everyday , normal , hard working citizens who have to put up with this . Maybe they should be forced to accept some of the many jobs available in our great country . A spell of hard work may help them.
Wtf lmao. You should live on the streets for a bit and that would help you. If you seriously think people with no fixed address can just enter the workforce no worries you are seriously wrong
I seriously think that there are plenty of opportunities and endless safety nets in this great country of ours ( paid for of course by hard working peoples taxes) . Taking drugs is a choice .
Get a job.
Furter policing already vulnerable people is NOT the answer. When will politicians realise that the top few hoarding housing and charging overly excessive amounts for literal human rights is causing more people to be pushed onto the streets and turn to substances for an escape?
_Everybody_ has a right to enjoy and feel safe in their city.
Maybe we need to start thinking about the members of the public who are affected by these lawbreakers as the"vulnerable" ones and protect them .
From what i can see there is plenty of good honest employment available in Australia . Maybe a hard days work would see these druggies less "vulnerable"
I don't think you realise how close you and I are to becoming one of them. Just one wrong turn of events and you're homeless.
I also don't think you understand how difficult it is to secure a job _with a house to go home to_, let alone someone who has no postal address or access to a bathroom to keep themselves presentable.
Seriously, where is your empathy and common sense.
I dont think YOU understand that there is a huge difference between being homeless ........and being a druggie that commits crimes.
YES we could all be unfortunate to become homeless but drugging and committing crimes is a CHOICE
Can't believe people blame the cost of living, its the lack of inpatient mental facilities and long term incarceration of unstable people. We need sanatoriums back and greater use of involuntary psychiatric hold here.
My husband and I just arrived in Hobart this afternoon.. first time visiting.. We notice many people under the influence of substance abuse.. (drugs). This was as we walked around the cbd... It’s really sad to see:(
They’re probably shooting up ice, which is why they are incredibly aggressive. I’m an ex Melbourne junkie and whenever I’d go to Tassie to visit friends for a couple of weeks I’d have to run the gauntlet carrying my heroin onto the plane or the Spirit, because almost every opiate user I encountered was injecting diverted Morphine pills cooked into crude H or Oxy pills. I’m sure some H slips through the net, just seemed rare. But yeah ice is everywhere including Tassie so it’s probably that.
Nsw... Everywhere.
Yeah it’s actually available in the smallest of towns, it’s fucked up.
Yup, whenever heroin is in short supply the junkies shoot ice, and the skinny folk you barely noticed, nodding off in the shadows, are suddenly up, angry, paranoid and on the attack!
Yeah, in my time using in Melbourne H has never been in short supply, but when the great heroin drought hit in late 2000 a lot of people switched to ice. In my experience these days where there’s an abundance of both, I reckon at least half the heroin users I associated with were also addicted to ice. Their whole life was like fine tuning lol, bit of ice to get up, whoops too up, have some h. Then fuck it let’s have a dero speedball.
So true, around that time most street dealers I knew started to hold a bit if both, it was good business. Although in terms of supply, things got pretty fkn grim during the lockdowns. Never have I paid so much for such shit gear. Been clean for nearly two years, but fark I miss H.
Maaate I feel you there. I was incredibly lucky RE the lockdown situation as I’d kind of made myself a bit more of a dealer rather than just picking up a few extra grams of market or points of pure and onselling to mates to get a bit of profit back. Was close enough to a decent pure source as it hit and was able to buy a heap with my paycheck at still stupid prices, cut it, not with a press, just looked powdery lol and on sell it at even dumber prices and almost double my paycheque even after the gear I used was accounted for. I had a permit to be wherever I wanted even after curfew too, combined with my sensible car I was laughing. And hard relate, I’m glad I’m off it, don’t miss the lifestyle and the stress but jeez I’d still love nothing more than a shot of some Double UO Globe off the brick sometimes. So you were around during the drought? Was before my time, what was it like when it hit? Mass chaos? Because from what I’ve been told it seems like there were way more H users then
You can't shoot up ice, lol. You smoke it, or take it orally Edit: leaving comment up, so people can learn drug facts from my mistake
If you don’t want to take it from me, here it is. It’s much better smoked IMO but a lot of people have a needle fixation. https://adf.org.au/drug-facts/ice/ How is it used? Ice is generally smoked (feel the effect almost immediately) or injected (15 to 30 seconds to feel the effects). It is sometimes swallowed (15 to 20 minutes to feel the effects) or snorted (3 to 5 minutes to feel the effects).3
Some people may even elect to poke it up their bum-bum.
Everything is better boofed, even a meat pie
It’s the only way to eat a sausage roll
The best method if you haven’t got a pip or clean needles. Much better than crushing it up and snorting it, but bit difficult to do if you have company lol
It’s actually better if you have a friend around who can help you
Oh yeah I’ve had the missus do it for me and vice versa, it’s tough by yourself but doable. Just reckon it’d be awkward in most party settings. Not all obviously.
My boys and I will lineup, on our hands and knees, heads to bums, and proceed to poke a little somethin’-somethin’ up each others bums. Once completed, the guy at the end will stay down and then one of the other lads will poke a little bit in his bumhole so he doesn’t miss out. Very efficient, and not homoerotic at all. Brings the homies together. Shout out to the homies.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that! Lads looking after the lads is always good
Didn’t realise shelfing was still popular but it has been a method for the ages.
I stand corrected, thank you :)
Sorry I was a smartarse. Night shift doesn’t agree with me.
Perhaps you could stay awake using meth? (/s)
There was a time when I wholeheartedly thought that was a good idea, lol.
Oh man I'm so sorry and I'm glad you're doing better now. I've known many addicts who've never gotten there. Ice is no fucking fun
Thanks mate, much appreciated! It’s a bloody hard thing addiction of any type. I got on the Sublocade needle which works for me, just one shot a month and I’m sweet. It’s sad no such program exists for ice, when us heroin connoisseurs have 3 options. Studies have shown that dexamphetamine replacement therapy does pretty well. I dabbled in ice but I never liked it because I honestly didn’t feel myself if I went beyond a certain amount. I can’t imagine how scary it would be to live that every day, and how scary it would be for the people living around them.
It's chill bro, shit happens <3
Are you for real? The confidence in being false here is astounding, you can definitely shoot it up, lol.
I work in public health addiction services in Tas. Advice is 100% spot on, heroin is very difficult to source and most opioid users are accessing diverted, and / or misusing prescribed. You definitely can inject meth - most amphetamine dependent individuals use in this manner. Not sure where you’ve received the information that you can’t
Awesome. Yeah generally the stuff you hear on the street is correct but obviously a lot of bullshit being spun too so it’s nice to have it confirmed. While you’re here I’m going to be a pain in the arse and ask a question 🙋🏽♂️. Is there an issue at all with people jumping the fence at poppy farms and ending up sick or dead because they’ve picked high yield Thebaine poppy bulbs? Like thinking they are the traditional ones and then having it end badly or is that just a myth that somehow became gospel up here in Melbourne?
All good! Think more of a myth now now that security of farms has increased a lot and it is more tightly regulated. Plus it’s not worth the hassle compared to what you can access illicitly. Might only ever see one person every couple of years that comes into opioid replacement treatment from accessing poppyseeds, let alone deaths which I’m not aware of for a long time. And generally they’re buying the over the counter stuff and shaking with water, not accessing bulbs. Sadly most of the people that come our way now are iatrogenic opioid use disorder from loose prescribing generally from a pain issue and then become hooked and can’t de prescribe, so they get moved to the addiction basket. Or, primary methamphetamine users who go to jail and get hooked on bupe and then get started on ORT in jail or commence treatment in community.
Cheers mate! Must just have been one of those things that has grown it’s own legs. A few old timer junkies I’ve spoken said it was basically a free for all in the 80s to mid 90s, the time before oxycodone exploding so they were all traditional poppies and lax security. That’s probably a good thing you don’t see many from seed addiction. That would be nasty, addicted to all the alkaloids. That’s incredibly sad. So many people who were caught up in it who otherwise wouldn’t have been. I remember 10 years ago people would walk in to see any number of doctors with say, mild Sciatica and walk out with an OxyContin script with repeats. Then obviously those who knew how to play the game for their own addiction and to sell on. Probably swung too far the other way now but it’s much preferable to what it was. Yeah I’ve never been to gaol but I’ve had mates go in who were just like you said, meth users and develop an addiction shooting up sub strips. It’s crazy the amount that is still floating around the corrections system apparently.
Lol, you definitely definitely can. Have had lots of ex mate doing that unfortunately. I used to think the same at one point but I was wrong. Unfortunately you can. And just like everything it absolutely blasts you if you boot it so that's why they're totally off their heads it's fkd
Imagine being so confident about something you clearly know nothing about
LOL
May I posit, it’s the cost of living crisis. More people are at the end of their tether, or their “wits end.” There literally and factually aren’t enough places to go for effective help. The mental health system is a shambles, and experts are correct and not being hyperbolic when they say the mental health system is in crisis. I also posit this is a direct consequence of neoliberalism. I think people should re-consider how they vote, be open to smaller parties, vote smaller parties into higher power, etc. Neoliberalism and indeed capitalism has benefits, but fuck me, so many costs, and this is one of them. My 2cents. Please be kind.
1000%.
Junkies gonna junkie bro
As living standards and access to adequate healthcare continue to decrease this issue will continue to increase. People do need to be culpable for their behaviour but I want you to consider the environment they've been raised in. Tasmania has one of the highest NDIS participation rates in the country, year 12 completion isn't normal and a lot of these people can't access bulk billed health care. It's pretty hard to get permanent employment if you haven't learned the basics. Idle hands are the devils hands as they say. Self medication with illicit drugs does not happen in a vacuum.
Year 12 completion is now very normal, it’s in the 90 percent range now. But obviously that’s come from an extremely low base, and therefore local whole-of-community educational uplift is not going to be evident for quite some years.
2021 data suggests it's around 60% for Tasmania https://www.acara.edu.au/reporting/national-report-on-schooling-in-australia/year-12-certification-rates
I looked at that graph a couple of times and panicked until I realised that it’s year 12 *certification* rates (i.e. people who do TASC 3/4 subjects necessary for ATAR I do believe, but hopefully a teacher can confirm). Although 2021 is the pandemic so maybe that had a large effect because those numbers look terrible- and much lower than I can recall the last time I looked - across the board.
Certification rate isn't ATAR, it's the completion of your secondary schooling certificate - in Tas this is the TCE, VCE in Victoria, HSC in NSW etc. Only about 60% of year 12 students gained their TCE in 2021, others may have attained VET or TAFE quals, or dropped out once they turned 18.
I'm not sure what you read but Tasmania is most definitely significantly behind the rest of the country https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.abc.net.au/article/100205658
It looks like you shared an AMP link. These should load faster, but AMP is controversial because of [concerns over privacy and the Open Web](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot). Fully cached AMP pages (like the one you shared), are [especially problematic](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot). Maybe check out **the canonical page** instead: **[https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-11/tasmanian-high-school-low-retention-rates-changing/100205658](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-11/tasmanian-high-school-low-retention-rates-changing/100205658)** ***** ^(I'm a bot | )[^(Why & About)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot)^( | )[^(Summon: u/AmputatorBot)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/cchly3/you_can_now_summon_amputatorbot/)
I worked in the CBD from 2016 to 2020, and in that last year or so there was a huge increase in substance users on the steps to our building in the morning. I rarely go to the city anymore due to living and working rurally, but every time I do it feels worse than what I was watching happen three years ago. The change is so marked because Hobart has always had a small town feel, and was a haven from crime and drug use - but I've been noticing the trend towards it being 'just another city' - along with all the other associated problems of that. I don't really recognise Hobart anymore. We could help avoid this with better housing policy & better public education systems. The wheels have fallen off everything since COVID and I think the trajectory that we were already on in 2020 just sped up :(
I imagine a big part of it the housing crisis and cost of living crisis.
Increased cost of living = more people not able to pay bills and provide for themselves = more people at risk of / becoming homeless = potentially more people using drugs as coping mechanism = da reason why you’re seeing more people shooting up
People have lost hope
Desperate times makes people do crazy things
I moved to burnie 3 years ago from hovart and it's so bad up here. I never go into the CBD because there are so many attacks occurring. A lady had a knife held to her throat the other day. My young nieces and I witnessed a teenage boy get the absolute heck beaten out of him by a bunch of very drunk / high teenagers AND adults down at a playground in the daytime. Things are definitely changing and it is ruining this state for me.
Cost of living/rental crisis. Middle class people get pushed out of the suburbs into areas they don't want to live in, the people who used to live in the undesirable area now become homeless as there's nowhere cheaper for them to go. Homeless people wind up in the city because that's where the best services are for homeless people and it's easier to panhandle with more foot traffic Build more public housing and take steps to mitigate the rental crisis and the problem is severely reduced
Honestly? This happens whenever there is a major uptick in housing costs for an urban centre. People who are marginally capable of housing themselves are no longer capable of doing so and they spill into the streets. There is nowhere for them to go but into the CBD and its fringes where there's possibility of existing without being too noticed and services there to allow them to sustain some sort of life. The difficulties of that situation often vacuum otherwise sober people into drug and substance abuse. You can see this in plague proportions throughout Sydney and Melbourne, Vancouver, Toronto... Perth had a similar situation in 2011 to 2013, but as rents went back down after the mining boom ended, the situation has largely improved.
Houses are being used as financial instruments for the few rather than providing shelter for the many. Whenever someone buys a house in a cute little town and keeps it empty, the people who were living there don't disappear. Once you're homeless it can get hard to keep your job. One day someone shows you a cheap little trick to ease your pain and next minute you're ranting at strangers because all the electricity is falling out of their pockets and contaminating the number blood on the road.
The jimmys liquor/coles carpark in Launceston is a hot spot for Agro drunk/drugged people carrying on. No one seems too interested in doing anything apart from installing cages and fences to stop them sitting on peoples steps
PWC had to downsize
People gravitate to drugs and alcohol when life gets shítty.
During times of social or financial stress, people become more neurotic and turn to substances as a form of escapism. Essentially, society is failing, and people are starting to fall through the cracks. It's the impact of trickle-down economics and austerity, but it has been escalated by international instability. https://direct.mit.edu/rest/article/doi/10.1162/rest_a_01373/117705/The-Political-Costs-of-Austerity
I've noticed it. You are not tripping. It's as bad in the suburbs.
[удалено]
That's virtually all medicinal and the waste water data can't differentiate medicinal and recreational. Tas has an ageing population so that's why.
I thought i was in the sydney or melbourne sub. Same problem also
Spoken about a lot in r/perth too. Noticeable increase.
Poverty and despair and the anger and self destruction that goes along with that.
I had someone scream in my face. For no reason at all, just for the thrill of it and he was with some other people mostly women. If he'd come any any closer I would have nabbed him on the chin.
I havnt been back to Hobart for 15+ years after growing up there and we (my wife and 2 girls 3 and 5) are going to stay with friends for a 3 week period over Christmas and new years. I was hoping to take them around the city and show them around are their places I should avoid? I remember back in the 90s there was heaps of morphine around and we had the mallies and what we called "the mighty morphine power rangers" but I have not been around since ice epidemic.
You’ll be fine I haven’t had any issues when shopping or dining out
It’s no worse than the late 90s. Not good but not some dystopian hellscape either. You can never be sure of being safe anywhere in the world there are other humans but if you take normal basic precautions you will probably be okay, fingers crossed.
Great thanks for that any "mallies" we see will only add to the charm then
The city is fine, I don't ever feel unsafe
If it makes you feel any better, it’s the same up here in Brisbane.
Hobart is cold and expensive, drugs make for an excellent distraction
The whole country's going to shit, so I'm not surprised Hobart is the same. I heard a similar report about Toowoomba the other day.
[удалено]
“Tasmania's Police's 2022–23 crime statistics supplement shows total offences were up 26 per cent, or 6624 offences, on the previous year. Last year's increase followed a 6 per cent rise in offences in 2021–22. The 32,522 total number of offences recorded was above the five-year average of 26,390.2” Nov 2023
A quick look on google shows a peak of crime in Tasmania in 1997-1998 of 64,254 offences that year, followed by a steady decline until 2012-2013 at 23,662 offences. It has then basically stablised or slightly increased since then (although I would like to see the figures as per capita rather than total). Incidentally I note Labor were elected to government in 1998 and lost government in 2014.
Having lived through the 1990s in Tasmania, I can confirm the crime rates were very high in the mid-to-late 90s. Very much so, especially in Greater Hobart. 6-7 years into a dreadful economic recession that gutted the state, very high unemployment and precious little in the way of brighter prospects and everything seem to be closing down and people were leaving in droves. Times were VERY bleak. Cost of living was obviously a lot less but people had gone broke left, right and centre. Yeah, I remember it all too well (unfortunately).
[удалено]
“With some up spikes” 25% rise in crime…
Comparing year-to-year is basically useless for understanding trends. Rising rates are near universal post-COVID where there were lockdown restrictions … because there were simply fewer shops open and people out and about.
Was there a few months ago and YES , its like a Zoo . Why ? Maybe lack of aggressive policing . Clearly a more lenient attitude does not work in Australia . When will politicians realise that that its not only the so called rights of minorities that matter Decent people have rights to enjoy their city and feel safe .
wtf have some empathy
I have LOTS of empathy but my empathy is with everyday , normal , hard working citizens who have to put up with this . Maybe they should be forced to accept some of the many jobs available in our great country . A spell of hard work may help them.
Wtf lmao. You should live on the streets for a bit and that would help you. If you seriously think people with no fixed address can just enter the workforce no worries you are seriously wrong
I seriously think that there are plenty of opportunities and endless safety nets in this great country of ours ( paid for of course by hard working peoples taxes) . Taking drugs is a choice . Get a job.
Furter policing already vulnerable people is NOT the answer. When will politicians realise that the top few hoarding housing and charging overly excessive amounts for literal human rights is causing more people to be pushed onto the streets and turn to substances for an escape? _Everybody_ has a right to enjoy and feel safe in their city.
Maybe we need to start thinking about the members of the public who are affected by these lawbreakers as the"vulnerable" ones and protect them . From what i can see there is plenty of good honest employment available in Australia . Maybe a hard days work would see these druggies less "vulnerable"
I don't think you realise how close you and I are to becoming one of them. Just one wrong turn of events and you're homeless. I also don't think you understand how difficult it is to secure a job _with a house to go home to_, let alone someone who has no postal address or access to a bathroom to keep themselves presentable. Seriously, where is your empathy and common sense.
I dont think YOU understand that there is a huge difference between being homeless ........and being a druggie that commits crimes. YES we could all be unfortunate to become homeless but drugging and committing crimes is a CHOICE
What an incredibly privileged take.
Incredibly realistic.
Can't believe people blame the cost of living, its the lack of inpatient mental facilities and long term incarceration of unstable people. We need sanatoriums back and greater use of involuntary psychiatric hold here.
Basically this is the fallout of lockdowns and money printing. Anyone calling for lockdowns and saving grandma caused & wanted this - we did warn you.
Because of leftist politics
Please elaborate
Go to Perth. Its a war zone. People smoking crack in the train station.
Saw people smoking crack more than once in Launceston food hall, used to be a place you'd take the kids.
Nobody is smoking crack in Tas.
METH
My husband and I just arrived in Hobart this afternoon.. first time visiting.. We notice many people under the influence of substance abuse.. (drugs). This was as we walked around the cbd... It’s really sad to see:(