SA IS NATION'S DRUG LAB CAPITAL

AMPHETAMINE laboratories are uncovered in South Australia at a rate
double the national average.

The alarming statistic has saddled the state with a reputation as the
drug lab capital of Australia.

A database set up by the Australian Crime Commission also shows that,
per capita, there are more of the highly dangerous clandestine
laboratories found here than in any other state or territory.

Police say a jump in the number of drug labs in Adelaide homes in
recent years has contributed to the alarming figures, released by the
commission last week.

Police figures also show that the number of labs detected in the state
soared from 25 in 2004/05 to 65 last financial year.

The officer in charge of the Drug Investigation Branch,
Detective-Superintendent Scott Duval, said the ability of criminals to
"do amphetamine cooking without a high level of knowledge means there
are more people out there doing it".

"In our experience, there are more people attempting this, which is a
concern because there is more risk of something going wrong and
greater risk of explosions, fire and danger to the community," he said.

Criminologists believe organised crime gangs could be targeting SA as
a "safe" place to produce amphetamine before exporting it interstate.

Adelaide University criminology lecturer Allan Perry said the
commission's figures showed SA had around 20 per cent of the drug labs
detected in the nation but less than 10 per cent of Australia's population.

"And I suspect the number of clandestine labs detected is a small
proportion of the number of drug labs that exist," Mr Perry said.

"The obvious possibility is there is more drug lab activity in SA,
which is why there is a higher level of detection. It may be that
people engaged in this activity believe SA is a safer place to engage
in it."

Flinders University Associate Professor in Environmental Health John
Edwards, who is investigating the prevalence of drug labs in the
state, said the amphetamines produced here "could end up
interstate".

"There could be such restrictions in terms of policing and the risk of
being captured interstate that SA is seen as a safer state to produce
the drugs and then they are exported," he said.

Illegal labs producing amphetamines - known by street names such as
speed, ice, whiz and goey - are found in homes across Adelaide,
including blue-ribbon addresses, according to Supt Duval.

"We had a recent significant bust in Unley . . . and had one at Mawson
Lakes where we had to clear residents from other townhouses because
they were at threat," he said.

Supt Duval said the backyard labs were highly unstable and could
explode or catch fire, posing a risk not only to the manufacturers but
also innocent neighbours.

The crime commission said its new National Clandestine Laboratory
Database "has been created to provide the most comprehensive picture
of the manufacture of illicit drugs in Australia".

And it's a disturbing picture for our state. There was one drug lab
detected for every 23,000 South Australians in 2007/08.

This is significantly higher than the national average of one lab for
every 60,000 people.

It's also well ahead of the next closest state for drug lab detection,
Queensland, which recorded one amphetamine lab for every 35,000 people.

In New South Wales, the rate of detection was one in
138,000.

Supt Duval said good policing with the help of public tip-offs had
also contributed to the high number of drug lab busts in SA.

"We get a very good level of information from the public and we have a
strong focus on organised crime as there is no doubt outlaw motorcycle
gangs are involved in illicit drug manufacturing and trade," he said.

The number of people requiring treatment for amphetamine abuse was
also on the rise, with latest SA Drug and Alcohol Service figures
showing a dramatic increase from 937 people in 2001/02 to 1655 in 2006/07.

While SA Ambulance doesn't have any official statistics on the
subject, the Ambulance Employees Association says paramedics are
called to around 20 incidents involving amphetamine abuse across
Adelaide every weekend and these could sometimes turn violent.

"There certainly has been an exponential increase in cases -
especially since 2005 - which generally reflects the community's
increased use of these drugs," association industrial officer Wayne
Carty said.

The World Drug Report 2009, released last month, shows amphetamines in
Australia and New Zealand trigger more treatments per capita than
anywhere else in the world.