THE public perception of methamphetamine users does not match reality, with only a minority of users violent, aggressive and “out of control”, a forum has heard.

A methamphetamine education session at Albury Community Health yesterday involved 62 health workers.

The forum heard services for the treatment of ice users were lacking, with no rehabilitation services on the Border. Albury is serviced by one drug and alcohol counsellor who works four days a week and is in high demand.

Albury Wodonga Health mental health drug and alcohol clinical leader Alan Fisher said much of the commentary demonised ice users and scared society which did not help address the problem.

A new federal government advertising campaign shows ice users assaulting people, including a user head-butting a health worker in a hospital emergency room.

Mr Fisher said that was not the reality of ice use on the Border and wondered whether such depictions were helpful.

“Ice can make people edgy, more irritable and irrational over time,” he said.

“They can go from having low level to a medium level of paranoia which usually precedes a psychotic episode, and you will see agitation and violence as a result.

“I think we’ve got to bear in mind these are extreme cases and they do happen, but alcohol-related assaults are higher and it’s been that way for a long time.”

Mr Fisher said he did not want to minimise the issue but, instead, put meth use in context with other drugs.

“We agree methamphetamine causes huge problems, there’s no doubt about that,” he said.

“Depicting people with a methamphetamine problem as being violent and assaultive doesn’t help anyone’s cause.

“It doesn’t help with the guilt and the shame and the shock and horror for families.

“It’s a chemical dependency that needs treatment.”

Drug and alcohol counsellor Carmen Colley said people were often waiting up to two or three weeks for counselling in Albury.

“A rehab clinic will never go astray in a community,” she said.

“There’s always going to be a need, whether it’s for methamphetamine or alcohol.

“There is always going to be drugs in society and it’s about how we approach that and having treatment available.

“We need a bigger health focus than what we have at the moment; law enforcement gets the biggest slice of the pie and rehab and prevention only gets a small percentage.

“More funding for drug and alcohol services would be really beneficial.”

Court-ordered treatment was also taking up places for people who desperately sought help, she said, with many users also having underlying issues that need to be addressed.

“Take away the drug and the problems are still there,” Ms Colley said.

Mr Fisher said more people were seeking drug treatment in Wod-onga than Albury, while twice as many people were seeking treatment in Wagga than Albury.

He said about 15 per cent of ice users were using the drug more than weekly.

“The overwhelming response from the meeting was the people really felt it was useful,” Mr Fisher said. “It was good too for people to see what’s happening and gave them a reasonable understanding of the issues.”