A drug detox and rehabilitation facility is needed in Western NSW to give users and their families an opportunity to get off the addiction "merry-go-round", state member for Barwon Roy Butler believes.
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The former drug and alcohol counsellor, who has worked in prisons and for the NSW police force, says in his experience it has always been challenging finding detox or rehab beds for people battling drug addiction in country areas.
Ahead of the state budget due to be handed down on Tuesday, Mr Butler said the government had choices to make on dealing with the destructive effects of higher methamphetamine, or ice, use in country communities.
"Do they want to see the problem begin to be addressed or do they want to see it continue?," he said.
"If they take no action and if they don't support residential rehabilitation and residential detox then the problem's very unlikely to resolve itself. It's more likely to worsen.
"If getting people off serious drugs of dependency or behavioral addiction, and having some sort of opportunity for them to short circuit what's going on in their life and get off that merry-go-round... if that was important to government then government would do something with it."
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The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party MP said he would support construction of a drug detox and rehabilitation facility in his electorate.
He said a local facility would benefit many Aboriginal people who were "unfortunately over-represented in problematic drug and alcohol use" and would prefer to be detoxified or rehabilitated in places closer to their families and positive social networks.
"You can't take somebody who doesn't want to stop using and put them into treatment because all they're gonna do is find a way to go out and use again," Mr Butler acknowledged.
"You've gotta find people who are actually at a point in their cycle where they're actually thinking about change and making a decision that they want to change.
"Then whilst they're in that state you've gotta have the bed ready to stick them into, to both detox them and obviously put them into some sort of residential rehabilitation."
Mr Butler said he is "not a big fan of home based rehab" because there are "too many triggers, too many memories and too little supervision and support".
He said it was important to remember "not everyone we put through detox or rehab is going to get it right that first time".
"But it's important that they have the opportunity to try," he said.
"[When a person has an addiction] it's much easier to keep going in the direction you're going in, change is particularly frightening.
"We've got to continually provide the opportunities for people to get off that merry-go-round if we want to see things change."
"You have to have the bed ready for when the person is ready to take the next step."
Federal member for Parkes Mark Coulton has promised to provide $3 million to build a drug detox and rehab facility in Dubbo.
The NSW Government has not committed to building a facility and is not expected to make major announcements to tackle ice use until an inquiry into ice reports to government in October.
Mr Coulton's federal electorate encompasses much of the state electorate of Barwon, which Mr Butler won off the National Party in the March election.
