Let's make this clear from the start: fallen AFL star Ben Cousins is a full-blown drug addict.
This isn't some sycophantic homage by a West Coast tragic to a former favourite son of the club.
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Ben Cousins in hospital
The former AFL star has been taken to hospital after he was found on Perth's Canning Highway directing traffic. Vision: courtesy Seven News Melbourne
Cousins has been battling the demons of addiction in full view of the public.
The media, including myself, have feasted on his crippling ice-addiction, his stints in rehab and his bizarre erratic behaviour, which again spilled into the public domain on Sunday after Cousins was spotted directing traffic in Como.
Despite the public outcry against the media for "dining out on his misery", it will continue to report on Cousins because the fading footy star's drug-fuelled antics are a matter of public interest.
When it was first revealed the former West Coast Eagles and Richmond champion's drug addiction was spiralling out-of-control, there was little or no public sympathy for the Brownlow medallist.
In fact, people were relentless and brutal when attacking Cousins on social media for his partying ways.
But after his last peculiar public performance, the narrative towards the 37-year-old has taken a dramatic turn.
It's as if people have taken a collective sigh and realised the one-time pin-up boy is just another drug statistic.
Hundreds of people posted on WAtoday's Facebook page saying they now felt nothing but sadness for Cousins.
People wanted him to get help and get well.
He is just one of the thousands of other people around Australia whose lives and those of their families are getting ripped apart by the ice epidemic.
He is an addict.
According to the National Drug Strategy Household Survey of 2013, two per cent of Australians used methamphetamine or "ice" in the previous 12 months.
More than 15 per cent of those people used it daily or weekly, compared to 9.3 per cent in 2010.
In May, the Federal Government went on a $9 million, six-week ad campaign blitz showing the dangers and realities of the drug.
And the Barnett government has promised almost $15 million to combat Perth's meth crisis.
Steve Allsop from the National Drug Research Institute at Curtin University said the long-term effects of ice on the body were devastating.
And he said the major problem with ice addiction, is that it rarely involves just one drug.
"This is not a new phenomena – people will often use other stimulants and opiates and then take other substances so they can sleep," he told WAtoday.
"But the impacts of using drugs like alcohol can be long-term and permanent brain damage.
"And with ice, people don't tend to eat, so people are vulnerable to illness and cardiovascular disease."
Dr Allsop said even after someone was clean for months, there was still the high risk of relapse because of sleep deprivation.
"What happens is some people might not sleep for two or three or four nights, so it starts to affect their mental and physical well-being," he said.
"So they might start to feel depressed or anxious, so that's when they relapse."
Professor Allsop said one of the major problems treating meth addicts was the lack of "standardised medication".
"If you are an alcoholic there is medication; if you are a heroin addict there is medication, but if you are a meth addict there is no accepted or authorised medication at the moment," he said.
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