THE lack of evidence on the number of Australians addicted to crystal methamphetamine hydrochloride, also know as ice, was hampering efforts to tackle the problem, state and territory health ministers admitted yesterday.

Estimates of the number of people in Australia using ice vary from 63,000 to 102,000, a national forum on ice held in Sydney heard yesterday.

NSW Health Minister John Hatzistergos said the states needed better information in order to develop evidence-based strategies to tackle the spread of ice addiction. “It’s difficult to be able to quantify it because the ones we come into contact with, of course, are only a portion of those people who actually use the substance,” he said.

“One of the important aspects of the discussion is the need to ensure that our data collection and our research capacity is improved.”

He said authorities would follow the progress of long-term ice users involved in trials of various treatment alternatives that began last month at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney and the John Hunter Hospital.

Participants will initially undergo counselling and receive practical advice on how to stop using ice. Over the next year, about 30 heavy users will also be given dexamphetamine — a drug used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Health ministers agreed that a national approach was needed to stop the growing use of the drug.

The states endorsed a list of strategies including routine assessments of drug law enforcement, health education initiatives and advertising to target users.

However, the states rejected a proposal by federal Parliamentary Secretary for Health Christopher Pyne to ban the pipes used to smoke ice.

It is legal to sell the pipes in the ACT, Queensland, the Northern Territory and Tasmania.

Mr Pyne said he was disappointed that state and territory ministers had rejected the proposal and added he planned to raise the issue at the Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy, which will be held in Sydney today.

Yesterday a distraught father at Bidura Children’s Court said the court was putting his 16-year-old ice-addicted daughter at risk by constantly releasing her back into the community. The girl was facing charges of aggravated robbery and possession of an illegal drug.

But the father, Trevor, said his daughter would be dead by the time she was 18 if the court kept releasing her.