ICE AGE SPECIAL INVESTIGATION PART 6 WE LEFT Royal Perth Hospital thinking what we'd seen was as bad as it could get: an HIV-positive ice user, in a state of extreme fury, spitting at emergency and security staff trying to help him. 
We missed what happened the following day. A fly-in, fly-out worker, who'd taken ice in the morning, suffered a massive brain bleed caused by rocketing blood pressure. He was an organ donor by lunchtime.
So many users, so many hurting parents, so many people in recovery. Somehow, ice has got under the nation's guard.
Those who argue over whether or not we should call it an "ice epidemic" are wasting time. On a four-week national journey undertaken by News Corp Australia, it was clear ice has insinuated itself into every town and city. Criminals hunt huge profits while police struggle to keep up with complex transactions, imports, local makers and markets.
Methylamphetamine is different from common amphetamine, known as speed, and from MDMA, or ecstasy.
"Methylamphetamine is the amphetamine molecule with a methyl on the end of it," says Professor George Braitberg, head of emergency at Royal Melbourne Hospital. "What that does is drive it into the brain faster. You get the sudden rush, and that is the most addictive part." At emergency departments in big cities, we never heard them whining. But they don't like what they're dealing with and want the public to understand its magnitude.
About the only positive we saw out of ice problem is that police are using it to try to rebuild community relations as this is a shared problem that goes beyond traditional policing. They say chucking every user in jail is not the answer. They want a modern solution for a current problem.
What is not clear is why ice is so popular in this country, apart from the fact that criminals are shoving it in our faces .
One explanation is that the first try is so good it's hard to deny yourself a second. That doesn't explain why you'd try it in the first place.
We visited parked outside a Cloud 9 shop in Perth, which legally sells bongs and ice pipes. The foot traffic coming in and out of that shop in a short time was remarkable - mostly young men. It was put to us by one older user that his kid, also a user, thinks owning an ice pipe is cool.
When a drug such as ice becomes socially acceptable among the young, schoolchildren need exposure to a strong countering message.
They need to see what a psychotic who has shredded his inhibition really looks like; and those who already see such behaviour need it explained to them.
They need to know they are at risk from things children don't normally think of, such as heart attack, stroke and mental illness, HIV and Hep C.
The head of the Australian Crime Commission, Chris Dawson, oversees the nation's ice problem. He says everyone in the country has in some way been touched by ice.BLOG WITH PAUL TOOHEY, FORMER ICE ADDICT JAY MORRIS AND PROFESSOR GEORGE BRAITBERG FROM ROYAL MELBOURNE HOSPITAL AT WWW.ADVERTISER.COM.AU FROM 11.30AM TODAY