In a little music studio on the New South Wales South Coast, young men enrolled in a residential rehabilitation drug program are writing a new song.
The participants start with the chorus: "Hard to breathe, buried below the surface, in a place of unease, lost on my knees".
Then the rap comes in: "I've been broken, I've been torn, yeah I fought a lot of wars, ripped and deceived, but I am still standing tall".
The music therapy is part of Oolong House's 16-week program in Nowra, which can support about 100 men a year.
Seventy per cent enter with an ice addiction.
Hayden John Blowes is about two weeks away from graduating.
Four days before the 34-year-old married father of four was arrested in April, he had overdosed on ice and heroin.
"I was arrested just for a string of petty crimes — shoplifting, breaking into businesses, stealing cars — just anything I could do to support the habit," Mr Blowes said.
He said he was looking at "substantial time in prison" for a second time and had to do something for his family.
"I reached out to Oolong House and I was lucky enough to fit the criteria and get another chance."
He said the music had helped him "understand we are not necessarily bad people; we are just people who have lost their way".
Mr Blowes wants the state government and community to understand the need for more rehabilitation and support for drug users.
"I've seen so many young boys in jail, they are at the cusp of either going really bad or they could have the opportunity that I have," he said.
"There are people ringing up every day to get into rehabs … it could change everything."
More help needed
Expanding access to regional and Indigenous rehabilitation services was among 109 recommendations from NSW's special commission of inquiry into the drug ice.
Oolong House chief executive Steve Ardler said he was at a loss to understand why, more than two years on, the state government had failed to respond to 104 of those recommendations and had not agreed to any.
In his 12 years with the centre, he has increasingly noticed dual health challenges in the men.
"It's not just addiction, it's underlying mental health concerns as well and that leads into the rest of their life," the Wodi Wodi man from the Yuin Nation said.
Oolong House is one of six Indigenous residential rehabilitation services in the state.
Mr Ardler said with a large catchment area from Wollongong down to the Victorian border, demand for the service was "huge".
He said the centre only allows for a four-month waiting list because "too much can change" while on a long waiting list.
"Nowra is considered a hot spot for amphetamine use and I think one of the biggest concerns is the load on mental health and having a designated detox," Mr Ardler said.
He said there needed to be more training around alcohol and drug use and mental health, and targeted programs for young people.
Oolong House intake assessment officer Casey Ardler said the service also helped provide a connection back to culture through language and ceremonies on country.
"A lot of these services are not only life-changing but are lifesaving for some and you [are] not only saving a man's life but you're saving that man's family," the Wodi Wodi woman of the Yuin Nation said.
"It's shameful, this prolonged inaction, the government's had two-and-a-half years to take action on these recommendations."
The 'forgotten people'
The inquiry into ice was commissioned by former premier Gladys Berejiklian just before the 2019 state election.
It gathered evidence for 14 months, had special hearings in Nowra, Lismore, Dubbo, Maitland, Moree and Broken Hill and produced a four-volume, 1,200-page report.
The government's response has been to rule out five recommendations including pill testing and the abolition of drug dogs.
A further response has been held up because of disagreements in the Coalition over how to address recommendations that drug users before the courts should be directed to a health service.
Commissioner Dan Howard said the government was "completely ignoring" recommendations based on evidence because it would not win votes.
"I've come to believe given the huge delay of two-and-a-half years that the government is indifferent about the suffering of people with drug problems and their families," Professor Howard said.
"Frankly, people with drug problems and their families have become the forgotten, lost people in this state."
The government spent $11 million on the inquiry.
"It is a shame on the government, and they need to wake up to themselves and start behaving in a more courageous and humane way," Professor Howard said.
"We are losing lives because … of the absence of any proper drug policy in NSW."
Rehab demand
A thousand kilometres away from the South Coast at Broken Hill in far western NSW, former addict Don Barron runs a soup kitchen and delivers food to the homeless, working poor, and pensioners.
"I sort of started this because I had a life of crime when I was living in Adelaide," Mr Barron said.
He spent five years in jail in South Australia where he realised he was an ice addict and needed help.
"I was also involved in trafficking huge amounts of drugs, but karma got me in the end and I was addicted to my own poison," he said.
With no rehabilitation options in Broken Hill, he was supported by the mental health recovery centre at the local hospital.
Mr Barron said regional areas like his home town need to be supported with dedicated detox centres and long-term improvement programs.
"It's OK to have these drop-in places where you just go to an appointment once a week, but that's just a bandaid. You actually need to go there. You need to learn why you took drugs and you need to learn the steps of recovery."
Professor Howard said he heard similar stories in the round tables he conducted, where regions and Indigenous services were "crying out for help".
Change possible
Wollongong criminal lawyer Matt Ward has praised the comprehensive nature of the report and recommendations as being practical ones that could "make a real difference in people's lives".
In particular, he wants to see the expansion of a number of services currently only available in Sydney to regional areas.
These include expanding the Drug Court and MERIT — a 12-week program for adult defendants with substance abuse problems to work towards rehabilitation as part of the bail process.
"In other parts of the state, you won't be eligible for or be able to get the MERIT program based on where you live or what your court case is," Mr Ward said.
The Drug Court operates in Parramatta, Toronto, and the Sydney CBD, and will open in Dubbo in February 2023.
Mr Ward said it was "devastating" for people to learn they were not eligible for Drug Court because of where they lived or where they committed the offence.
He also supported recommendations to legislate a police diversion scheme for drug use and possession for personal use with a maximum of three diversion opportunities, arguing it would create a "huge" impact.
He said it was in "everyone's interest" for illicit drug use to be recognised as a health and social problem rather than a criminal justice issue.
"It stops crime, reduces the chance of the person going back into custody, which the community pays for."
