Teen Challenge Tasmania revealed this alarming statistic as part of its Not Even Once campaign, that has been running in Tasmanian high schools since 2015.

Teen Challenge Tasmania executive director Tanya Cavanagh said new research from the University of South Australia had strengthened the NEO campaign.

Mrs Cavanagh alleged young people were being targeted by methamphetamine dealers and described the industry as “insidious.”

“Our young people are being targeted as an “expendable commodity" by these ruthless people,” she said.

Concerns were also raised about the impact methamphetamine use could have on young brains.

The data from senior lecturer Gabrielle Todd has shown a link between long-term methamphetamine use and abnormalities in the regions of the brain the control movement.

“The risk is not just related to heavy methamphetamine use, we are seeing movement and brain changes in young people who may have only taken the drug as few as five times,” Dr Todd said.

Salvation Army public relations officer Brad Watson said young people addicted to ice were less common than adults but were still regular representations.

“We certainly have seen it [young people addicted to ice] through our various forums and services,” he said.

Despite this, most services offered by the Salvation Army are directed at addicted adults.

Mr Watson said young people presenting with methamphetamine addiction was related to issues such as youth homelessness and domestic violence.

“Ice is one of the key drugs of choice of children we see through our services,” he said.

He said while there were not a lot of services directed at young people addicted to ice, services like Teen Challenge did help fill the gaps.

Mrs Cavanagh said the organisation did not have a rehabilitation centre in Tasmania but did have gateway services to help get young people the help they needed.

She said education was key to ensuring young people were informed about illicit drug use.

The National Waste Water Drug Monitoring Report was released in March and showed Tasmania had higher rates of methamphetamine in waste water than other states and was above the national average in regional areas. 

The study focused on 13 licit and illicit drugs, including tobacco, alcohol, methylamphetamine, cocaine and MDMA (ecstasy).

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