Addiction to ice can permanently damage the user’s health, while addicts are also inclined to turn to crime to raise the money needed to feed their habits.

It will destroy careers, families and livelihoods, everything people can work their entire lives to achieve.

District Court judge Martin Blackmore yesterday referred to ice as a dangerous drug while sentencing an addict who had cited the drug as the reason he had become obsessed about the manufacturer of deadly pen pistols.

Judge Blackmore said the implications of ice addiction were that it would inevitably lead to the downfall of the user and a likely jail term as a result of the crimes they committed.

He also outlined how the drug could prove addictive to anyone, regardless of their background or position within the community.

The lure of ice is strong for those who report how it initially enables them to work at an increased pace and function at a high level with little sleep.

But ultimately there is a cost; and as Judge Blackmore says, it is a high price to pay.