A TAMWORTH woman whose family was torn apart by ice has taken to social media to support others who have been ravaged by the drug.
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Tracey Filicietti's personal struggle with her son's addiction over 20 years led her to start the "ICE Awareness and Support" Facebook page last week.
"I have no emotional attachment to my son. The drugs have distanced us and I have not spoken to him in years," Mrs Filicietti said.
"I have two younger children. He had an 'ice rage' in front of them. That was the final straw. They were only four and five years old."
She said he was screaming right in her face.
"I was being called everything under the sun, by somebody I thought I knew, but it's a monster," Mrs Filicietti said.
"As a non-drug user, it's had a huge impact on my life and my family's life."
She relocated to Tamworth two years ago, in part because she needed to "get away from the sadness and destruction".
"I'm a really private person. I don't share my life even close friends didn't know I had hidden that for so long,"?she said.
"But I can't continue I needed to put a voice to this."
Within a week, the Facebook page had gained more than 270 likes and Ms Filicietti said the response from right across Australia had been "overwhelming".
She had received and responded to more than 50 personal messages from affected people who did not wish to share their "heartbreaking stories" publicly on the page.
She said the police could only do so much from the criminal angle and said an education campaign was urgently needed.
"We need to stop it before it gets to that stage," she said.
"I want to see an education campaign started."
She has written to MPs Kevin Anderson, Barnaby Joyce and Prime Minister Tony Abbott in the hopes they will address the crippling drug epidemic.
She said her work at local primary and high schools made her fear for the children and teenagers she saw every day.
"I'm concerned for all of them," she said.
"I look around at them and I think: 'I hope none of you guys ever do ice.'"
She urged community members to join the page and share their knowledge and stories to support each other.
"The greater our numbers, the bigger our voice," she said.
