WA to open 60 new beds to help ice addicts

Sixty new beds dedicated to rehabilitation for people addicted to the drug ice are on track to be opened by January, says WA Mental Health Minister Andrea Mitchell.

Fifty-two dedicated residential rehabilitation beds and eight low-medical detox beds were announced as part of $14.9 million to be spent by the government in 2016-17 tackling methamphetamine use.

In 2013, 3.8 per cent of people in WA reported using amphetamine or methamphetamine during that year, with the rate of use lower than a decade ago but higher potency means the drug is causing more harm to the community, according to the government.