Australia's increase in ‘Ice' use (the drug dubbed ‘P' in New Zealand) is fuelling the nation's HIV/AID resurgence by encouraging "hyper-sexual" promiscuity, a leading authority on the disease has warned. Professor David Cooper, head of the National Centre for HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research, said stimulant drugs were playing a key role in a comeback of the virus. Australia's rate for new HIV infections has doubled since 2000, to almost 1000 new reports a year. New figures show that one in eight people in their 20's have tried amphetamines in the past year, and an increasing number are choosing more potent crystal meth, or ice, over speed. The drug has been linked to a rise in brutal violence and hospitalisations for psychosis. Prof Cooper said the dangerous amphetamine was also responsible for a new kind of sexual abandon which was putting an increasing number of young Australians, both gay and straight, in "grave danger'' of contracting HIV and other sexually-transmitted disease. "The methamphetamine epidemic is a big worry because the drug makes people hyper-sexual and seek sexual partners without assessing the risk or taking preventative measures,'' Prof Cooper said. "Methamphetamines are very cheap, easily available and a real problem in inner city young people right now, so this is a major issue.'' Prof Cooper said he had no doubt drugs were a primary contributor to the growth among the homosexual community. Ref: News.com.au (m)