The future of the nation appears grim according to the recent Australian Crime Commission (ACC) report, which states that "the methamphetamine market will almost certainly remain entrenched and continue to grow in the medium term".

This conclusion has prompted the federal government's national "ice" taskforce.

Last week, Labor's rural and regional health spokesperson, Throsby MP Stephen Jones, said the drug was twice as prevalent in rural and regional communities as in metropolitan areas.

Locally, the grim effects of ice are now surfacing.

Just last week a man was shot in the face at Unanderra in what was reported to be the result of a "four-day ice binge", and Lake Illawarra Local Area Command officers recently shut down a motorcycle club in Kiama alleged to be dealing ice.

Lake Illawarra Commander, Superintendent Wayne Starling said since 2002 ice had become a progressively more "horrific problem" for police, and was "only going to get worse".

In Shellharbour, figures from the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research show the rate of methylamphetamine use and possession for 2014 is 97.3 per 100,000 people, higher than the state average (88.1) and higher than Wollongong (91.1).

While the figures perhaps don't seem particularly alarming, Superintendent Starling said ice-related cases permeated almost every type of criminal activity.

"Ice is a factor in domestic violence, driving, theft, murder, organised crime and we're seeing it more and more and in younger and younger people," he said.

"I'm most concerned about our young kids and peer pressure.

"The youth need to know that (ice is) not an easy thing to get off and it will destroy them.

"Five minutes of pleasure and they pay for it their rest of their lives.

"We see this all the time but police can only do so much. We need the community to step up and report these suppliers and ice users to us so we can do something about it."

The ACC report also stated that despite the introduction of tougher drug laws there had been little impact on the "high-volume" of importation and trafficking of the drug.

BOCSAR statistics showed dealing and trafficking offences in Shellharbour doubled from 22 in 2013 to 43 in 2014.

Superintendent Starling said the high statistics were partly due to strike force intervention, but they were also faced with the fact that "while we lock up 10 suppliers, we get another 10 suppliers fill their shoes".

Mr Jones also held this opinion and said that traditional methods on "the war on drugs" won't make the problem go away.

"We need to examine the circumstances that drive people to addiction and steer policy towards identifying and addressing the problems affecting vulnerable segments of the community," he said.

"Only then will the national plan to combat ice have any hope of properly confronting this epidemic that is crippling communities across Australia."