This study examines the contribution each may have made in Australia in 2015 to the problem and politics streams of the policy process, when a National Ice Taskforce responded to increased public, political and media concern about methamphetamine use.

The findings showed that politicians more frequently framed methamphetamine use as a crisis or epidemic than the media. Both frequently portrayed cost to society as the consequence of methamphetamine use and often cited law enforcement sources. The media most frequently positioned methamphetamine users as criminal or deviant compared to politicians who did not position the user or positioned them as an addict or victim.

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