Ice Wars, a four-part program highlighting the rapid rise of methamphetamine use in Australia, premiered on ABC at 8.30pm, and according to one of the men involved in the filming of the series, viewers will be confronted by what they see.

Senior Sergeant Simon Madgwick, Orana Local Area Command’s Wellington Sector Supervisor at the time of filming in 2015, said the message being spread is one that needs to be seen from start to finish.

“The stuff they filmed with us in Wellington will be in episode two, but the series really shows everything from the start through to the end of the problem,” he said.

“Ice Wars will be one of the most important series to air on our television screens because it will show the problem and how we’re trying to fix it.

“People will get to see what ice users are really like when they are irrational, have that feeling of superhuman strength and that acutely high level of awareness of things around them.

“Until you’ve seen someone go crazy on ice you just don’t know what it’s really like. I liken it to a rabid dog, and people will see that.”

While some people will find the images in the series confronting, Snr Sgt Madgwick said it is important to highlight how big a problem the drug has become.

“You can’t start to fix a problem unless you recognise it as a problem in the first place,” he said.

“That was the mentality we took when I was in Wellington. People were calling the place ‘Little Antarctica’ because of the high rate.

“But we were targeting it, our stats were high because of the work we were doing and that stigma that came from that kind of nickname actually made the town more keen to help us fight the issue.

Snr Sgt Madgwick was also keen to point out that the footage filmed in Wellington during 2015 that will appear on Ice Wars isn’t related to footage shown on previous news broadcasts from the town’s train station.

“It’s nothing to do with the train station footage,” he said.

“The crew was with us for five or six days while we did some planned drug operations.”