The current "ice" epidemic

has apparently made the city I live in the "ice" capital of the country. The paper is full of it this morning. 
There is someone who will spend the rest of his life in jail for killing two people while high on ice. There is someone else on trial for killing his mate while high on ice. Not so long ago someone I know was telling me of her neighbour's son. They are doing everything they can to keep this young man out of the criminal justice system, trying to contain his ice addiction by watching him all the time. The strain is showing on the family - and is almost certainly doomed to failure.
I don't personally know anyone who is addicted to ice - crystal methamphetamine - but I do know people who are addicted to other things. I know people who are addicted to alcohol - and the appalling consequences that over-consumption of that can cause. I know people who are addicted to tobacco - and how hard it is to simply stop smoking even when they know the likely consequences. 
Addictions are hard to treat. As one person said to me recently, "The  hardest thing for a recently diagnosed diabetic with a chocolate addiction is to walk past that aisle in the supermarket."  I looked at her grossly overweight body - and genuinely felt sorry for her. I asked her what she was planning to do instead. 
That produced an odd response. She hadn't thought of doing something instead. Nobody had suggested it either. She was simply assuming that there was something she couldn't do, not something that could take the place of her chocolate addiction. (She was eating a "family" size block of chocolate each day.) 
Oh yes, she has been told to exercise. At the present time I suspect getting to the end of her street has her "puffed out". I don't know whether she will exercise or not. Perhaps. 
Exercise alone though is not the answer. At the beginning it will seem more like punishment than pleasure anyway. 
I was wary of suggesting anything at all. She was not a happy person right then. What I wanted to say though was, "What about getting back to knitting or embroidery or learning a new craft? What about going and thumping out some of your frustration on some clay?"
That's exercise of a different sort - and just as essential. It might help to stop some people from starting at all and help others to reduce and eventually overcome an education. It won't solve all the problems but I think it is time doctors started to prescribe that sort of thing. I'd rather taxpayer funds went on art or music lessons than hospital stays.