Taskforce to tackle ciggies, grog, drugs
April 09, 2008 12:52pm
THE Federal Government has appointed a taskforce to tackle the growing health and social challenges caused by smoking and drinking.
A report released by Health Minister Nicola Roxon today shows that in 2004-2005, the social cost of alcohol was $15.3 billion, tobacco use was $31.5bn and illicit drugs $8.2bn.
Alcohol and illicit drugs acting together cost another $1.1bn.
Ms Roxon described the figures as staggering and used them to announce that the taskforce would develop strategies tackle the problem.
"That's an enormous amount of money and that's not just the health cost to individuals or to the health system, it's also the flow-on costs in terms of crime, lost productivity at work, people taking time off to care for others," she said.
"So it's a very detailed analysis and a reminder to us of why it's so important to focus on prevention, why we need to be vigilant in our battle against tobacco, why we need to have more focus on excessive consumption of alcohol, and why we need to continue to make sure that there is a strong battle that we fight on all fronts against illicit drug use."
The taskforce has been charged with developing a national preventative health strategy by June 2009, with a focus on tobacco, alcohol and obesity.
It will also provide interim recommendations to be included in the Australian health care agreements between the Commonwealth, states and territories in July this year.
Ms Roxon said Australia needed a long-term strategy to ease the cost on communities.
She said the taskforce, headed by the professor of global health at the Nossal Institute of Global Health, Rob Moodie, would provide the Government with advice on how it could support intervention programs.
Ms Roxon said it would take many years to change attitudes towards preventative illnesses but the time was ripe for a new approach.
"I think the time is right for there to be a real shift in community thinking about the way we handle some of our health problems," she said.
"Health problems are not just about fixing hospitals, we actually have to fix some of the things that mean people end up in hospital."
