"Aussies turning off illegal drugs" Courier Mail 23/5/02

Aussies turning off illegal drugs
Siobhain Ryan
23may02
THE number of Australians using illicit drugs has dropped by almost a quarter over a three-year period, driven by a fall in the popularity of cannabis.
But alcohol and tobacco use remain the biggest drug-related causes of death and illness, a new Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report has found.
The first results from the 2001 National Drug Strategy Household Survey, drawn from interviews with 27,000 Australians aged 14 or more, show a surprising reversal in illegal drug usage, after a peak in 1998.
One in six people used illicit substances in the previous 12 months in 2001, compared to more than one in five in 1998 – a trend disputed by local community workers.
Alcohol and Drug Foundation chief executive officer Bob Aldred said the reported fall in cannabis use was particularly suspect.
"We've never seen any indication that it has dropped at all. In fact, we've seen more people come to us with cannabis problems than ever before," he said.
Among legal drugs, the survey recorded a two-percentage-point fall in the share of the population among those who smoked daily but no change among those who drank daily.
Mark Cooper-Stanbury, head of AIHW's Population Health and Data Cooper-Stanbury, said that Australians were "much more likely to link drug problems with heroin and cocaine use, rather than tobacco or alcohol".
Only 3 and 8 per cent respectively of those surveyed considered smoking and drinking to be community drug issues.
In contrast, more than nine in 10 people aged 14 or more rated illicit drug use as a problem, amid a hardening of attitudes towards black market substances.
The numbers concerned about heroin use jumped by a third from 1998-2001, while those worried about alcohol and tobacco consumption slumped dramatically.
The survey showed growing support for tougher penalties for the sale and supply of illicit drugs, with more people identifying enforcement as a funding priority last year than in 1988.
Of all the heroin treatments, rapid detoxification and Naltrexone programs had the biggest public following, attracting support from more than three-quarters of the population.
But people were also more accepting of harm minimisation as well as abstinence approaches, with 45 per cent and 59 per cent backing heroin injecting rooms and needle exchanges respectively.
At the same time, the community was less tolerant of passive smoking, with the numbers supporting a smoking ban on pubs and clubs rising above 50 per cent for the first time.
Smoker Michael Wilkins, 24, and non-smoker Tone Schonberg, 22, were among those who disapproved of smoking in clubs and restaurants.
"Even though I smoke, I found I enjoyed overseas cities where smoking was banned in clubs," Mr Wilkins said.
"It encourages me to smoke less, and I don't come home stinking from a night out."
Courier Mail story URL here
1998 Household Survey is here
Some more info about the 2001 Household Survey is here
The complete 2001 National Household Survey can be found here
[ 23 May 2002: Message edited by: hardup ]

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...and your average drug pig is probably asleep during these hours
I realise that this was a joke but it's interesting to note that most people, from my experiences anyway, who are into drugs work full time and generally have pretty good jobs.
There's something about IT nerds and drugs. (I am an IT nerd)

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There were no significant differences in use of amphetamines or ecstasy between the 1998 and 2001 surveys.
Read the press release here
[ 23 May 2002: Message edited by: hardup ]

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Yeah the numbers of people using speed/ecstasy have risen unbelievably in the last few years. Anyone who has more than ten friends knows this. The numbers of my friends who take pills has about quadrupled in the last year or so....and everyone I've spoken to about this agrees. These surveys are a joke...they're talking to the wrong people.

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