poledriver
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2005
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YOUNG women's cocaine consumption has risen quickly in the past three years, according to federal government statistics that confirm the drug has achieved mainstream status among educated, high-earning city dwellers.
The number of women in their 20s who reported they had used the drug within the past 12 months rose by 60 per cent in the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's national drug use survey of more than 26,000 people, conducted last year and reported today, compared to the previous study in 2007.
One in 20 women aged 20 to 29 is now a recent cocaine user, according to the figures, putting the drug on a par with methamphetamine and approaching ecstasy - recently used by 8.2 per cent - in its popularity with young women. Across all age groups, women in 2010 were nearly three times as likely to use a dealer to buy cocaine as they had been in 2007, suggesting they were actively seeking out the drug rather than taking it more opportunistically.
But men's cocaine use remains higher than women's, though it has grown less steeply.
Michael Farrell, the director of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of NSW, cautioned the national cocaine binge - which has increased the overall number of recent users by 100,000 to 380,000 - was likely to bring serious health problems.
''Cocaine is a very problematic drug,'' Professor Farrell said. ''We associate cocaine with mood and anxiety disorders, and increased risk of self-harm and suicidal thinking.''
He said users needed to understand cocaine could trigger sudden and sometimes fatal heart problems. ''That's an important message for middle-aged, middle-class men'' who were occasional cocaine users, he said, and whose risk of heart attack was already relatively high.
Professor Farrell said the results confirmed findings from smaller surveys of regular drug users, conducted by the centre, which found cocaine had become more readily available especially in NSW. The rise was in line with a cocaine epidemic in several European countries, he said.
The national figures show NSW is the epicentre of Australian cocaine use, with an overall 2.9 per cent of residents saying they had taken the drug in the last year - more than 20 per cent higher than next-ranked Victoria.
Recent users are overwhelmingly childless young singles, relatively highly educated, who live in big cities. The national study also identified:
- A fall to 15.1 per cent from 16.6 per cent in the proportion of people who smoke tobacco daily, mainly attributable to a fall in smoking among people in their 20s to 40s.
- A fall in teenage drinking, including an increase from 70 to 79 per cent in the proportion of 12- to 15-year-olds who did not drink at all.
- An increase in abuse of pharmaceuticals, especially over-the-counter painkillers.
The number of women in their 20s who reported they had used the drug within the past 12 months rose by 60 per cent in the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's national drug use survey of more than 26,000 people, conducted last year and reported today, compared to the previous study in 2007.
One in 20 women aged 20 to 29 is now a recent cocaine user, according to the figures, putting the drug on a par with methamphetamine and approaching ecstasy - recently used by 8.2 per cent - in its popularity with young women. Across all age groups, women in 2010 were nearly three times as likely to use a dealer to buy cocaine as they had been in 2007, suggesting they were actively seeking out the drug rather than taking it more opportunistically.
But men's cocaine use remains higher than women's, though it has grown less steeply.
Michael Farrell, the director of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of NSW, cautioned the national cocaine binge - which has increased the overall number of recent users by 100,000 to 380,000 - was likely to bring serious health problems.
''Cocaine is a very problematic drug,'' Professor Farrell said. ''We associate cocaine with mood and anxiety disorders, and increased risk of self-harm and suicidal thinking.''
He said users needed to understand cocaine could trigger sudden and sometimes fatal heart problems. ''That's an important message for middle-aged, middle-class men'' who were occasional cocaine users, he said, and whose risk of heart attack was already relatively high.
Professor Farrell said the results confirmed findings from smaller surveys of regular drug users, conducted by the centre, which found cocaine had become more readily available especially in NSW. The rise was in line with a cocaine epidemic in several European countries, he said.
The national figures show NSW is the epicentre of Australian cocaine use, with an overall 2.9 per cent of residents saying they had taken the drug in the last year - more than 20 per cent higher than next-ranked Victoria.
Recent users are overwhelmingly childless young singles, relatively highly educated, who live in big cities. The national study also identified:
- A fall to 15.1 per cent from 16.6 per cent in the proportion of people who smoke tobacco daily, mainly attributable to a fall in smoking among people in their 20s to 40s.
- A fall in teenage drinking, including an increase from 70 to 79 per cent in the proportion of 12- to 15-year-olds who did not drink at all.
- An increase in abuse of pharmaceuticals, especially over-the-counter painkillers.
here
for so many still smoking while pregnant...
