Summary - Department of Health and Ageing

It is of critical importance that policies, legislative models and regulations at national and
State/Territory levels are based on evidence about drug-related risk and harm, and enable
and empower local communities to develop effective prevention strategies.
Continued and enhanced investment is recommended in four broad areas to obtain
maximum benefit from simultaneous and complementary strategies. Areas are listed.
Universal interventions to prevent tobacco use and risky alcohol use: these legal
drugs generate the great bulk of health, economic and social drug problems in
Australia. The bulk of problems are found within mainstream society among people
with average levels of developmental risk. Early and heavy use of legal drugs predicts
later problematic use of alcohol and other drugs, as well as mental health problems.
Parental and community role models encourage use among children and adolescents,
suggesting the need for whole-population strategies to address overall levels of use and
to break intergenerational patterns.
Universal interventions to reduce the supply of, and demand for, licit and illicit
drugs: law enforcement strategies are necessary to protect the community against the
crime and social disorder that flow from the use of prohibited drugs. Law enforcement
plays a critical role in prevention by: reinforcing community values against illicit drug
use, controlling the supply of both licit and illicit drugs, and diverting early offenders
to preventive interventions. Demand reduction strategies such as community-based
interventions, public education and workplace interventions have demonstrated
effectiveness, under appropriate conditions.
Targeted interventions to address vulnerable and disadvantaged groups with
particular attention to Indigenous Australians: these interventions should provide
evidence-based support to families to encourage healthy development at key stages:
infancy, pre-primary and primary school ages. They have the potential to address the
bulk of harms associated with the use of illicit drugs as well as a significant proportion
of problems with legal drugs.
Treatment, brief intervention and harm reduction approaches for adolescents and
adults with emerging or developed risky drug use patterns. investment in treatment,
whether abstinence-oriented or harm-reducing, will reduce drug-related harm at the
population level. Brief screening interventions have untapped potential for widespread
application in primary health care and community settings. Family members, and
particularly children, need to be involved in treatment programs to help break
intergenerational patterns of substance use and related harm.
Key themes underlying recommendations in a variety of reports to address substance
misuse among Indigenous Australians include the need for:
addressing the social determinants of Indigenous inequality. This includes the call for
real and appropriate economic development for Indigenous people;
Indigenous people to be involved as equal partners at all stages in the development and
implementation of strategies to address substance misuse;
adequate resourcing. Funding for Indigenous affairs, over the past three decades, has
failed to meet the needs or to remedy the social and economic inequalities that
underlie and perpetuate the high levels of substance misuse among Indigenous
Australians. This inadequacy of funding extends to Indigenous health services and
Indigenous substance misuse services; and
a holistic and coordinated approach that includes Indigenous community-controlled
organisations, all levels of government and all sectors.