Overview
Illicit drug use is a major cause of preventable disease and is associated with risks to people who use drugs, their family and friends, and the community. Illicit use of drugs includes use of illegal drugs, non-medical use of pharmaceutical drugs, and use of other substances (such as inhalants) illicitly.
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Featured summary
Harms from illicit drugs affect all Australian communities, families, and individuals, either directly or indirectly. These harms are numerous and include:
- health impacts such as burden of disease, overdose, hospitalisation and death
- social impacts such as violence, crime, and trauma
- economic impacts such as the cost of health care and law enforcement.
Some population groups are at greater risk of experiencing harms associated with illicit drug use, including young people, people with mental health conditions, and gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or intersex people (Department of Health 2017).
The National Drug Strategy 2017–2026 is a framework to build safe, healthy and resilient Australian communities through preventing and minimising alcohol, tobacco and other drug-related health, social, cultural and economic harms among individuals, families and communities.
The framework takes a balanced approach across the 3 pillars of harm minimisation:
- Demand reduction
- Supply reduction
- Harm reduction.
The Commonwealth Government established the National Ice Taskforce to provide advice to Government on the impacts of methamphetamine (ice) in Australia and the actions needed to address this growing problem. The National Ice Action Strategy 2015 was developed in response to the findings of the Taskforce and aims to:
- prevent people from using ice (methamphetamine) and other drugs
- help those who are using these drugs to stop
- reduce the harms that these drugs are causing to people and communities.
This strategy includes actions to help governments, service providers and communities to work together to achieve these aims. Actions include:
- giving people the support and tools they need
- focusing on high-risk groups
- improving treatment services
- targeting efforts to disrupt the supply of ice (Department of Health 2015).
The National Preventative Health Strategy 2021–2030 includes a range of aims to reduce alcohol and other drug harm. A key target in this strategy is to decrease the prevalence of recent illicit drug use (≥14 years) by 2030 (Department of Health 2021).
References
Department of Health (2015) National Ice Action Strategy 2015, Department of Health and Aged Care website, accessed 31 August 2022.
Department of Health (2017) National Drug Strategy 2017–2026, Department of Health and Aged Care website, accessed 13 October 2019.
Department of Health (2021) National Preventive Health Strategy 2021–2030, Department of Health and Aged Care website, accessed 31 August 2022.
Featured reports
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Alcohol, tobacco & other drugs in Australia
Web report |
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National Drug Strategy Household Survey 2022–2023
Web report |
Latest findings
Tobacco smoking is the leading cause of preventable health burden in Australia
Over the past 50 years, levels of apparent consumption of different alcoholic beverages changed substantially
Cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug in Australia
Daily tobacco smoking rate dropped from 11.0% to 8.3% between 2019 and 2022–2023
Use of electronic cigarettes and vapes nearly tripled between 2019 (2.5%) and 2022–2023 (7.0%)
Around 1 in 3 people (31%) in Australia drank alcohol in ways that put their health at risk in 2022–2023
More reports and statistics on illicit use of drugs can be found under Alcohol, Alcohol & other drug treatment services and Smoking and e-cigarettes.