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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 11 Hansard (10 December) . . Page.. 3561 ..

The pattern of cigarette smoking, however, is not uniform across all age groups. Although data from the 1995 National Drug Strategy Household Survey is only available on a national basis, it is possible to infer ACT trends from the national picture, given the similarity of smoking patterns referred to earlier. In 1995 younger males, aged less than 35 years reported higher rates of smoking than males in older age groups.

Nationally, the proportion of current male smokers in the 14-19 year age group remained the same in 1993 and 1995, while in all other age groups until the 55 plus age group the proportion of current smokers declined. The overall pattern of current female smokers in 1993 and 1995 was similar to that of male smokers. The exceptions were a decline in the proportion of current female smokers in the 14-19 years age group and an increase in the 25-34 years age group during the period from 1993-1995. (Drug Use and Trends in the ACT- paper prepared by Epidemiology Unit in September 1997).

The Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 National Drug Strategy Household Survey is expected to be launched by the Commonwealth in late December 1998.

In 1996 the ACT participated in the National Australian School Students' Alcohol and Drugs (ASSAD) Survey. This survey is to be conducted again in 1999 and the ACT will participate for the second time. In terms of evaluating the results of health promotion activities around smoking conducted throughout the ACT, the second ASSAD survey will provide insight into changes in drug use behaviour as well as providing direction for future drug education strategies.

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