Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 8 Hansard (26 June) . . Page.. 2271 ..

MS DUNDAS (continuing):

drugs. The social costs, as we know, are enormous, and will continue to impact on the provision of social welfare services unless direct support and intervention are provided.

Equally, the economic impact of drug-related crime is considerable. A heavy narcotic user may spend in excess of $100,000, much of it derived from illegal activity. Simply putting more cops on the beat will not solve the cause of much of the petty theft in this territory. It will simply shove more people into interstate jails and into an environment hardly conducive to recovery. We will see more wasted lives, when intervention and rehabilitation is what is required. It is a shame that the budget delivered yesterday failed to pick up on this.

We also need to focus on prevention. This means more than simply funding a discussion in a youth centre or a "just say no" campaign in a school. We need to give the people of Canberra the information to understand the consequences of drug use, and we need to tell those who decide to engage in drug-taking behaviour the safest way to do so. This would mean a wide variety of techniques for getting information across, including targeted programs, mass media use and information services.

There is also the need to target specific at-risk groups in the population for special attention when supporting and promoting harm minimisation objectives. These are young people, indigenous people, those in incarceration, multicultural groups and women who are pregnant or breastfeeding. The development of distinctive programs for all these categories is essential to be able to address drug use in an effective and personalised manner.

Treating drug dependence and drug use as a health issue is the only way forward in this debate. We need to continue to adopt an evidence-based approach and plan strategies over a long time span, recognising that change will come gradually. We need leadership and the support that is needed to trial and evaluate new strategies and to provide financial support at a realistic level.

MR STANHOPE (Chief Minister, Attorney-General, Minister for Health, Minister for Community Affairs and Minister for Women) (3.52): Mr Speaker, I am very pleased to rise in support of the sentiments expressed by Ms Dundas. This is a matter of public importance. When each of us speaks about drug dependency and illicit substance abuse, we do so conscious of the extent to which it continues to be a serious problem for our community-as all drug use and ingestion is a serious problem for this community and, indeed, for Australia.

It is generally accepted that one in five Australians die of a drug-related cause. In 1998 an estimated 22,500 Australians died of drug-related causes and 175,000 were hospitalised as a result of conditions caused by harmful drug use or, in other words, drug abuse. It is conservatively estimated that the cost of harmful drug use to the Australian community is about $18 billion a year, with $12 billion of that due to tobacco use alone. These include the tangible and intangible costs but do not include the costs related to passive smoking, which US authorities studying drug use estimate to account for approximately 10 per cent of the costs of active smoking.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .