Use of ice (crystal methamphetamine) by injecting drug users in Australia continued to climb in 2012, according to research on emerging drug trends by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) at the University of New South Wales.
The Federal Government has committed $5 million to the establishment of a national real-time reporting (RTR) system for the prescription of Schedule 8 drugs, but experts advise that the scheme needs to be monitored for unintended consequences.
The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of New South Wales will lead a new Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) targeting co-occurring mental illness and substance use – a debilitating comorbidity which affects more than 300,000 Australians every year.
Congratulations to NDARC’s Professor Alison Ritter and Mr Joe Van Buskirk for their achievements at the recent Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs (APSAD) Conference.
Do young Australians want illicit drugs to be decriminalised? Are they confident an increase in the price of booze will stop their peers from binging? Do they think police with sniffer dogs help to curb drug use at festivals?
NDARC will play host to Iain McGregor on Thursday 6 December when the Professor of Psychopharmacology will present his latest work on trends in prescription drug use in Australia.
EMBARGO NOT FOR RELEASE BEFORE 1.00AM OCTOBER 9 2012
Young Australians’ opinions on responses to alcohol and other drug use are currently being sought in a new research study.
A report released by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre reveals that a total of 500 Australians aged 15-54 died due to accidental opioid overdoses in 2008 – the latest year for which final figures are available.
Non-profit group Australia 21 has released a new report on illicit drugs, entitled “Alternatives to prohibition”.
