Researchers, health professionals, consumer groups and advocates in the field have repeatedly called for widespread availability of naloxone for people who inject drugs and potential overdose witnesses, to reduce the incidence of fatal overdose.
Public opinion can play an important role in determining policy and informing political processes.
NIDIP was established in the recognition that there was a greater need for the regular dissemination of trends in the epidemiology of drug-related harms in Australia.
Police diversion is one of Australia’s most utilised interventions for drug offenders. Yet fuelled in large part by methodological deficits there remain key gaps in knowledge about the outcomes and the cost-effectiveness of such approaches.
This project sought to clarify Australian drug and alcohol treatment funding; current and future service needs; the gap between met and unmet demand; and planning and funding processes for the future.
This project aimed to deliver:
Alcohol-related harms contribute substantially to the burden of disease in Australia, with a wide range of acute and chronic consequences associated with alcohol consumption.
Many young people regard alcohol and illicit drugs as part of the repertoire of products that facilitate socialising through intoxication. This has become a pressing public policy issue because the practice costs society dearly.
There is growing law enforcement evidence that, in comparison with the period spanning 2002-03 to 2006-07, the supply of cocaine to Australia is relatively high (Hughes, Chalmers et al., 2011).
The NSW Ministry of Health is leading a project to develop a national population based model for drug and alcohol service planning, known as the National Drug and Alcohol Clinical Care and Prevention Modelling Project (DA-CCP).
Most Australian states and territories have adopted drug trafficking thresholds which specify quantities of drugs, over which it is presumed an offender has committed an offence of ‘drug trafficking’, rather than ‘possession for personal use’.
