This guideline will assist health professionals to identify, assess and treat people who use volatile substances, in metropolitan, rural and remote communities across Australia. The guideline is suitable for use by health professionals including medical practitioners, nurses, aboriginal health workers, alcohol and other drug workers and allied mental health workers. The guideline is applicable in primary care, emergency care, mental health, and alcohol and drug service settings.
The report reviews social and behavioural research on HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections. Stigma remains a major issue for people affected by HIV, hepatitis C or drug dependence.
This report is the 13th in our annual series reviewing behavioural data that inform responses to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), viral hepatitis and other sexually transmissible infections (STIs) in Australia. It aims to further the development and evaluation of prevention strategies, the understanding of individuals’ experiences of treatment and the social processes that shape the practice and experiences of individuals and communities.
The collaboration of Australian Needle and Syringe Programs has conducted annual sentinel surveillance of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) and associated risk behaviours among people who inject drugs since 1995. In October each year, all clients attending selected needle and syringe programs (NSPs) over a one to two week period are invited to participate in the Australian NSP Survey (ANSPS). Participation involves completion of a brief selfadministered anonymous questionnaire and the provision of a capillary blood sample which is subsequently tested for HIV and HCV antibodies. This issue of the Drug Trends Bulletin reports national and jurisdictional trends in ANSPS participant characteristics over the period 1995 to 2010.
Prisoner populations are characterised by engagement in a range of risk behaviours, most notably injecting drug use. Consequently they are at an increased risk of exposure to bloodborne viruses such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV. Previous Australian research has shown that hepatitis C is between thirty to forty times higher among prisoners compared with the general community. Therefore, surveillance of this population to detect the presence of bloodborne pathogens and identify trends in risk behaviours is important in planning effective prevention strategies. This is the third prison entrants’ survey to have been conducted; the first was undertaken in 2004 and the second in 2007. The 2010 survey was enhanced to test for three sexually transmissible infections (STI) - chlamydia, gonorrhoea, and syphilis.
While studies of cannabis use are numerous, the voices of consumers of cannabis are rarely heard. Even less prevalent are the voices of young people living with a mental illness, whose perceptions, attitudes and experiences are crucial to construction of effective health strategies and campaigns. This paper seeks to enhance understanding of the perceived and experienced links between cannabis use and mental health by young adults between the ages of 18 and 30 years who are living with a mental illness. With reference to insights gained from focus groups comprising members of this cohort, motivations for use and non-use of cannabis are discussed. Reappraisal of cannabis from a relatively safe and ‘soft’ drug to one that is implicated in psychosis and mental illness renders the experience of this cohort particularly relevant to public policy and debate. To the extent that cannabis can precipitate a predisposition to mental illness—thus catalysing a risk factor that may not be known in advance—it is vital that we know more about the perceptions of young people who are already confronting mental illness and their attitudes to cannabis use. Such knowledge can potentially lead both to more effective health promotion campaigns in relation to this cohort, and more effective engagement of young people in general (where, in the context of cannabis use and mental health, youth itself is a risk factor).
This report is part of an attempt to redress this knowledge deficit. Undertaken in close partnership with Australian Capital Territory Policing (ACTP), the project was a detailed study of the effectiveness of a series of policing measures implemented by the ACTP over several months to reduce and prevent alcohol-related violence in and around licensed premises and entertainment precincts in the ACT.
This snapshot describes the penalties imposed on convicted drink-drivers in NSW.
Aim: To describe the penalties imposed on adult offenders convicted of illicit drug offences involving amphetamines.
Summary: In 2009-2010, 2,398 offenders were convicted of illicit drug offences involving amphetamines. The majority (73%) were convicted of using or possessing amphetamines, while nearly a quarter were convicted of dealing or trafficking amphetamines. The most common penalty imposed on an offender convicted of using or possessing amphetamine was a fine. For higher level supply offences, including importing, manufacturing or dealing amphetamine, the vast majority of convicted offenders received a custodial sentence. For those convicted of deal/ traffic and use/possess offences, the likelihood of being imprisoned increased with the number of prior convictions and for those who had prior drug convictions that resulted in a custodial sentence. Among those imprisoned, the average aggregate sentence for manufacturing amphetamine was 61 months, with an average minimum term of 38.4 months. The average aggregate sentence for dealing or trafficking amphetamines was 42.4 months, with an average minimum term of 24 months. In contrast, the average aggregate sentence for using or possessing amphetamines was 6.1 months, with an average minimum term of 4.2 months.
[Page updated - 16 May 2012]
