Alcohol, Tobacco Use Falls: Report

Source from:  au.news.yahoo.com Sunday April 27 04/28/2008

The use of tobacco, alcohol and illegal drugs has fallen, but the attitudes of teenagers towards alcohol remain worrying, according to a new report. The 2007 National Drug Strategy Household Survey, undertaken by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), shows tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs use all fell between 2004 and 2007. But AIHW spokesman Mark Cooper-Stanbury said the report raised concerns about Australia's young people. "Around one quarter of teenagers put themselves at risk of alcohol-related harm at least once a month," he said. The proportion of teenagers drinking at least weekly was around 22 per cent. "The proportion was higher among females (28.3 per cent) than males (24.5 per cent)," Mr Cooper-Stanbury said. Overall, alcohol and tobacco remain Australia's most popular drugs. Alcohol continues to be the most easily accessible drug, with nine out of 10 Australians trying alcohol at some time in their lives, and 82.9 per cent consuming alcohol in the last 12 months. One in eight people admitted to driving a motor vehicle and one in 17 admitted verbally abusing someone while under the influence of alcohol. In contrast to popular belief, there has been no increase in the use of ice, or crystal methamphetamine. Almost two in every five Australians (38.1 per cent) had used an illicit drug at some time in their lives, with more than one in seven using them in the past 12 months. But there has been a significant fall in the number of people who used illicit drugs in the past 12 months, from 15.3 per cent to 13.4 per cent. Decreases in use were recorded for every drug, except cocaine and heroin. Marijuana use fell from 17.9 to 9.1 per cent; misuse of painkillers fell from 5.2 per cent to 2.5 per cent; misuse of tranquillisers and sleeping pills fell from three per cent to 1.4 per cent; and amphetamine use fell from 3.7 per cent to 2.3 per cent. "However, since the last survey, the proportion of both men and women reporting recent cocaine use has increased, but more so for men, from 1.3 per cent to 2.2 per cent," Mr Cooper-Stanbury said. Heroin use has remained stable at 0.2 per cent since 2001, after a high of 0.8 per cent in 1998. Most Australians did not want illicit drugs legalised and illicit drugs were more likely than legal drugs to be associated with drug problems. Nearly half (44.6 per cent) of Australians aged 14 or older had smoked 100 or more cigarettes at some time in their lives, but less than one in five had smoked in the last 12 months. The proportion who smoked daily declined from 17.4 per cent to 16.6 per cent between 2004 and 2007, and 16 remains the average age for people to take up smoking. Mr Cooper-Stanbury said this is one of the lowest daily smoking rates in the world. "The report also showed 16 to 17-year-old females were almost twice as likely to be daily smokers (7.4 per cent) as their male counterparts (4.1 per cent), although both of these figures dropped by about half from the previous survey," he said. Almost 25,000 Australians aged 12 or older participated in the survey, in which they were asked about their knowledge and attitudes towards drugs, their drug use histories and behaviours. This is the ninth such survey performed by AIHW, the first one was in 1985. Enditem