Patterns of drug use in the Northern Territory and Australia
ESSAY QUESTION: 'The patterns of drug use in the Northern Territory differ significantly to the rest of Australia'. Critically evaluate this statement, providing evidence of differences, exploring possible explanations for the differences, and discussing interventions from a harm minimisation perspective. Today, more than ever, drugs affect our daily lives. It is difficult to pick up a newspaper or watch a television program without finding a report or program that concerns drug use or some issue associated with it. This is certainly the case in modern Australian society where drugs play a large role in issues within the community. The Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS) monitors illicit drug markets across Australia. It consists of three components: (1) interviews with injecting drug users (IDUs); (2) interviews with key informants, professionals who have regular contact with illicit drug users through their work; and (3) analysis and examination of indicator data sources that are related to illicit drugs, such as National Household Survey data on drug use etc. The IDRS monitors the price, purity, availability, and patterns of use of heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, and cannabis across all the Australian jurisdict
Cocaine is a strong central nervous system stimulant that interferes with the reabsorption process of dopamine, a chemical messenger associated with pleasure and movement. In regards to heroin, intervention strategies include methadone maintenance and safer injecting facilities. In regards to pricing of cocaine across jurisdictions, it was found that gram prices in the Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania were similar to prices that were reported in New South Wales ($200), where cocaine has been the cheapest in previous years. According to reports from the IDRS, the purity of analysed cocaine seizures has remained stable across jurisdictions during the year 2002. The price of a cap of heroin remained $50 in all jurisdictions except the Northern Territory ($85) and Tasmania ($82. In regards to crystal methamphetamine, IDUs reported that the drug was easy to obtain in South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland whereas it was reported that the drug was difficult to obtain in New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and Tasmania (Breen et al. Methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) and the provision of safer injecting facilities were covered as examples of drug intervention strategies that aim to reduce harm in the community. Immediately after smoking or intravenous injection, the user experiences an intense sensation (a "rush" or "flash") that lasts only a few minutes and is described as extremely pleasurable. These reports differed in the findings from the 2001 IDRS which reported an overall decrease in heroin usage in most jurisdictions across Australia (Topp, Darke, Bruno, Fry, Hargreaves, Humeniuk, McAllister, O'Reilly, & Willaims, 2001). In 2002, the reported proportion of recent use of cocaine was found to have decreased in the Australian Capital Territory, Queensland, Western Australia and Victoria. In the Northern Territory, the prevalence of reported cocaine use by the IDRS has dropped each year from 18% in 2000 to 13% in 2001, and 10% in 2002 (Duquemin & Gray, 2003). The main active chemical in marijuana is THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol).
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Acceptance Essays
