Drug Addiction Problems Among Young Australians

There are quite a number of reports in regards to drug addiction problems among young Australians, starting with a report that summarizes data on drug use during adolescence in Australia. It presents surveys and reports that showcase the extent and prevalence of substance usage among the Australian youth, which includes alcohol, cannabis, meth, and many other problematic drugs.

Meth Use in Australia Among Its Youths

According to research conducted by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Center, the number of Australians using meth, including ice or crystal meth, has tripled in 5 years. This study was published in the Medical Journal of Australia back in 2016. The most alarming finding about this study on the growing Aussie meth epidemic is the number of Australian youths who’ve become users of the drug.

Teenagers and young adults between the ages of 15 and 24 years of age has more than doubled from 21,000 dependent and regular users in 2011 to 59,000 users in 2016. The data gathered in the survey suggests that a newer, younger population in Australia are initiating meth usage and developing regular to dependent use along with the dire consequences associated with such habits.

Surveys Regarding Australian Cannabis Addiction

Reports from the National Drug Strategy Household Survey and Australian School Students’ Alcohol and Drugs Survey examine issues like the factors linked to increased cannabis usage and how it links and results to early usage of marijuana. Cannabis usage is important to take note of because marijuana is known as a gateway drug of the worst kind.

Many regular drug users and addicted individuals first started out with cannabis and worked their way to harder drugs like cocaine, heroin, and meth. From the resulting information, the studies have also pointed out possible strategies to delay or prevent use of pot and their potential harm.

• Elevated Rate of Marijuana Use: According to the National Drug Strategy Household Survey that conducted interviews with 350 Australian youths from 14 to 19 years of age back in 1995, its results confirm findings of past Australian reports in regards to the elevated rate of marijuana usage among Australian youth.
• Starts at a Young Age: According to the Australian School Students’ Alcohol and Drugs Survey conducted in 1996 that collected info from 30,000 school students, the patterns of cannabis use among youth showcase how a significant percentage of them start at a young age. To be more specific, about 36.4 percent of Aussie teens aged 12 to 17 years of age had used cannabis at least once.
• Most Only Used It for a Few Occasions: The good news is that the majority of the Australian youths who reported that they’ve used cannabis have only used it a few occasions. However, a small minority of them composed of 1.4 percent females and 4 percent males reported using marijuana for at least 6 occasions recently (specifically over the past week).
• Age and Gender Differences: The dual surveys also reveal how pot usage differs among the genders and throughout the different ages. The older the Aussie youth is the likelier he or she is to report usage of marijuana. Meanwhile, at all ages males were consistently likelier than females to report regular and lifetime cannabis use.
• Now the Most Commonly Used Illicit Drug in Australia:Let’s fast-track to 2010. A good 13-14 years later and now marijuana is the most used illegal drug in the Land Down Under. Over 35.4 percent or 6.5 million of Australians (a third of the population, in fact) aged 14 years old and above have used cannabis at least once in their life. 1.9 million of them have used cannabis in the last 12 months.
• An Increase from Way Back and Recently:The results from the 1995-1996 surveys show that there was actually an increase in marijuana usage prevalence among the Aussie youth from one year to another and even in the last decade or so. Previous region-based surveys conducted in the 1990s show that a quarter or 25 percent of the teens 12 to 17 years of age have used cannabis while about 36 percent of them reported the same thing.
• Furthermore, recent cannabis use among 14 year olds and older has increased from 9.1 percent back in 2007 to 10.3 percent in 2010. In fairness, daily users of the drug have decreased from 14.9 percent in 2007 to 13 percent in 2010. Regardless, Australians 14 years old and older numbering about 247,000 has used marijuana on a daily basis in 2010.
• Disclaimer When Comparing Studies: Comparing studies should be treated with caution. There are different questionnaire formats and sampling frames from survey to survey. All the same, this increase in cannabis use prevalence among the youth of Australia has been paralleled with the rising rates of other drugs in the Land Down Under. If the same survey were used across the years, then the increase would be more noteworthy and accurate without any variables mucking up the results.

Early Cannabis Use Risk Factors and Problem Behaviors

According to the literature indicated above, the risk factors involved with the increased rates of marijuana usage among the Aussie youth include the following:

• Peer affiliations and peer pressure
• Intelligence and school-related factors
• General measures of social disadvantage
• Family environment and family substance use behaviors
• Individual behavioral predispositions and personality factors 

As for the consequences and correlations of early marijuana usage, research suggests that Aussie youth who report using pot are also likelier to report a range of problem or adverse behaviors, which includes the following:

• Taking sexual risks
• Engaging in criminal offenses
• Having mental health problems

A major part of these links come from the influence of adverse social, family, and individual factors. This places the affected Aussie youth at an increased risk for marijuana and general illicit drug usage as well as a number of adverse outcomes.

Even though using cannabis early on in your life may contribute to the risk of bad behavior and the risk of substance abuse or misuse, early cannabis use makes a smaller contribution to attitude maladjustment.

Preventing Cannabis Use Among the Australian Youth

There are also studies and research conducted for preventing or delaying marijuana usage among the Australian youth as well as minimizing the harm caused by using this substance. The five broad categories of prevention methods include the following:

1. Interventions Aimed at Social and Contextual Factors: This intervention involves putting into context why the youth is using marijuana and how peer pressure might factor into his decision. 
2. Interventions Targeted at High-Risk Families: As for this type of prevention, it’s all about targeting the youths that come from families with drug-related abuse problems, overdose issues, medical and rehab history, and arrests. 
3. School-Based Interventions Targeted at High-Risk Individuals: Schools can stage interventions among so-called juvenile delinquents or students who are viewed as high-risk when it comes to cannabis usage. 
4. School-Based Interventions Targeted at Teaching Life Skills and Peer Resistance Skills: This intervention type is more educational and aims to make students more away about the dangers of drugs and not giving in to peer pressure. 
5. Harm Minimization Strategies Aimed at Reducing the Potentially Harmful Effects of Cannabis Use Among Drug Users: Harm minimization is a strategy directed toward Australian youths that aims to reduce the harms associated with certain behaviors correlating to cannabis use. 

Among Young Australians, Binge Drinking Remains a Big Problem

Aside from the marijuana problem among Australia’s youth, these individuals are also prone to the binge drinking phenomenon. It doesn’t help that drinking and pot smoking is encourages culturally among Aussies as well, leading to substance abuse and graduating from those gateway drugs to harder drugs.

With that in mind, experts are calling for more education among the Australian youth in regardsto the risks of binge drinking, drinking alcohol immoderately, and alcoholism or alcohol addiction. On average, it takes 18 years from when someone first starts to have issues with alcohol to actually needing to seek rehabilitation treatment.

AIHW Studies on Australian Youth Binge Drinking

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare or AIHW, young people in Australia from 18 to 24 years old continue to drink at risky levels that could lead from alcoholism to alcohol poisoning in 2016. What’s worse is that these (legal-aged) young adults are unlikely to seek help for their condition because they don’t see it as a problem at all.

According to AIHW spokesman Tim Beard, the AIHW binge drinking report looked at who was binge drinking and also at lifetime risky drinking behaviors. When you average out the drinking over a year, it means that people are drinking 2 or more standard drinks on average every day.

Many of the risky drinkers from 18 to 20 should come into treatment services at a younger age rather than have them do it when they’re already 40 years old and their liver is already shot.According to the National Drug and Alcohol Research Center’s Professor Maree Teesson, the findings showed that education in regards to alcohol abuse should be focused on the youth rather than the middle-aged.

In any case, here are the key points of the study.

1. Binge Drinking Disambiguation and 40-Year-Old Men: Binge drinking can refer from taking 4 drinks to 6 drinks or more in one sitting. Australian men over 40 years of age make up for the largest group of clients in treatment. In contrast, only a few young people tend to admit themselves into rehab.
2. Young People and the Stigma of Alcoholism:There’s a strong stigma among young people when it comes to considering admitting the have a problem. Therefore, there should be a reduction of the stigma in order to make the youth consider entering treatment earlier than later.
3. Earlier Treatment Is For the Best: According to Professor Teesson, younger people might be likelier to consider earlier treatment than in their 40s if the stigma around admitting they’re binge-drinking alcoholics with addiction problems is considerably reduced.
4. No More Mixed Messages:Instead of celebrating alcoholism and giving young Australians mixed and complex messages about having a good time and drinking loads of alcohol, they should be able to identify when they have a drinking problem and that they need help or rehab. These alternating messages can cause short-term and long-term harm.
5. Educating the Youth Regarding Excessive Drinking: Experts say that the report’s results show more work is required to educate the Australian youth in regards to the dangers of excessive alcohol consumption to reduce the stigma of alcoholism.

The Light at the End of the Tunnel of Australian Youth Drug Abuse

According to a new study tracing Australian teenager health since 1999 to 2015, the consumption of “legal” vices like tobacco and alcohol has dropped among the Australian youth within 20 years. They’re also taking fewer drugs as of late. Both the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and Deakin University conducted the study.

• The Participants of the Survey:The study involves 41,328 adolescents as participants, with the average age of 13½ years of age among all of them, from 1999 to 2015 in Queensland, Victoria, and Western Australia. Of the participants, 7.1 percent were from Queensland, 10.1 percent were from Western Australia, and 82.8 percent were from Victoria. 
• Information was gathered through anonymous surveys wherein students ended up self-reporting alcohol and drug use, so take the info with a grain of salt in light of what teenagers are willing to share. The fact that the surveys were anonymous did help people who’d otherwise shy away from sharing info to actually engage in the study.
• Alcohol, Cannabis, and Tobacco: The number of teens consuming alcohol specifically fell from 69 percent to 45 percent. Meanwhile, cannabis use fell from 15 percent to 4 percentover the same time period. Finally, tobacco usage dropped from 45 percent to 10 percent, which is the steepest decline of all the substances involved in the study.
• Stricter Parents and Better Awareness: The authors of the study attribute this decline to stricter parental attitudes regarding alcohol, a growing awareness in mass media and the news regarding Australia’s drug problems, and law reforms that reduced the availability of these substances from the 20^th Century to the 21^st Century.
• Overall Improvements in Attitudes Regarding Drinking and Drugs: Because Australian adults are now setting better examples to their youths by following the advice of national health guidelines, they’re able to make radical changes towards their attitude towards underage drinking and drug-taking. Australians are becoming more responsible with their substance intake in light of recent drug addiction scares and the current meth epidemic.
• A Change in National Health Guidelines:The normative change in attitudes to teenaged drinking might’ve been influenced by Australia’s national health guidelines change back in 2009. From 1998 to 2007, the supply of alcohol rose from 15 percent to 22 percent. However, in 2013, it suddenly dropped to 12 percent, which is around the time the 2009 national health guidelines were changed.
• Toumbourou claims that in 2009, the guidelines were altered to clearly state that Australian youths shouldn’t drink until the legal age of 18. This was widely promoted since then. Around 2011, many states brought in the law that made it illegal for adults to provide alcoholic drinks to young people without the permission of their parents, which made the realize they needed signed permission to host parties serving alcohol.
• Australia Sets an Example to the World: Despite the current drug and meth epidemic Australia is facing, their success in curbing youths from using legal and illegal substances could send a message to other countries. The nation continent has outperformed Europe in alcohol reduction use by teens over the same time period. The U.S. led this movement of increasing public awareness of substance abuse by education and legislation, and Australia helped continue it.

That’s not to say that the previous studies are somehow outdated and that the youth of Australia are already out of the woods in regards to their propensity to use various substances at a young age. Rather, Australia is taking a step in the right direction towards solving their current existing drug crisis. Past efforts to curb this systemic and cultural propensity for addiction are making an impact.

In Conclusion and Rehabilitation

Effectively mitigating the harm caused by using marijuana, alcohol, meth, cocaine, heroin, and other drugs won’t be achieved by applying any one of these methods by themselves. Instead, a generalized or systemic use of all programs and interventions in a concurrent fashion is called for. It’s important that the extent of usage among the Australian youth be monitored carefully to boot.

Regardless, Australia is in the right direction in fixing its drug problems by spreading awareness and legislation that discourages youths from using these addictive substances. If the youths in question are already dependent on marijuana and other drugs, then they should be put into rehabilitation in a youth center or somewhere like Thailand’s Lanna Rehab. Even if it’s in Thailand, the service there is high-quality and cost-effective even with the travel costs included. 

Australian Drug and Alcohol Addiction Rehab at Lanna Rehab 

Call the staff and crew of Lanna Rehabilitation Center in if you’re an Australian in need of drug and alcohol rehab or you want to enter an Aussie loved one into rehab in Thailand. The establishment is quite experienced when it comes to dealing with various addictions, from meth to marijuana as well as alcoholism. Call Lanna Rehab’s toll-free number to get a hold of their quality facilities and internationally trained doctors, therapists, and doctors. They’re available 24/7.