School Drug Education - National Drug Strategic Framework

• The Australian Government’s National Drug Strategic Framework 1998-99 to 2003-04 represents a shared vision, a framework for cooperation and a basis for coordinated action. Its mission is to improve health, social and economic outcomes by preventing the uptake of drug use and reducing the impact of licit and illicit drugs in Australia. The Framework encompasses:

• supply reduction strategies designed to disrupt the production and supply of illicit drugs;
• demand reduction strategies designed to prevent the uptake of harmful drug use, including abstinence oriented strategies to reduce use; and
• a range of targeted harm reduction strategies.

• The Framework places an emphasis on successful partnerships across government, non-government and the community sectors, and in particular values the partnership between health and law enforcement agencies.

• The Australian Government has developed a number of National strategies that provide a basis for action, including the National Alcohol Strategy, the National Tobacco Strategy, the National Illicit Drugs Strategy “Tough on Drugs” and the National School Drug Education Strategy.

• The National Tobacco Strategy aims to prevent the uptake of tobacco use in non-smokers, especially young people, by strengthening community action, promoting cessation of tobacco use, reducing the availability and supply of tobacco, and reducing tobacco promotion.

• The most recent national figures on tobacco prevalence from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s 2001 National Drug Strategy Household Survey, indicate that daily smoking prevalence for smokers aged over 14 years had fallen from 21.8 per cent in 1998 to 19.5 per cent in 2001.

• The Government has funded the most collaborative, intensive and sustained anti-tobacco campaign in Australia’s history with more than $19.5 million of Australian Government funding spent on the campaign as at July 2002. The campaign continues to show its effectiveness in reducing smoking rates.

• It has amended the Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Act 1992 to ban tobacco advertising at international sporting events from 1 October 2006. It also stopped all new events from having tobacco advertising from 1 October 2000, making us one of the first countries to take action on this issue.

• The National Alcohol Strategy aims to reduce acute and chronic disease and injury and premature mortality related to alcohol misuse and build a healthier and safer community by minimising alcohol related harm to the individual, family and community.

• The three leading causes of death among adolescents – unintentional injuries, homicide and suicide are all associated with alcohol. Between 1990 and 1997 over half of all serious alcohol related road injuries (52%) in Australia were sustained by people aged 15-24 years.

• The increase in high risk drinking by our young people is cause for concern. In 2000, the Government launched the National Alcohol Campaign which was targeted at young teenagers and their parents. The government worked collaboratively with the alcohol industry and other stakeholders in the development of the campaign. A booster phase of the Campaign was undertaken in 2002.

• For thirteen years the Australian Government has been a major national sponsor of the Rock Eisteddfod which delivers drug and alcohol prevention messages to teenagers in the form of a performing arts event for primary and secondary schools.

• In 1997 the Government made a commitment to make every effort to address the illicit drug problem in Australia and accordingly has introduced the largest single initiative ever undertaken in this country to respond to the supply of, and demand for, illicit drugs.

• We have some evidence that the commitment, of more than $625 million, is working:

• fewer people are now using illicit drugs - the 2001 National Drug Strategy Household Survey reported a 23% reduction in the proportion of people using illicit drugs;

• fewer people are dying of overdoses - the Australian Bureau of Statistics has reported 306 deaths in 2001, compared to 725 in 2000 and 958 in 1999;

• more parents are talking to their children about drugs - 78% of parents spoke to their children about drugs during the 2001 National Illicit Drugs Campaign;

• increased availability of treatment services - over 30,000 treatment episodes were provided in 2001-02 compared with 19,000 the previous year through 140 services funded under the Non-Government Organisation Treatment Grants Programme;

• the availability of new treatment options for the management of opioid dependency - including buprenorphine; and

• increased availability of national information on drug use and markets - through the Illicit Drug Reporting System and Drug Use Monitoring in Australia projects.