|
|
|
Australian Drug Dependence report
Thursday June 19, 08:24 PM
|
This information is published here in the interests of Public Awareness
|
Here are two versions of a very disturbing view of the "Lucky Country", both corroborate the current trend: Australia is becoming a nation of Drug Addicts. While the government is shovelling more and more public money into the voracious maw of the global pharma-cartel via drug subsidies, Australians are desperately drugging themselves to cope with daily life. Just how much "Luckier" can we get and still stay alive?
Next time you're zooming along the highway at 100kph - just think: 1 out of 3 cars heading in your direction at a relative speed of 200kph is in the control of a drug-dependent driver, and that's not counting drink-drivers either! Can you handle that without drugs?
ABC online News:-
One in three adults needs drugs to cope
The Australia Institute says its analysis of data from the Bureau of Statistics shows nearly a third of Australian adults use medications and other substances including alcohol and illegal drugs to cope with psychological distress.
The finding is based on unpublished data collected for the National Health Survey released late last year.
The Institute asked the ABS to provide data on the use of medications, vitamin and mineral supplements and natural products to improve mental wellbeing.
To get a fuller picture, the Institute then asked for data on excessive alcohol use, which when coupled with the number of Australians dependent on illegal drugs took the total to over 30 per cent.
The Institute's Dr Clive Hamilton says it is a worrying trend.
"We're supposed to be happy, we're supposed to be living the good life, we're a very wealthy nation," he said.
"[But we have a] huge epidemic of psychological distress in Australia."
Dr Hamilton says the figures suggest men are more likely to use alcohol to cope, while women tend to use prescription medicines.
He says there are also differences amongst younger and older people.
"Older people are more likely to rely on legal medications, whether it be pills for anxiety or depression or alcohol.
"The difference is compensated for because young people are much more likely to take illicit drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, heroin, speed."
Yahoo.au:
Many Aussies drug dependent: report
More than one quarter of all Australian adults are relying on legal drugs to get them through the day, a new report has found.
The Australia Institute, using unpublished data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, said 36 per cent of Australians had reported high or moderate levels of psychological distress in the fortnight before they were surveyed.
It said to cope with this distress, people were increasingly turning to prescribed, drugs to help them cope.
"When we add together high risk alcohol use and medications taken for mental well-being, we find that 27 per cent of Australians over 18 rely on substances to cope with life," it said.
The drugs people are taking include sleeping tablets (4.1 per cent) and anti-depressants (4.7 per cent), while 5.4 per cent of those surveyed took "natural" medications such as St John's wort.
The institute said women were more likely to use medication to help them, while men more often relied on alcohol.
When illegal drugs were taken into account, perhaps up to one third of people were relying on drugs to cope with life.
The institute's Clive Hamilton said the results seemed to show that the material wealth of Australians was failing to satisfy their psychological well being.
"For decades we have all been striving for the good life," he said in the report.
"Now that most of us have it, a large proportion of the population seems to be dependent on medications and other substances to avoid falling into a more or less permanent state of anxiety, depression and despair."
|
|
|
