1. Alcohol and other drugs Amber Jefferson Drug Surveys and Services Unit

2. Overview Why are we interested in alcohol and other drugs? Use, risk, poor health, deaths Reducing use and receiving treatment

3. Why alcohol? National preventative health priority Excessive alcohol consumption  disease and other harms Alcohol harm  3,430 deaths in 2003 Costs: $15.3 billion in 2004-05

4. Alcohol use over time

5. Risk Harm in the short term Males: 7 or more standard drinks Females: 5 or more standard drinks On any one occasion Harm in the long term Males: 29 or more standard drinks Females: 15 or more standard drinks Per week on average

6. Risk

7. Apparent alcohol consumption

8. Reduction Almost half of recent drinkers had tried to reduce their alcohol consumption Of those, 8.3% stopped, 7.4% switched to more low alcohol drinks Most common – reduce number of sessions (29.4%) and reduce number of drinks in one session (29.0%)

9. Why illicit drugs? Bloodborne viruses, low birthweight babies, poorer mental health, overdose and suicide Risk factor for ill health and death Illicit drug use  1,705 deaths in 2003 Costs: $8.2 billion in 2004-05

10. Illicit drug use

11. Injecting drug use

12. Treatment over time

13. Treatment by age

14. Summary Most people drink alcohol, many are at increased risk of disease and injury Most people don’t use illicit drugs, those that do mostly use cannabis Needle and syringe receptive sharing has remained stable over the last 5 years More treatment is being provided