The ACT government wants ideas to tackle drug abuse, smoking, e-cigarettes and alcohol abuse, pointing out that drinking, especially, is a big problem in Canberra.
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Canberra has a worse problem with alcohol than other states and territories, according to figures in a new alcohol, drug and smoking strategy, released for public comment.
One-third of ACT men drink at harmful levels, more than two standard drinks a day, compared with 26 per cent nationally.
Among women, 12 per cent of Canberra women drink more than two drinks a day, compared with 10 per cent nationally.
A 375ml bottle of beer is 1.5 drinks. A 150ml glass of wine, at 12 per cent alcohol, is also 1.5 drinks.
Twenty-three per cent of ACT men and 13 per cent of women report driving while under the influence of alcohol, compared with 17 per cent nationally for men and 9 per cent nationally for women.
In Canberra 30 per cent of injuries treated in emergency departments (among people aged 15 or over) were caused by alcohol in 2012-13, a figure on the rise. Presentations for acute intoxication increased by 35 per cent in the three years from 2010.
Alcohol-related assaults are also on the rise, with 71 assaults every month in public places in 2010 (compared with 56 in in 2003), and a growing problem in the city centre.
And strikingly, 79 per cent of ACT prisoners were under the influence of alcohol or drugs when they committed their offence.
Canberra has 392 on-licence venues, 183 off-licences (bottle stores), 53 club licences and a handful of other licences. Among measures to tackle drinking, the strategy suggests a public education program, more work on fetal alcohol syndrome and a focus on drink driving.
It notes that the breath testing rate in Canberra in a 2013 study was one test per driver every 3.3 years, compared with one test per driver every 1.2 years nationally. The more breath tests per driver, the lower the number of alcohol related crashes, it says.
It also notes the significant recidivism in drink driving, with a third of ACT drink drivers in 2010-11 having been caught before – a rate still higher among drivers three times the legal limit (of whom more than half had been caught before).
The strategy points to gaps in testing drivers for drugs.
The use of illicit drugs has remained stable in recent years, according to the strategy, but the ACT had the third highest number of recent drug users in a 2010 study. Eighteen per cent of Canberrans reported recent illicit drug use, compared with a national average of 17 per cent.
The strategy notes the switch from powdered methamphetamine to the more dangerous crystal form, known as ice. Arrests for "amphetamine-type stimulants" in Canberra are on the rise, representing 15 per cent of drug arrests in 2010-11 and 22 per cent in 2012-13.
Between 2010 and 2013 in the ACT, the number of cases of people being treated for amphetamines increased from 198 to 496.
The strategy points to the effectiveness of prescribing heroin for addicts, but says a trial of heroin prescription would probably need the agreement of the Commonwealth, and recommends pushing for national action on the idea instead.
Canberra has the lowest smoking rate in the country, at 10 per cent of adults in 2013 in Canberra and 13 per cent nationally. But rates are much higher among the unemployed, homeless, imprisoned and mentally ill. Two in five Aboriginal people over 15 smoke, and more than 40 per cent of teenage mothers in Canberra smoke while pregnant. The strategy also points to measures to halt e-cigarette use and protectbystanders from second-hand e-cigarette vapour.
Alcohol was responsible for 3 per cent of disease and injury across the country in 2010 (and 5550 deaths), illegal drug use 2.8 per cent, and tobacco 8.9 per cent.
