Canberrans have emerged as the most abstemious in Australia with the lowest number of people who drink alcohol to a level considered risky by health professionals, and are among the lowest users of illicit drugs nationally.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
However, consistent with findings from the territory's most recent wastewater analysis, last year the ACT reported by far the highest illicit use of any opioid drug across any of the jurisdictions, at 4.2 per cent. The national average was 2.8 per cent.
A three-year household survey of 22,000 people by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare revealed that 10.5 per cent of ACT people aged over 14 were regular cannabis users in 2019, compared with a national average of 11.6 per cent.
The report's cannabis use was surveyed before the relaxation of legislation around the personal use and cultivation in the ACT came into effect from January 31 this year.
Despite the relative affluence of the Canberra community and a number of relatively large police busts which would indicate a strong demand for the drug, cocaine use in the ACT was surveyed at 3.5 per cent, below that of NSW (5.0%), and Victoria (5.2%) and the national average of 4.2 per cent.
Canberra reported the lowest smoking rate nationally, with just 8.6 per cent of respondents reporting a daily smoking habit compared with an 11.9 per cent average across Australia.
Binge drinking to a risky level on a monthly basis was very low in the ACT at just 27.2 per cent, compared with a 2019 national average of 33.4 per cent. The Northern Territory reported the worst outcome at 45.1 per cent.
The ACT's record on monthly binge drinking had been sitting at relatively high levels in the two previous three-yearly surveys, but now has shown a decline for both men and women.
The recent use of any illicit drug by a person over 14 years in the ACT jumped from 12.9 per cent of those surveyed in 2016 to 14.6 per cent in the three years.
Nationally, the reporting of recent illicit drug use rose 0.8 per cent over the same period.
People living in outer regional and remote areas tend to smoke more heavily than those in the city areas.
In the ACT, those reporting a daily smoking habit was the lowest in the country but close by, in inner regional NSW, the proportion climbed to 13.1 per cent and in more remote NSW areas, 16 per cent.
READ MORE:
Those surveyed in the ACT also reported the nation' s highest proportion of people who have never smoked at 69.2 per cent, while 20.8 per cent have quit completely.
Across the country, 75 per cent of Australians reported they consumed alcohol over the previous 12 months.
However, the survey predates the current COVID-19 pandemic.
The survey found today's 14 to 29-year-olds are less likely to smoke, drink alcohol or consume illicit drugs than previous generations.
