Australia: Survey highlights drug, crime link

A survey has found almost half the people detained by Australian police used drugs just before their arrest.

The 2004 Drug Use Monitoring in Australia program, which surveyed inmates from seven Australian prisons last year, was released by federal Justice Minister Chris Ellison yesterday.

Forty-seven per cent reported using drugs just before their arrest, while more than 60 per cent of those charged with property offences tested positive to an illicit substance other than cannabis.

Almost 40 per cent of the prisoners surveyed attributed some of their crimes to their addiction.

Senator Ellison says the report highlights the need for drug treatment in prisons and professional help for prisoners with mental health problems.

The Senator is in Thailand at the UN Congress on the Fight Against Transnational Crime, where he says illicit drugs have figured prominently in discussions.

The latest report shows amphetamine use among Australian detainees has stabilised, but with about 40 per cent of females and one in three male detainees admitting to being users, Senator Ellison says amphetamines remain a serious problem.

"What we're seeing is amphetamine-type stimulants maintaining the major role in the link with crime," he said.

"This dovetails into the Australian Crime Commission report, which we saw earlier this week, where that indicated that amphetamines were proving to be the major frontier in the fight against illicit drugs."

He denies that the ongoing availability of amphetamines undermines the Federal Government's Tough on Drugs program.

"Now, obviously we have to do more in educating Australians, particularly young Australians, in relation to amphetamine-type stimulants," he said.

"I think that this certainly reinforces the need for a tough on drugs approach.

"We don't just run up a white flag because we have an emerging problem
with amphetamines."

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org/amphetablog.html
Pubdate: Sun, 24 Apr 2005
Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Australia Web)
Copyright: 2005 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Contact: comments@your.abc.net.au
Website: http://www.abc.net.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/34