Ten per cent of 12 to 17-year-olds in Australia – 168,000 young people – are binge drinking every week.
That’s among among a bevy of startling findings released at an Australian National Council on Drugs national press conference held in Sydney earlier this week.
PICTURE: Rodrigo Valladares (www.sxc.hu)
“What this report clearly says is that drug and alcohol use by young people has become normalised and is often seen as a rite of passage to adulthood.”
– Dr John Herron, chairman of the Australian National Council on Drugs.
The council, which is calling for more support for families coping with Australia’s burgeoning drug problem following a new report looking at the issue, says that as well as binge drinking, one in seven secondary school children have used cannabis in the past year and one in 25 have used amphetamines.
It also says latest estimates show that at least 451,000 children are living in a household where they are at risk of exposure to binge drinking by an adult and that 78,000 children live in households with at least one daily user of cannabis.
Dr John Herron, chairman of the ANCD, says that the council, a Federal Government advisory body which was formed in 2006, is “enormously concerned” about the high rates of binge drinking.
“What this report clearly says is that drug and alcohol use by young people has become normalised and is often seen as a rite of passage to adulthood.”
Dr Herron says it is also clear that parents play an important role in influencing what happens to the children.
“Adolescents are less likely to drink and engage in binge drinking if parents actively disapprove,” he says. “Enhanced parental monitoring is the most effective strategy to minimise the risk of adolescents ending up drinking at risky levels once they start to experiment – according to the report.”
He says much greater investment needs to be put into treatment and support to help families who have young people with alcohol or drug misuse issues.
Professor Margaret Hamilton, an executive member of the council, adds that parents often don’t get accurate or helpful information when dealing with drug issues.
“They feel isolated and confused but they do not know where to go for help. They sometimes also feel ashamed or guilty and this makes it hard to seek help. Parents dealing with alcohol and drug issues with their children can benefit from professional advice.”
Elsewhere, the report – Supporting the Families of Young People with Problematic Drug Use: Investigating Support Options – shows that problematic substance abuse by a young person creates enormous financial pressures in a family and that adolescents whose parents display a permissive attitude towards alcohol consumption tend to drink more. It says that parents should delay the use of alcohol by young people for as long as possible to reduce the risk of high alcohol use in later life.
Responding to the findings, Family First leader Steve Fielding says the report shows that action is needed and says that having tackled the road toll, drug toll and tobacco toll with success, it was no time to “get tough on booze and tackle our alcohol toll”.
Under Family First’s Alcohol Toll Reduction Bill, which has currently been referred to the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs for report later this year, health information labels would be required on all alcohol products and all alcohol advertising would have to be pre-approved by a government body. Ads will not be allowed to link drinking to personal, business, social, sporting, sexual or other success.
