Illicit drugs
The Australian Bureau of Statistics' publication Australian Social Trends 2008 contains a section titled 'Risk taking by young people' includes statistics on drinking at risky levels; hospitalisation due to drug use and acute alcohol intoxication; use of illicit drugs; dangerous driving; injury and death from transport accidents; and violence.
Use of illicit drugs
The 2007 National Drug Strategy Household Survey found that:
- 23% of people aged 15-24 years reported using illicit drugs during the last 12 months, around twice as high as the proportion of people aged 25 years and over (11%).
- Marijuana/cannabis was the most common drug used by 15-24-year-olds (18%). Ecstasy (9%), meth/amphetamines and pharmaceuticals (both 4%) were the next most common drugs used by this age group during the last 12 months.
- In 2007, the average age among 15-24-year-olds for first use of marijuana/cannabis was around 19 years.
- The average age among 15-24-year-olds of first use of meth/amphetamines was around 21 years, and for ecstasy was around 23 years.
- In 2005-06, there were 11,700 hospital separations related to drug use for young people aged 15-24 years:
- Nearly 60% of the hospital separations were for young women.
- Intentional self-harm by drugs or medications was involved in three out of five hospital separations for young women.
- The drug-related hospitalisation rate for young men in 2005-06 was 324 separations per 100,000, lower than in 1998-99 (465 per 100,000).
- For young women, the drug-related hospitalisation rate was also slightly lower in 2005-06 than in 1998-99 (491 compared with 531 per 100,000).
- In 2005-06, male teenagers aged 15-19 years had one of the lowest drug-related hospitalisation rates among all male age groups (216 separations per 100,000), while men aged 20-24 years had one of the highest rates (428 per 100,000).
- For women, those aged 15-19 and 20-24 years had the highest drug-related hospital separation rates among all age groups (523 and 460 per 100,000 respectively). This reflects young women's relatively high rates of drug-related intentional self-harm and accidental poisoning (294 and 56 per 100,000 women aged 15-24 years).
In a small number of cases, drug use leads to death. Based on information from the Causes of Death collection, in the three-year period of 2004-2006, the annual average number of drug-induced deaths was 78. This accounted for 6% of all deaths among young people aged 15-24 years:
- The drug-induced death rate for men aged 20-24 years in the three-year period of 2004-2006 was double that for women in this age group (6 compared with 3 per 100,000).
- Rates for drug-induced death in male and female teenagers aged 15-19 years in the three-year period of 2004-2006 were lower (1 per 100,000).
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2008, Australian social trends, Cat. no. 4102.0, viewed 2 October 2008, http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4102.0Chapter5002008.