Alcohol, tobacco & other drugs in Australia

Web report

Last updated: 13 Dec 2018

Author: AIHW

The consumption of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs is a major cause of preventable disease and illness in Australia. This report consolidates the most recently available information on alcohol, tobacco and other drug use in Australia, including key trends in the availability, consumption, harms and treatment for vulnerable populations. Further, information on a range of health, social and economic impacts of alcohol, tobacco and other drug use are highlighted.

Cat. no: PHE 221

Findings from this report:

There is a strong link between problematic alcohol or other drug use and experiences of homelessness
Over the past 50 years, levels of apparent consumption of different alcoholic beverages changed substantially
Cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug in Australia
Self-reported levels of psychological distress are increasing among recent users of tobacco and illicit drugs

Summary of main data sources used in this report

Data Sources

The data presented in this report is sourced from a range of different data collections from several agencies and organisations, including the:

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW)
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)
Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC)
Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC)
National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC).

Each of the data sources provide a part of the alcohol, tobacco and drug use. Data sources include a range of methodologies such as:

General population surveys (e.g. the National Drug Strategy Household Survey)
Surveys of sentinel populations (e.g. the Illicit Drug Reporting System, the Drug Use Monitoring in Australia program and the National Needle Syringe Program)
Population consumption data (e.g. the National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program and Apparent Consumption of Alcohol, Australia)
Administrative data (e.g. criminal courts data)

Consolidating these data sources across multiple collections into one place provides a more complete story of current and emerging trends.

The data contained in this annual report will be updated once a year between reports when more recent data becomes available. Further information about the data sources used in this report are available here.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics
Source Year	Data source	Frequency of publication	Information
2012–13	National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey	Every 6 years	Includes a range of health data including behavioural health risk factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption and illicit drug use for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
2017–18	National Health Survey	Every 3 years	Smoking rates, alcohol consumption and substance use, and links to other health issues
2014–15	National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey	Every 6 years	Health risk factors in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander persons such as smoking rates, alcohol consumption and substance use
2016–17	Apparent consumption of alcohol	Annual	Estimates of apparent consumption of alcohol based on the availability of alcoholic beverages in Australia.
2016 and 2017	Causes of Death, Australia	Annual	Provides details on causes of death in Australia and demographics for all deaths registered in Australian annual.
2016	Personal Safety Survey	Every 4 years	The survey collected information about the nature and extent of violence experienced by men and women since the age of 15, including their experience of violence in the 12 months prior to the survey.
2016–17	Recorded Crime - Offenders	Annual	Persons proceeded against by police by principal offence (broadly illicit drugs)
2016–17	Criminal Courts Australia	Annual	Defendants finalised by principal offences (broadly illicit drugs)

Source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
Source Year	Data source	Frequency of publication	Information
2011	Impact of alcohol and other illicit drug use on the burden of disease and injury in Australia: Australian Burden of Disease Study 2011	Ad hoc	This report quantifies the health impact that alcohol and illicit drug use place on Australia, including as risk factors for other diseases and injuries. New analysis included for the first time such as the impact of individual drugs and unsafe injecting practices on the Australian population.
2011	Burden of disease: Impact and Causes of illness and death in Australia	Previous update used 2003 data	Data on the fatal and non-fatal burden of alcohol and illicit drug disorders on population groups
2011	Burden of disease: Impact and causes of illness and death in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people	Ad hoc	Data on the fatal and non-fatal burden of alcohol and illicit drug disorders on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
2016	Mothers and babies	Annual	The report includes data on the proportion of mothers’ smoking during pregnancy and babies born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy.
2015	The Health of Australia’s Prisoners	Every three years	Data on tobacco use, illicit drug use and alcohol consumption prior and during prison sentence
2016–17	Alcohol and other Drug Treatment Services National Minimum Dataset	Annual	Data on alcohol and other drug treatment services
2016	National Drug Strategy Household Survey	Every 3 years	Data on Alcohol, tobacco and other drug use in Australia
2016–17	Specialist Homelessness Services annual report	Annual	Clients by need for services (alcohol and drug counselling)
2017	National Opioid Pharmacotherapy Statistical Annual Data Collection (NOPSAD)	Annual	The NOPSAD collection provides information on a snapshot day in June 2017 on clients receiving opioid pharmacotherapy treatment, the doctors prescribing opioid pharmacotherapy drugs, and the dosing points.

Source: Cancer Council Victoria
Source Year	Data source	Frequency of publication	Information
2014	Australian secondary school students' use of tobacco in 2014	Every 3 years	Prevalence of Tobacco use in students aged 12–17 years
2014	Australian Secondary School Students’ use of tobacco, alcohol, and over-the-counter and illicit substances in 2014	Every 3 years	Lifetime and current use of tobacco, alcohol, analgesics, tranquilisers and illicit substances and related behaviours, 12–17 year olds

Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
Source Year	Data source	Frequency of publication	Information
2011	Counting the costs of crime in Australia: a 2011 estimate	Ad-hoc	Data on the human economic cost of drug abuse in Australia.
2015–16	Drug use monitoring in Australia: 2015–16 report on drug use among police detainees	Every 2 years	Data on changes in alcohol and other drug consumption habits among Australian police detainees and through its monitoring and reporting of fluctuations in the illicit drug market

Source: Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission
Source Year	Data source	Frequency of publication	Information
2016-17	Illicit Drug Data Report	Annual	National data on the illicit drug market, including arrests, detections, seizures, purity, profiling and price data.
2018	National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program (NWDMP) Report	Three times a year	The NWDMP measures the presence of 13 drugs (both licit and illicit) in samples obtained from wastewater treatment plants in capital city and regional sites across Australia.

Source: National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre
Source Year	Data source	Frequency of publication	Information
2013	Accidental drug-induced deaths due to opioids		Provides interpretation of final data on accidental opioid induced deaths in Australia in 2013, and estimated data for 2014 and 2015.
2018	Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS)	Annual	A national illicit drug monitoring system with interviews with a sample of regular injecting drug users, interviews with experts and additional contextual information. The IDRS monitors the price, purity and availability of heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, cannabis and other drugs. Along with trends in the use and harms of these drugs.
2018	The Ecstasy and related Drugs Reporting System (EDRS)	Annual	The Ecstasy and Related Drugs Reporting System (EDRS) is a national monitoring system for ecstasy and related drugs that is intended to identify emerging trends of local and national interest in the markets for these drugs.

Source: National Drug and Alcohol Research Institute
Source Year	Data source	Frequency of publication	Information
2016–17	Young Australians Alcohol Reporting System (YAARS)	Ad hoc	Non–random national sample 3,400 risky drinkers. The participants were recruited online and screened to check whether their qualified to be in the top 25% of risky drinkers. The survey looks into the risky drinking patterns of adolescents aged 14–19, by taking a ‘snapshot’ of the details of their most recent risky drinking occasion.

Source: The Kirby Institute
Source Year	Data source	Frequency of publication	Information
2013–2017	Australian Needle Syringe National Data report	Annual	The Australian Needle and Syringe Program Survey (ANSPS) provides serial point prevalence estimates of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibodies and sexual and injecting risk behaviour among people who inject drugs (PWID) in Australia.

Source: Bureau of Infrastructure and Regional Development
Source Year	Data source	Frequency of publication	Information
2017	Road trauma Australia 2017 statistical summary	Annual	Provides annual data on road fatalities and includes data on road trauma incidents involving alcohol

Source: Turning point – Victoria
Source Year	Data source	Frequency of publication	Information
2017	AMBO-Stats	Annual	AODstats provides information on the harms related to alcohol, illicit and pharmaceutical drug use in Victoria.

Source: International
Source Year	Data source	Frequency of publication	Information
2018	OECD – Health Statistics 2018	Annual	Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development includes prevalence of smoking and alcohol consumption by country, mortality and morbidity statistics and pharmaceuticals.
2017	UNODC – World Drug Report 2017	Annual	United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime data from a range of counties—includes supply, prevalence, price, and treatment data.

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Summary of main data sources used in this report

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