Alcohol, tobacco & other drugs in Australia

What's been updated?

Amendments

17 December 2025

• In the “Alcohol, tobacco and other drugs in Australia – National Ambulance Surveillance System” set of data tables, additional rows of duplicate data were present in table NASS4 (in rows 243 to 604). These rows of data were removed from the table.
• In the “Alcohol, tobacco and other drugs in Australia – Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development” set of data tables, there was data in table OECD3 that was incorrect (the Belgium values for males and females, and the OECD average for males and females). This data was corrected.
• In Figure 2 of the “International data” page, there was data that was incorrect (the Belgium values for males and females, and the OECD average for males and females). This data was corrected.
• In Figure 1 and Figure 3 of the “International data” page, the Notes views were displaying as blank. The notes have been added to the figure.
• On the “Community harms” page, there was an incorrectly placed link saying “Crime Victimisation” next to the “Family, domestic and sexual violence” heading. The link was removed.

14 August 2025

• On 'Alcohol and other drug-related ambulance attendances', Figure REGION 5 was re-loaded as some numbers were incorrect.
• On Health impacts, Figures IMPACT 2, IMPACT 3, IMPACT 4 and IMPACT 5 were re-loaded as some numbers were incorrect.
• On Alcohol, under the heading Ambulance attendances, the rate of ambulance attendances for Queensland in 2022 was amended. This rate was previously incorrect.
• On Amphetamines and other stimulants, Figure STIM 3 was re-loaded as some numbers were incorrect.
• On Pharmaceuticals, under the heading Ambulance attendances, the rates of ambulance attendances for ‘any pharmaceuticals’ in Tasmania and New South Wales were amended. These rates were previously incorrect.
• On Illicit opioids, including heroin, under the heading Ambulance attendances, the rate of ambulance attendances for Tasmania was removed and replaced with a statistic for Queensland due to concerns about the quality or confidentiality of the data.
• On New (and emerging) psychoactive substances, under the heading GHB (Gamma-hydroxybutyrate) – Harms, numbers and rates of GHB-related attendances for Tasmania in 2022 and 2023 were removed due to concerns about the quality or confidentiality of the data.
• On Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex or queer people, under the heading Illicit drugs, the percentages for recent cannabis use were amended. These percentages were previously incorrect.

9 July 2025: On the Illicit opioids, including heroin page, under the heading Consumption, the first sentence was changed. The term ‘lifetime’ was updated to ‘recent’ as the data described recent heroin use.

17 March 2025: On New (and emerging) psychoactive substances page, under GHB (Gamma-hydroxybutyrate) – Harms heading, data describes ambulance attendances where GHB was present. One sentence was removed from this section as the data pertained to cannabis not GHB attendances.

13 December 2024: On 'Alcohol and other drug-related ambulance attendances', Figure REGION 5 has been updated to include monthly data (where available). In previous reporting this figure included data from select months (March, June, September and December). The surrounding text that describes the figure has now been updated to align with this change and exclude references to select months.

28 May 2024

• The data in Figure INDIGENOUS 2 was amended to correctly reference tables 3.5 and 3.6. This data pertains to single-occasion and lifetime alcohol risk. This change was made on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) people.
• The numbering of Supplementary tables 'Data by region' was be amended from '1-12' to '1-5'. This change was made on Data.

18 January 2023: Revised data in Health impacts – Burden of disease

16 December 2022: Updated data in fact sheets with 2021-2022 data from Specialist Homelessness Services.