Don’t get us wrong – Ice can be an absolutely terrifying drug.
Lucky for us, we have ABC Fact Check. Today, they released a statistical summary of what us crazy Aussies are using, drinking and smoking the most of.
So let’s throw some stats into the ring:
- Weed is the illicit drugs that’s most common. 10.2% percent of Aussies report using it in the last year. However, that number is down since 1998, with a drop of over 7%.
- We love booze a lot, no duh. Australians drink about 9.9 litres of pure alcohol every year. As ABC said, “[It] sounds like a lot but that is less than the 13.1 litres consumed in the mid 1970s.” Those crazy 70s, man.
- 4.7% of us misuse pharmaceutical drugs, and around 3.3% of that is misuse of painkillers in particular.
- The rate of tobacco smokers is on a steady decline (i.e. the cloud of smoke out the front of the pub isn’t noticeably smaller, but it’s getting there!). In 2001, 22.4% of Aussies over 16 smoked. Now, that’s down to 16.1%
And finally, the topic you clicked on the headline for: ice. According to Fact Check, it sounds less like the use of methamphetamines has risen out of control, and more like some methamphetamine users have switched from speed, to ice. Overall use has dropped since 1998, where it reached a peak of 3.7% of Aussies saying they’d used methamphetamines or methamphetamine-based drugs in the past year. It’s now at 2.1%. Fact Check states that ‘In 2013, 50.4 per cent of users said the main form of the drug they used was ice, up from 22 per cent in 2010. Meanwhile the proportion using “speed” had fallen from around 51 per cent to 29 per cent.’
All a little blown out of proportion? Seems a little like that. Regardless, ‘don’t do drugs kids’. And if you do, remember Tony’s always watching.
