Alcohol Impact in Victoria:
Summary of Alcohol harms in Victoria
The analysis found that alcohol harms in Victoria are significant. The most recent available data indicates that over a one year period there were:
- 21,460 treatment episodes where alcohol was the principal drug of concern (2012-13);
- 8,349 ambulance attendances in metropolitan Melbourne where alcohol was identified as a contributing factor (2011);
- 29,694 alcohol-related hospital admissions (2010-11);
- 6,768 alcohol-related assaults(2010-11);
- 14,015 family incidents involving alcohol (2012-13);
- 1,932 serious or fatal road injuries during high alcohol hours (2010-11); and
- 1,214 alcohol-attributable deaths in Victoria, which accounted for 3.4 per cent of all Victorian deaths in that year (2010).
The state of play: alcohol in Victoria - FARE September 2014 View Link
ICE - Changing market culture of ‘Meth’ (Download Document - Changing Market Culture for Methamphetamines)
Meth’s devastating effects:
http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/meths-devastating-effects-before-and-after/4/
Blow away the ‘smokes’ – This is a good video resource aimed at helping indigenous people quit tobacco smoking View Link
To summarize WFAD supports the following principles to serve as a platform for the drug policy debate: (Download PDF)
- Drug policies should prevent initiation of drug use.
- Drug policies must respect human rights (for users and non-users alike) as well as the principle of proportionality.
- Drug policies should strike a balance of efforts to reduce the use of drugs and the supply of drugs.
- Drug policies should protect children from drug use.
- Drug policies should ensure access to medical help, treatment and recovery services.
- Drug policies should ensure access to controlled drugs for legitimate scientific and medical purposes.
- Drug policies should ensure that medical and judicial responses are coordinated with the goal of reducing drug use and drug-related consequences.
CANNABIS DATA:
Victorian Year 11 Student’s 6 minute speech on Cannabis Legalisation – Very well done! View Link
Reefer Madness – See attached from Global leader who discovered the human brain’s dopamine receptor for psychosis: Professor Seeman (Download PDF)
"Teenager accused of murder of homeless man locked himself inside apartment, where he smoked cannabis continuously"- Earlier this year many reports framed this individual as victim of a crime that acted in self-defence. The Courts have now heard that after leaving high school, he made Dope Smoking and Video games a staple psyche diet. It appears the cannabis induced psychosis produced more than 'humorous stoner delusions', but instead acts of heinous violence that cost an innocent their lives and yet another young life utterly ruined. Legalising this junk would be a policy for securing the future of mental illness for 'Generation Now'. Which government wants to have that in their resume? View Link
Parents Against Pot – View Link
Effects of Adolescent Marijuana Use - Edmund Silins, Ph.D. (Interview worth listening to) View Link
14 Reasons Against Legalizing Marijuana – Alaskan Police Chiefs. (Download PDF or go to http://www.aacop.org/page-1860812
MARIJUANA’S ANTI-ENVIRONMENTALISTS
“Typically, the growers clear-cut the trees on the land they want to use, then bulldoze it to their specifications. Next, they divert a nearby stream to provide the one to six gallons required daily by each plant. They then fertilize the plants, causing runoff. This is followed by a generous dose of rat poison.
The upshot: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service a week ago declared that stream diversion by marijuana plantations was robbing the rivers that the streams feed of enough cool water for Coho salmon to breed, thus threatening their survival. California’s north coast is big salmon country, for both sport and commercial fishing…”
November 2014