Details

Published: 09 November 2022

Hits: 877

COMMUNITY VOICES September, 2022 BECCI TEN BENSEL
Executive director for Women’s Rural Advocacy Programs

September is National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month, promoting new treatment options for those struggling with addiction and emphasizing the need for strong community support.

According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), a study found that physical domestic violence was 11 times more likely on days of heavy drinking or drug use. Domestic violence can appear in a variety of ways including physical, sexual, mental, emotional, financial, etc. (See also Role of Illicit Drug Use in Domestic Violence (Aust) and

In supportive services for domestic violence victims, it is common knowledge that experts believe that domestic violence comes from a need to control others and have power over others.

Overall, there is no excuse for domestic violence and there is no one size fits all explanation as to why it occurs. However, when someone is under the influence of alcohol or drugs, they may lose inhibition control, which increases the risk for violence. This does not mean that all violent acts are contributed by drugs or alcohol, however there is a significant correlation between the two. (See also, Alcohol and drug use exacerbate family violence and can be dealt with )

Someone addicted to drugs or alcohol may have difficulty thinking rationally and they are more likely to act out violently. According to the ASAM, substance use disorders occur in between 40% to 60% of incidents of intimate partner violence. Alcohol was found to be a factor in 30% to 40% of incidents involving a male abuser, and 27% to 34% of incidents involving a female abuser.

Furthermore, if the victim of a domestic violence assault is under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol, they may have difficulties accurately assessing the danger that they are in and, in some situations, can worsen the situation, as well.

According to Addiction Group, data shows that 45% of abusive partners, which have been convicted of the murder, were under the influence of alcohol at the time of the incident that resulted in the death of the victim. In these cases, the average blood alcohol concentration was three times the legal limit. (See also Alcohol and Other Drug Use & Dating Violence. )

The National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics (NCDAS) reports that women are more likely to do drugs with an intimate partner, whereas men are more likely to do drugs with other male friends. The NCDAS also reports that women participating in the drug trade is predominantly affected by socioeconomic vulnerability, economic difficulties, trafficking, violence, and intimate relationships. Meaning that women in abusive relationships are often forced to buy and sell illegal substances by their partner.

— Becci ten Bensel is executive director for Women’s Rural Advocacy Programs

For complete article

Details

Published: 24 August 2022

Hits: 979

Seven times more people are initially accessing drug rehabilitation services after their release from prison since a new prison exit scheme was introduced in Tower Hamlets last year.

“Drugs can be a contributing factor of many crimes in Tower Hamlets, including burglaries, anti-social behaviour and knife violence. 

“Prisoners returning to drug use on their release means they are more likely to end up back in the vicious cycle of committing crimes to fund their habits. However, with this new scheme we are thrilled to see we are disrupting this pattern and giving people a chance to claim back their lives free from drugs after being released. 

“The prison exit scheme is celebrating its one-year anniversary this month. Its success is great news for our community as it is reducing crime and re-offending and helping people with drug addictions access support and improve their health.” 

The prison exit service is commissioned by Tower Hamlets Council and delivered by social enterprise Turning Point. 

(D.I. comment – This is one potential and vital outcome that is erased from the drug use exiting playbook, when you decriminalize, or worse legalize drug use. You don’t have to change the legal status of drug use to recalibrate the existing laws to facilitate exit from drug use without ultimate criminal sanctions. Drug or better labelled ‘Problem Solving Courts’ can leverage the illegality of drugs to better enable and equip exit from drug use, the cause of soooo many anti-social and community harming behaviours. Pro-drug activists care nothing for the addictive outcomes and destroyed lives of young people and their families – often irreversible harms to all. 

Also see 

• Problem Solving Courts ACT steering Drug Use Offenders away from serving jail time through rehab
• The Judicial Educator At Its Best – Law for Recovery + Drug Courts + Secure Welfare = Rehabilitation!

For complete story 

Details

Published: 17 August 2022

Hits: 932

A first of its kind study has quantified the secondhand alcohol harm in Australia. It amounts to nearly $20 billion in 2016.
Bystanders bear almost 90% of the costs of harm caused by others’ alcohol use, while the government footed the rest of the bill.

The findings illustrate the strong case for improved alcohol policy solutions in Australia to reduce the alcohol burden on bystanders and improve the lives of all Australians.

The cost of the harm caused to others is about the same as the cost of the harm caused by alcohol users to themselves and to response agencies serving them. When the second-hand harms are added to the direct harms to alcohol users, the total harm due to alcohol is about double that of tobacco.

This brings the total cost of the alcohol burden in Australia to about $40 billion

“The findings make a strong case for an active role of governments in reducing burdens that [alcohol use] causes to non-users or bystanders, including active intervention in alcohol markets to reduce these externalities,” (as per La Trobe University News.)   Dr. Jason Jiang, Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, La Trobe University

 

For complete research

Details

Published: 04 August 2022

Hits: 1198

Indigenous Call for a Return of Alcohol Bans

AMOS AIKMAN

The Northern Territory government’s refusal to maintain Intervention-era grog bans is undermining one of its own best measures for stopping alcohol-fuelled violence, say experts who have urged the government to rethink.

The scheme has been credited with a swift drop in alcohol fuelled and domestic violence in places such as Alice Springs.

Allowing grog bans to lapse in about 400 communities and outstations means people living there can buy booze again.

Donna Ah Chee, head of the health service Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, says her organisation’s clinics have been struggling to cope with more intoxicated patients on top of an already-crippling pandemic burden, since the alcohol rules changed on July 17.

The emergency response (dubbed the Intervention) was opposed by many Indigenous groups that were concerned about discriminatory policy. Ironically, some of those groups are at the forefront of arguing for the Intervention-era grog bans to be reinstated.

A coalition including Aboriginal Medical Alliance Services NT, National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation and the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency wrote to Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney on June 9.

In their six-page letter, they argued the provisions were “not …racist or negative discrimination”. “Rather, they are … positive and beneficial special measures in keeping with the High Court’s latest definition,” they wrote.

NT Chief Minister Natasha Fyles insisted in parliament this week that her government’s decision to scrap the grog bans was based on consultation with “hundreds” of communities.

Sources in the Aboriginal community service sector denied this and said they believed the government acted on an incorrect legal interpretation.

Ms Fyles spokeswoman said her government “cannot extend a commonwealth law, nor will we support paternalistic policies which criminalise Aboriginal communities”. The government has not answered requests to provide evidence about its consultation process or to show the changes are not causing harm.

Opposition domestic violence spokesman Steve Edgington said levels of domestic violence were “unacceptably high”, up 42 per cent since 2016.

“The catastrophic increase in domestic violence across the Territory under Labor’s watch has got to stop,” he said. “Unlike Labor, we will always put the rights of victims above those of offenders. The Fyles government has failed Territorians and failed to keep them safe. In Alice Springs last week, police  reported 54 cases of domestic violence over a 48-hour period.”

For complete story

 

  

This is our voice: tackle grog and violence

SARAH ISON JESS MALCOLM

Remote Australia’s Aboriginal female MPs have united to demand the nation tackle domestic violence and alcoholism ravaging Indigenous communities, with Labor’s Marion

Scrymgour likening the removal of grog bans to “pulling forces out of Afghanistan”.

…Senator Price and Ms Scrymgour – who are both based in Alice Springs – were united on a tough approach to alcohol fuelled violence affecting Indigenous women in the red centre.

Ms Scrymgour, who was elected to the Northern Territory seat of Lingiari in May, said grog ban measures in place for 14 years since John Howard’s Intervention could not suddenly be

revoked with no plan on how to manage the fallout. 

“When a government puts a protective regime of that kind in place, and leaves it in place for that long, you can’t just suddenly pull the pin on it without any protection, sanctuary or plan for the vulnerable women and children whom the original measure was supposed to protect,” she said in her maiden speech to the lower house.

“To do that is more than negligent – at the level of impact on actual lives it is tantamount to causing injury by omission. It’s like pulling your forces out of Afghanistan but leaving your local workers and their dependants in harm’s way on the ground without an escape plan.”

The speech came as the Territory government decided not to extend alcohol bans covering about 400 Aboriginal outstations and communities, prompting concern over a “massive”

increase in rates of violence and abuse fuelled by the abuse of alcohol. Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney is urgently seeking a meeting with Chief Minister Natasha Fyles amid concern over the lifting of the grog bans.

Senator Price began her day with her grandfather’s sister, Tess Napaljarri Ross, who has spent all week with her at parliament, with the pair participating in a traditional ceremony in the grounds of Parliament House before the maiden speech.

As she spoke emotionally of the recent murder-suicide of a young woman and her baby at the hands of the woman’s male partner in Alice Springs last week, Senator Price slammed the end of alcohol bans and said it was one of the most “appalling examples of legislation”. 

She also criticised the federal government’s moves to abolish the cashless debit card.

“We see two clear examples this week over failure to listen. The news grog bans will be lifted on dry communities, allowing the scourge of alcoholism and the violence that  accompanies it free reign,” she said. “Couple this with the removal of the cashless debit card that allowed countless families on welfare to feed their children rather than seeing their money claimed by kinship demands from alcoholics, substance abusers and gamblers in their own family group.”

For complete story