Substance abuse

Substance abuse and crime overlap as drugs show personality changes in criminals. Substance abuse alters the brain in terms of thinking and behaviour. Because of high levels of drug use impacting their behaviour, it becomes more of a vicious cycle to get out from. Economic pressures and psychopharmacological effects explain the substance abuse usage in crime. Studies have found that there is a racial aspect when it comes to crime and substance use. In the state of Western Australia, there is a big numerical percentage when it comes to substance abuse and crime in terms of race. Aboriginals are part of Western Australia’s population with a percentage of %3.6. But 38% of the populations in Western Australian adult prisons are Aboriginal. Aboriginal youth are more likely to clash with the law compared to other ethnicities in Australia. (Riordan, 2017)

Illegal substances are more likely to be readily available in lower socioeconomic areas. People are financially struggling, and they take the risk knowing it’s against the law to sell illegal substances. Family breakdowns such as being kicked out of home and having strained relationships may lead depressed individuals abusing both legal substances and illegal substances. They may rely on substance usage because they may have a lack of emotional support around them or do not know how to access the correct services to get assistance. Having such barriers such as using English as a 2nd language may confuse an addict because they may not have a greater understanding of the law in order to access services and the correct professional support. Peer pressure plays a role in substance abuse, when youth hang out with wrong crowds. Ending up with the wrong crowds can affect their psychosocial behaviour. I have observed this connection between substance abuse and youth crime, while I was watching girls incarcerated on Netflix. Also, youth peer pressure in lower socioeconomic areas is worse because in some cultures, alcohol and tobacco are the cultural norm. But in some cultures, it’s not accepted, and it’s classified as taboo. (Saladino, et al., 2021)

A criminal or poor environment, receiving offenses, involvement in the criminal justice system or parents who are substance abusers and living in a vicious cycle of poverty are the social factors that can impact the development of a teenager. Psychoactive substance usage led to various mental and behavioural disorders. Psychoactive substance usage has distinguished side effects such as acute intoxication, harmful use, dependence syndrome, withdrawal state, withdrawal state with delirium, psychotic disorder, amnesic syndrome and residual and late onset psychotic disorder. (Saladino, et al., 2021)

Under government research, that women are more likely to be price sensitive than men. The demand for heroin is equally the same in females and males in a separate manner. But using a regression analysis, the evidence showed that the price elasticity of demand is 1.9 in females and 1.5 in males. In economic terms, drugs who are cheaper attract more substance abusers and they do increase demand. But cocaine and heroin usually replace marijuana, if marijuana is more expensive currently. The price for illicit drugs shows that substance abuse and crime do overlap. As it depends on the popularity of the drug and its usage. (Payne, Manning, Fleming, & Thuc Pham, 2020)

In the Observational study of Alcohol and Drug problems among Australian homicide offenders, the data consisted of 302 offenders who are convicted of murder or manslaughter. In order to get accurate results, the surveyors used the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test and Drug Abuse Screening Test. Also, they used a range of self – report measures to understand offender chrematistics. In their findings, 38% of offenders showed high level of alcohol problems and 30.8% showed high levels of drug problems. Also, the results found that offenders who abuse substances were more likely to murder people who are not family members and it proved they used substances at the time of the murder. (Eriksson , Bryant, McPhedran, Mazerolle , & Wortley , 2020)

In the Australian Government National Drug Strategy Household Survey 2019, under Queensland jurisdiction. It showed that people in the state of Queensland were more prone to be a victim of an alcohol related incident as a drug – related incident. The results showed that verbal abuse is the main one with a percentage of 17.8%, followed by put in fear 10.8%. But physical abuse was the less common denominator at the percentage of 5.0%In the state of Queensland, cannabis was the most popular drug up to date, but the levels of cocaine was increasing in 2019. (Australian Government , 2020)

People in the Queensland jurisdiction first attempt to try legalized and illegal drugs in their late teenage years. This is prevalent when the survey results proved that the average age for attempted use of illicit drug excluding pharmaceuticals was 18.7 years. When the attempted use illicit drugs including pharmaceuticals for non-medical intentions was 19.4 years. But the results that involved attempted first usage of legal drugs showed that people started to use them when they were slightly bit younger. Results shown that the first attempted usage for full cigarettes was 16.2 years, while the first attempted usage of alcohol was 17 years. (Australian Government , 2020)

The government is trying to address the issue by reducing drug trade and activities which range from immigration, customs and border control strategies. Also, the police are cracking down and limiting the availability of drugs in the local Australian community. According to the Australian Institute of Criminology, Australia has a National Drug Strategy for 2017 to 2026 to create a long history of developing a policy in the drug context. The policy development helps the three priorities of harm minimisation. This includes demand reduction, supply reduction and harm reduction. (Payne, Manning, Fleming, & Thuc Pham, 2020)

The Australian government is taking action decreasing substance abuse. The government develop plan and strategies, program funding. This also includes work and research from charity organisations or not for profit charity organisations. Together with the Australian government they have the goal of reducing the harmful effects the country. The government provides funding to research centres ensure they have the correct data in order to make better government decisions in the country. The government gets involved in committees and groups that focus on decreasing drug related harm. (Australian Government , 2021)

The Alcohol and Drug Foundation can help people become drug free. The vision of the organisation is to ensure people have unlimited lives free from drug harm. The organisation wants to individuals to have positive outcomes after the service delivers evidence based approaches to decrease alcohol and drug harm. The charity and the not for profit sectors also have ambitions to decrease substance abuse. According to the alcohol and drug foundation, their ambition is to change knowledge , attitudes and practices in order to decrease and stop drug intake in the youth population. They are hoping to reach this goal by 2025. The foundation wants to increase prevention and harm reduction strategies for all Australians. The foundation is also wishing to achieve this buy adapting evidence based approaches. However, the foundation wants to create a better understanding about alcohol and other substances, explaining how they can harm the body. Expectation of young people using drugs and alcohol less. (Alcohol and Drug Foundation , 2022)