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Driving a motor vehicle whilst under the influence of alcohol and other drugs significantly increases the risk of road accidents. According to data from the Australian Road Deaths Database from the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics, in 2020 there were 93 drivers and motorcycle riders who were killed with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) above the legal limit (excluding Victoria and Western Australia). This was a 38% decrease from the average annual number during the 3-year period 2008 to 2010 (BITRE 2022, Table 3.2).
Among participants in the 2022 IDRS who reported recently driving a vehicle in the past 6 months, three-quarters (76%) drove within 3 hours of consuming an illicit or non-prescribed drug. This is a significant increase from 70% in 2021 (Sutherland et al 2022b).
Family, domestic and sexual violence
Data show that incidents of family, domestic or sexual violence often occur in the context of alcohol and other drug use. For example, the 2016 Personal Safety Survey showed that of women who have experienced male perpetrated physical or sexual violence (assault or threat) in the past 10 years, around half reported that they believed alcohol or another substance contributed to their experience of male perpetrated sexual violence (ABS 2017 Table 8.3).
Data from the 2019 NDSHS showed that 21% of Australians aged 14 and over had ever been verbally or physically abused, or put in fear by someone under the influence of alcohol (AIHW 2020, Table 3.46). Females were more likely than males to report their abuser being a current or former spouse or partner, while males were more likely to report their abuser was a stranger (AIHW 2020, Table 3.53).
A recent Australian study found that domestic and family violence incidents were significantly more likely than other violent incidents to involve drugs (Coomber et al. 2019). Respondents who reported the use of illicit drugs in the previous 12 months were 3 times as likely to report experiencing violence over the same period and the frequency of violent incidents was 6 times higher. The risk of injury doubled when respondents reported that the most recent incident involved drug use (Coomber et al. 2019).
Data from the Drug Use Monitoring in Australia (DUMA) program showed that detainees who reported dependence on methamphetamine or cannabis reported higher rates of domestic violence (Morgan & Gannoni 2020). Sixty-one percent of detainees who reported being dependent on methamphetamine reported recent violence towards a current or former intimate partner. This is substantially higher than the proportions reported for detainees who said they had used methamphetamine but were not dependent (37%) and detainees who said they had not used methamphetamine (32%). Similarly, detainees who reported being dependent on cannabis self-reported higher rates of domestic violence–58% compared with 41% for detainees who had used cannabis but were not dependent and 25% for detainees who had not used cannabis (Morgan & Gannoni 2020).
Illicit drug use within families
Parental drug use and conflict with parents are family factors that can increase the risk of drug use among younger people (Wilkins et al. 2019). Wave 17 of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey included a new set of questions assessing illicit drug use, including estimates for the use of any illicit drug in the previous 12 months. The collection of data for all family members allows the inter-relationship of illicit drug use among family members to be explored. Only findings for cannabis use have been reported–31% of respondents whose mother reported a lifetime history of cannabis use had used an illicit drug in the previous 12 months. This was 2.5 times higher than those whose mother reported no history of cannabis use (12.7%). Findings were similar when comparing results based on the history of cannabis use for fathers (Wilkins et al. 2019).
Homicide
The Australian Institute of Criminology's (AIC) National Homicide Monitoring Program (NHMP) collects data on homicide incidents in Australia. The NHMP draws information on the use of alcohol and other drugs by homicide victims and offenders from different sources: data on victims is based on toxicology, and data on offenders is based on self-report or assessment by the police (Serpell et al 2022).
Data from the latest NHMP report showed that there were 210 homicide incidents recorded in Australia in 2020–21, the second lowest number of homicide incidents recorded since 1989–90. In 2020–21:
- Victims had consumed alcohol in almost one-quarter (23%) of homicide incidents, down from 25% in 2019–20.
- Victims had used illicit drugs (including non-therapeutic levels of pharmaceutical drugs) in almost one-quarter (23%) of incidents down from 28% in 2019–20.
- Offenders were recorded as having consumed alcohol in almost 1 in 5 (18%) homicide incidents, similar to 17% in 2019–20.
- Offenders had used illicit drugs in almost 1 in 10 (9%) incidents, similar to 2019–20 (10% of incidents) (Bricknell S 2023, Serpell et al. 2022).
The relationship between the victim and offender was known in 154 homicide incidents in 2020–21. Of these incidents, 5 were motivated by an alcohol-related argument and 6 were related to drugs (Bricknell S 2023).
Victimisation
The 2019 NDSHS showed that:
- More than 1 in 5 (21%) Australians aged 14 and over had been a victim of an alcohol-related incident, although this proportion has declined from 30% in 2007 (AIHW 2020, Table 3.46; Figure IMPACT6).
- Since 2016, there has been a significant decline in the proportion of the population who experienced physical abuse (5.9% to 4.8%) by persons affected by alcohol. Proportions have also declined for verbal abuse (18.7% to 17.7 (AIHW 2020, Table 3.46).
- Just over 1 in 10 people (10.5%) had been a victim of an illicit drug-related incident, up from 9.2% in 2016
- significant increases were reported across all types of incidents and these were driven by increases among males (AIHW 2020, Table 4.28).
- Verbal abuse was the most frequently reported incident overall (7.9%) and a significantly greater proportion of people in their 50s reported being verbally abused by someone under the influence of illicit drugs (increasing from 8.0% in 2016 to 9.8% in 2019) (AIHW 2020, Table 4.30).
- People in their 20s were most likely to experience an incident caused by someone under the influence of illicit drugs (13.3%), with 2.9% physically abused and 9.8% put in fear (AIHW 2020, Table 4.30).