Nearly half of the government-funded drug treatment episodes in 2011 were for alcohol use, according to a new report released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).

 

The Alcohol and other drug treatment services in Australia 2010-11: report on the National Minimum Data Set report found that alcohol accounted for 47 per cent of treatment episodes, and in 62 per cent of treatment episodes it was listed as a drug of concern.

 

“The number of treatment episodes for alcohol use has remained relatively stable since 2009-10 when it was 48%, however it is still more than in 2001-02, when it was 37%,” said AIHW spokesperson Justin Harvey.

 

Alcohol maintained top drug of concern for all State’s and Territories, except Tasmania where cannabis was equally common (39 per cent).

 

“After alcohol, cannabis was the most common principal drug of concern at 22%, followed by amphetamines and heroin both at 9%,” said Mr Harvey.

 

'In recent years, there has been a steady decline in heroin as a principal drug of concern in treatment episodes, down from 18% in 2003-04.'

 

In 2010-11 over 150,000 alcohol and other drug treatment episodes were recorded across Australia, almost 5,000 more than the previous year. More males than females received treatment, with around two-thirds (67%) of treatment episodes being for male clients.

 

Almost all episodes (96%) were for clients receiving treatment services for their own drug use rather than for someone else's.

 

When compared with their proportion in the general population aged 10 and older (2%), Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were over-represented in drug and alcohol treatment episodes, with 13% of episodes involving clients who identified as Indigenous. Treatment episodes for Indigenous Australians were more likely to have alcohol as a principal drug of concern (52%) than episodes for non-Indigenous Australians (46%).

 

The full report can be found here