sarah_is_happy said:
ummm....HAHAHAHAH!!! you make me laugh. Governmental deparments aren't a matter of opinion? The aim of the government's current policy is to eliminate drug use all together. One thing you learn in econometrics, statistics and marketing research: never trust a government source. Hell, the recent water treatment plant is a great example with questions like "should a desalination plant be introduced or would you rather drink your own excrement?".
Now, the aihw source is relatively reliable. They are more objective than most of the others. However, look at the crime stats:
Table 10.10: Proportion of male prisoners(a) who self-reported being under the influence(b) of
alcohol or illicit drugs at the time of offence, by age, type of offence and type of drug used at the time of offence, Australia, 2001
It doesn't seperate the two.
Now, 43.5% of people who are in prison were reported as having drug dependencies. Yes, people who are dependent on drugs such as heroin, crack etc will likely commit offenses, based on the fact that they won't be able to hold jobs. These people are commonly known as 'junkies'. Our discussion isn't using highly addictive substances repeatedly to the point of addiction, but rather experimentation with drugs. Furthermore, 20% of people had an addiction to alcohol. That's quite large considering the fact that alcohol is not a very addictive substance. Also, take the marijuana dependencies with a grain of salt: it has 1/4 of the addictive properties of alcohol (Times 2003). Also, I can almost guarantee you that stoned people will be too lazy to commit a crime
It's cheapness also means people don't have to rob etc to fulfil their needs.
http://www.nida.nih.gov/Meetings/MDMA/MDMAExSummary.html
What do you have to say by that? That if someone uses ecstasy repeatedly for a long time, it's bad for them? Wow, they must have commissioned Einstein to come up with that.
http://www.doristate.com/predatory_drugs.htm
So you're saying that it's possible to drug someone to rape them? OGM! Who would have thought! It doesn't say that people under the effects of these drugs will rape someone, it's saying people under the effects of drugs can get raped (this includes alcohol).
http://www.aic.gov.au/research/drugs/deaths/opiateovdth.html
You make me laugh again. These are death rates for heroin and related drugs 'opiates'.
http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/crm/crm022t.html
More importantly, it is assumed that drug use causes crime. The criminological evidence to support this belief is not as strong as some might imagine.
Thank you for proving yourself wrong here.
http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/cfi/cfi090.html
Where's a comparisson to something for me? it's just a table showing whether people in drug related crimes used drugs first, used drugs at the same time, or planned ot use drugs after the crime was committed.
I thank you for adding nothing to the debate. Perhaps you should look through the articles before linking to them.