New Victorian harms data has again highlighted that alcohol is Victoria’s most harmful drug.
The latest available data (2012/13) examines harms indicators including hospital admissions, ambulance attendances and emergency department presentations.
Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education Chief Executive, Michael Thorn says the latest data has again confirmed that the harms from alcohol continue to be of a far greater magnitude than all illicit drugs combined, and called on all political parties to demonstrate their commitment to meaningful measures to address the toll ahead of the up-coming Victorian election.
“The latest data is further evidence of the extent of alcohol harms in Victoria. Emergency department presentations for alcohol are more than six times greater than those for illicit drugs, and we see ten times more alcohol related deaths than deaths from other drugs. As the Victorian election fast approaches, I again call on the Government and Opposition to acknowledge the problem and to stand up and tell the people of Victoria what they intend to do, if elected, to address it”, Mr Thorn said.
In 2012/13 alcohol related emergency department presentations (7,744) were over 6 times greater than illicit drug related presentations (1,206).
During the same reporting period, alcohol-related admissions (26,444) outnumbered illicit drug related admissions (8,083) 3 to 1.
In 2012/13 there were 3 times as many alcohol-related ambulance attendances (18,078) as there were for illicit drugs (6,293).
In 2011, there were ten times as many deaths from alcohol (781) as there were from illicit drugs (77).
