Literature Review: Illicit Drug Use and Young Australians' Health

This literature review examines the prevalence and determinants of illicit drug use among young Australians. It explores patterns of drug abuse among different demographics, including the indigenous population and the LGBTQ+ community, highlighting the use of substances like cannabis and methamphetamine. The review analyzes the impact of socio-economic factors, such as poor mental health and school performance, on drug use. It also discusses government initiatives to address the issue and identifies research gaps, such as the need for in-depth analysis of the factors driving drug abuse among young Australians. The review concludes by emphasizing the need for further qualitative research to understand the underlying causes of illicit drug use in this population and suggests research objectives to analyze perceptions, socio-economic factors, and the relationship between these elements and drug abuse. The review is based on articles published within the last five years, using electronic databases and relevant keywords and boolean operators.

Running head: LITERATURE REVIEW
Illicit Drug use among Young People in Australia
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction (50)
According to National Strategic Framework for Chronic Conditions, illicit drug use
falls under the category as one of the principal determinants that influence the overall health
condition of an individual. It falls under the societal factors that promote health (Australian
Health Ministers’ Advisory Council, 2017). The following review of literature that helps in
highlighted a detailed scenario of illicit drug abuse among the young population in Australia.
The aim of the review is to highlight the research gap or the unexplored area in the research
in order to conduct further quantitative research in this field for bridging the research gap.
Review of Literature
The review of literature is conducted based on the electronic database search of the
literary articles that are published online with the last five years. Use of specific keywords
like “illicit drug abuse” and “young Australians” are used for the database search. Boolean
operators are used in order to increase the number of relevant search hits (Parahoo, 2014). A
total of six papers are review and the summative overview of the review is highlighted below.
Bryant et al. (2016) conducted a cross-sectional study over 16 to 29 young adults in
order to understand the patterns of illicit drug among the young Australian indigenous
population. Bryant et al. (2016) used mobile based survey method in order to collect the data.
The analysis of the data highlighted that indigenous people who are residing in the regional
or urban settings are more likely to indulge in drug abuse. The drug abuse is higher among
prison involvement whereas less among in the form of taking intravenous injection. The
cross-sectional study conducted by Wand et al. (2016) stated that illicit drug abuse is higher
among the Aboriginal population of Australia who are aged in between 16 to 29 years. It is
due to illicit drug abuse that the percentage of sexually transmitted disease in increasing
among the indigenous Australians. The however failed to highlight what specific
demographic characteristic helped in promoting drug abuse among the indigenous
Australians. The survey covered 2877 participants. The large sample size can be considered
as one of the strength of the study. The study undertaken by Scholes-Balog et al. (2016),
highlighted that cannabis use is popular among the Australian adolescents and increased rate
of cannabis intoxication hamper their social status and behavioural trajectory leading to poor
academic performance and social isolation. There is direct relationship between the illicit
drug abuse and the school level education of the young adults. Scholes-Balog et al. (2016)

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proposed that poor mental state and socio-economic status could be the reasons behind their
drug intoxication. Apart from cannabis and alcohol use, the crystalline methamphetamine use
is also higher among the young adults of Australia as revealed in the study of Degenhardt et
al. (2017). However, these are costly drugs and are mainly popular among the upper middle
class families.
Australian government is however; taking initiatives in order to reduce the level of
drug abuse among the young adults of Australia for example Australian government is taking
initiative to report the cases of drug abuse (Lancaster, Duke & Ritter, 2015). The findings of
the study conducted by Hughes et al. (2017) highlighted that the street-level policing might
deter some forms of drug offenders who are mainly popular at the music festivals. However,
such policy has minimal impact on the overall young adult population or indigenous
population. Moreover, such policing also encourages the intoxicating person in buying drugs
from within the festival rather than carrying it on their own. Apart from the indigenous
population, the bisexual population residing in Australia also becomes victims of the illicit
drug abuse the lesbian women and gay men are more likely to initiate tobacco and alcohol
much earlier in life in comparison to the heterosexual population. The daily consumption of
alcohol is higher among the young LBG (lesbian-bisexual and gay) population. Apart from
alcohol, this population also becomes victims of other form of drug abuse (Roxburgh et al.,
2017).
Research Gap
The research gap that can be highlighted from the above mentioned review. The
review of literature helped to understand that indigenous young Australians are more likely to
become victims of the illicit drug abuse. The abuse rate is higher in alcohol, tobacco and
cannabis uses. The young adults and people from the LBG community also become victims
of the illicit drug abuse. The initiatives taken by the Australian government is failing to
provide the required results and this is evident from the higher rate of drug abuse among the
young Australians (Degenhardt et al., 2016). Thus there need an in-depth analysis regarding
why the young Australians are forced to indulge in intoxication. However, no research has
been conducted so far in order to address these concerns.

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Aims of the research
The aim of the research is to study the factors that increase the likelihood of the young
adults of Australia towards illicit drug abuse.
Objective of the research
 To analyse the perceptions of the young Australians towards illicit drug abuse
 To examine the socio-economic factors promoting illicit drug abuse among young
Australians
 The relationship between the young adults perception and illicit drug abuse
Conclusion
Thus from the above discussion it can be concluded that illicit drug abuse is higher
among the young Australians however, there is a lack of significant research regarding the
factors that increases the drug abuse among the young adults. The qualitative research going
forwarding will help in examining the reason for illicit drug abuse among the young
Australians.

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LITERATURE REVIEW
References
Australian Health Minister s’ Advisor y Council. (2017). National Strategic Framework for
Chronic Conditions.. Access date: 5th August 2019. Retrieved from:
https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/A0F1B6D61796CF
3DCA257E4D001AD4C4/$File/National%20Strategic%20Framework%20for
%20Chronic%20Conditions.pdf
Bryant, J., Ward, J., Wand, H., Byron, K., Bamblett, A., Waples‐Crowe, P., ... & Kaldor, J.
(2016). Illicit and injecting drug use among I ndigenous young people in urban,
regional and remote A ustralia. Drug and alcohol review, 35(4), 447-455.
Degenhardt, L., Sara, G., McKetin, R., Roxburgh, A., Dobbins, T., Farrell, M., ... & Hall, W.
D. (2017). Crystalline methamphetamine use and methamphetamine‐related harms in
Australia. Drug and alcohol review, 36(2), 160-170.
Degenhardt, L., Stockings, E., Patton, G., Hall, W. D., & Lynskey, M. (2016). The increasing
global health priority of substance use in young people. The Lancet Psychiatry, 3(3),
251-264.
Hughes, C. E., Moxham-Hall, V., Ritter, A., Weatherburn, D., & MacCoun, R. (2017). The
deterrent effects of Australian street-level drug law enforcement on illicit drug
offending at outdoor music festivals. International Journal of Drug Policy, 41, 91-
100.
Lancaster, K., Duke, K., & Ritter, A. (2015). Producing the ‘problem of drugs’: A cross
national-comparison of ‘recovery’discourse in two Australian and British
reports. International Journal of Drug Policy, 26(7), 617-625.
Parahoo, K. (2014). Nursing research: principles, process and issues. Macmillan
International Higher Education.
Roxburgh, A., Lea, T., de Wit, J., & Degenhardt, L. (2016). Sexual identity and prevalence of
alcohol and other drug use among Australians in the general population. International
Journal of Drug Policy, 28, 76-82.
Scholes-Balog, K. E., Hemphill, S. A., Evans-Whipp, T. J., Toumbourou, J. W., & Patton, G.
C. (2016). Developmental trajectories of adolescent cannabis use and their

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relationship to young adult social and behavioural adjustment: A longitudinal study of
Australian youth. Addictive behaviors, 53, 11-18.
Wand, H., Ward, J., Bryant, J., Delaney-Thiele, D., Worth, H., Pitts, M., & Kaldor, J. M.
(2016). Individual and population level impacts of illicit drug use, sexual risk
behaviours on sexually transmitted infections among young Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander people: results from the GOANNA survey. BMC public health, 16(1),
600.