Advocacy Action Plan: Analysis of Liberal Party's Drug Campaign

This report presents an advocacy action plan focused on the Liberal Party of Australia's campaign, "Fighting the Scourge of Drugs." The introduction outlines the plan's purpose, addressing the issue of drug and substance use, especially among millennials. Task 1 provides a detailed background, including the history of drug use in Australia and the scope of the current issue. A social justice analysis examines the campaign's approaches, barriers, and recommendations. The report suggests that the campaign needs governmental reforms to eradicate drug sources and accessible rehabilitation facilities. Task 2 explores alternative views, considering potential negative impacts and costs. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of advocacy action plans for legislative bodies, proper background information, critical appraisal of social justice delivery, and recommendations for improvement. The report highlights the need for the committee to address organized crime and provide accessible rehabilitation facilities. Furthermore, it is important to consider and address alternative perspectives to enhance the campaign's effectiveness.

ADVOCACY
ACTION PLAN

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Introduction............................................................................................................................1
Background.............................................................................................................................1
Social Justice Analysis...........................................................................................................2
Recommendations..................................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
Alternative View....................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Advocacy Action Plan refers to a detailed outlay which is associated with supporting a
quite severe issue and developing a plan to resolve the same.. Furthermore, an advocacy action
plan is essential to be submitted so that the legislative policies and the overall government
direction could be diverted towards the problem by appropriately and effectively highlighting an
overdue issue (Corny & et. al., 2015).
Hence, in regards to this, the report below is based on the current campaign being led by
Liberal Party of Australia, which is named as “Fighting the Scourge of Drugs”. Hence, the plan
below covers a detailed background to the topic, along with social justice analysis, which
includes values of promoting social justice, barriers of the same and several related values. In
addition to this, the report is also very much inclusive of certain recommendations which are
required to be followed by the committee so that the plan of action could be considered within
the legislative requirement and enhance the scope of improvement towards a social issue which
has been quite prevalent within the country lately.
TASK 1
Introduction
“Fighting the Scourge of Drugs” is associated with the high intensity of drugs and
substance use being spread in the nation, along with taking millennials, especially minors into
loop, which has caused severe health pandemics that are necessary to deal with. Moreover, the
nature and scope of this issue is quite wide, the reason being that it is targeting a lot of
individuals of different age range towards this habit, as well as it has also enhanced the crime
rates in Australia, following the fact that drug trades are very much illegal within the country
(Wolfe & et. al., 2015).
This campaign is hence led by Liberal Party of Australia and has a very effective objective,
to fight and confront the menace caused by drugs, especially ICE. This issue is being planned to
deal with tough law enforcements, as well as support and treatment programmes especially for
drug addicts.
Background
History of the Issue
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The history of Australia and drug uses is quite old. The reason behind this statement is
that prior to 1901, there were very limited laws which were against the drug use within the
country. Later on the beginning of the century saw a restriction of Opium, which is a highly
addictive drug, to ensure that the Chinese intervention is ended. In addition to this, around 1925,
there were restrictions and prohibitions of use of morphine, cocaine, heroin and even cannabis
alongside Opium. However, around 1960s the use of recreational drugs became quite a big issue
in the country, which led to a high usage of heroin, cannabis and even substances like LSD for
pleasure.
However, the element which raises this issue is the ineffectiveness of the legislation that
has been imposed upon the use of drugs over the years. For instance, despite of laws and other
essential bans have been imposed by the legislation prevalent in Australia as well as at global
ends over the years. However, researchers within United Kingdom have indicated that these bans
are not very much effective. This is because within Australia, the bans ion MDMA or cannabis
has led to a more potent version of the drug, which has led to this issue (History, not harm,
dictates why some drugs are legal and others aren’t, 2020).
Scope of the Issue
The scope of this issue has always been very wide, considering the fact that there have
been very limited legislative supports that have been provided to individuals. Furthermore, rather
distributed demographics have been affected by drug abuse in recent years. For example, various
researches in this field showcases that within 2016, there have been a high use of illicit drug such
as cannabis and cocaine, which were around 10.7% and 2% respectively. Furthermore, the age
group which reported the highest use of these drugs were millennials aged 18-24 years which
were around 28.9% of the overall percentage (Drug statistics, 2020).
The second group of individuals which are affected by this issue are the school students
which have been determined to have consumed at least one illicit drug. Therefore, with such
scope of attracting and making young people addict requires to take stricter and more severe
actions against this policy which is the main motive behind this campaign.
Social Justice Analysis
Analysis of the Issue
The campaign plans out two necessary approaches to deal with this issue in the future.
The fist approach is associated with Tougher Reinforcement, where Anti-Gang Squads would be
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set up that would be dealing with the source of these drugs, particularly gangs. The second
associated approach is linked with providing treatment and prevention of this disease completely.
Therefore, for this purpose, more than 200 Local Drug Action Teams are being prepared which
would be supporting the communities and individuals towards its prevention, as well as
treatments (FIGHTING THE SCOURGE OF DRUGS, 2020). However, there is a difference in
which they promote social justice. For example, both these elements would provide local
assistance, where the approach of treatment and prevention would be better than the tougher
reinforcement one. This is because this would be providing local help, rather than taking a
detailed step towards reinforcing better legislative practices. Therefore, while these deliver social
justice to individuals, but this one particular issue is not yet covered.
Barriers to Social Justice
There are several barriers to social justice which lay ahead of this campaign and which are
basically roadblocks towards the same. Some of these are explored below:
 The main issue within Australia towards reinforcements would be organised crime,
which would be acting as a barrier for the campaign in terms of implementing the set
actions. Moreover, it would also be a barrier for local individuals to seek help.
 Another issue would be self determination, which could be a major cause of concern as
addicts are most likely to either relapse or are determined towards keeping the habit
continuing (Ritter & et. al., 2018).
Recommendations
Based on the above analysis, there is various recommendation for Liberal Party of
Australia to effectively conduct the campaign in desirable and essential manner. Some of these
recommendations are explored below:
 The above analysis have presented issue that the campaign is based delivering social justice
on a local level rather than on a governmental front, for which, the party must ensure that
they form several reforms, as well as policies which help them in resolving organised crime
and appropriately eradicate the sources of drugs from Australia.
 Another prominent support which the party could give individuals from their campaign is
through organising an accessible rehabilitation facility, which works with individuals who
are self determined towards consuming drugs. Furthermore, these must also be inclusive of
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several counselling facilities which allows individuals to seek professional help and
guidance of how to deal with their addiction in a very effective manner.
TASK 2
Alternative View
Each initiative which is discussed for public welfare has an opposite viewpoint, due to
various reasons such as the bill being impractical or showcasing limited results in a long time
and so forth (Foster & et. al., 2018). In context of the above campaign as well, there could be
several opposing views which are imperative to be understood so that the campaign is prepared
and modified in a manner that these opposition could not raise in future. Hence, several alterative
views are explored as under:
 The very first opposite view could be that implementation of such a wide scale action would
be unsafe for the civilians as retaliation from persons or groups who act as sources could be
very severe. In addition to this, it might cause an outcry within the country in relation to
having severe gang wars or outbursts which is highly unsafe for children.
 Another possible argument which is associated with the campaign above is that such a wide
scale implementation and practice would be too costly for the government to spend on just
one issue within the country. Instead an alternative view would be to reduce the scope of this
bill to minimum standards so that other issue could face similar justice.
 In addition to the above two views, an alternative view could be that there would be no
guarantee that this would sustain for a long term period. The reason for the same is that the
scope of the whole campaign is very wide, which means that after a certain amount of time,
its consistency would wear off and hence, this might not show the effectiveness within its
implementation in a not so distant future (Griffin & Thurber, 2015).
CONCLUSION
Thus, it is conclude from the report above that advocacy action plan is very crucial and
imperative for a country and its legislative bodies as it allows them towards forming new actions
and better alternatives towards dealing with several problems in the country. It is necessary that
proper background information is given within submission for individuals to get an idea behind
the organisation of such a campaign, as well as the scope of the problem. Furthermore, the bill
must also be critically appraised based on its delivery of social justice. Lastly, it is very
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important that recommendations for its improvement are given and followed by the responsible
committee along with alternative point of view in regards with the same to ensure moulding the
campaign or bill in manner which enhances its effectiveness on these fronts.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Corny, J., & et. al. (2015). Unlicensed and off-label drug use in children before and after
pediatric governmental initiatives. The Journal of Pediatric Pharmacology and
Therapeutics. 20(4). 316-328.
Foster, C., & et. al. (2018). World Health Organisation to develop global action plan to promote
physical activity: time for action.
Griffin, P., & Thurber, J. A. (2015). Teaching public policy advocacy by combining academic
knowledge and professional wisdom. Interest Groups & Advocacy. 4(1). 40-51.
Ritter, A., & et. al. (2018). Using the Advocacy Coalition Framework and Multiple Streams
policy theories to examine the role of evidence, research and other types of knowledge in
drug policy. Addiction. 113(8). 1539-1547.
Wolfe, D., & et. al. (2015). Human rights and access to hepatitis C treatment for people who
inject drugs. International Journal of Drug Policy. 26(11). 1072-1080.
Online
Drug statistics. 2020. [Online] Available Through:
<https://www.sahealth.sa.gov.au/wps/wcm/connect/public+content/sa+health+internet/
about+us/health+statistics/alcohol+and+drug+statistics/drug+statistics >
FIGHTING THE SCOURGE OF DRUGS. 2020. [Online] Available Through:
<https://www.liberal.org.au/our-plan/drugs >
History, not harm, dictates why some drugs are legal and others aren’t. 2020. [Online] Available
Through: <https://theconversation.com/history-not-harm-dictates-why-some-drugs-are-
legal-and-others-arent-110564>
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