Report on the National Drug Strategy: Policy Practice in Australia

This report delves into Australia's National Drug Strategy (NDS), examining its background, principles, and the issue drivers that shaped its implementation. The NDS, aimed at reducing drug and substance abuse, prioritizes harm minimisation, evidence-based responses, and partnerships between health, law enforcement, and community organizations. The report highlights the increasing rates of alcohol abuse as a key driver for the strategy, emphasizing the need to protect community health and well-being. Furthermore, the report analyzes the role of media in promoting the strategy and influencing public perception, particularly among youth. The report also references key academic publications and government resources to support its analysis of the NDS.

Running head: POLICY PRACTICE
Policy Practice
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Background of National Drug Strategy (NDS) Australia..........................................................3
Principles of National Drug Strategy (NDS) Australia:.............................................................4
Issue drivers of the policy:.........................................................................................................4
Media portray of the policy:.......................................................................................................5
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Background of National Drug Strategy (NDS) Australia
In order to build safe and healthy community, by lowering the drug and other
substance abuse is the main aim behind formulating National Drug Strategy (NDS) Australia.
National Drug Strategy is one of the famous drug abuse prevention strategies in Australia,
which intends to identify the national policies related to alcohol, tobacco and other drugs
abuse. This frame is guided by the ministry of health at Australia by making partnership with
that of the health and social care service providers. In the year 2015, the policy was informed
by that of the national consultation process as the response of online survey feedback along
with the stakeholder’s forum (National Drug Strategy. 2019). It is worthy to note in this
context that the consultation was not too much valuable in the way of shaping the priorities
for the sake of implementing the strategy.
However, this consultation was highly admirable by the government of Australia of
that time which is the key of strengthening their commitment towards hard minimisation.
Thus, it can be said that such consultation process has played a critical role in underpinning
the national drug policy approach. It has been reported that the rate of people, suffering from
Alcohol abuse was increasing in a rapid manner, the rate of which gas become more than
80% (Dertadian 2019). This was considered as one of the most alarming issues of that time,
which has resulted as drug, alcohol and other substance abuse can have affect the social,
emotional, behavioural and psychological state of mind of the human being. Thus, in order to
mitigate the issue promptly, the ministry of health of Australia has developed this strategy.
One of the most significant matters of consideration in this context is that this policy intends
to build safe and healthy community reducing the drug-related harms such as health, social,
cultural and economic harms and harm to the community and individual people (National
Drug Strategy 2017–2026. 2019).
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Principles of National Drug Strategy (NDS) Australia:
Preventing the drug, alcohol and other substance abuse among the people and built
healthy and safe community is one of the major principles of National Drug Strategy (NDS)
Australia. Harm minimisation is one of the major principle of NDS. Catering the evidence
based informed responses in order to mitigate the issue related to drug, alcohol and other
substance. It is worthy to note in this context that innovation and leadership in the way of
developing this approach is the critical factor of executing a proactive framework for the sake
of harm minimisation. Developing healthy partnership in between the health and law
enforcement is another vital principles of NDS. This serves as the key strength of the strategy
and play a critical role in the way of harm minimisation (Hulme et al 2019). This also
incorporates partnership in between the government and non-government in various fields
such as education, treatment and service which is the key of generating awareness among the
people regarding negative impact of alcohol, drug and other substance abuse.
Issue drivers of the policy:
The fundamental aim of NDS is to promote healthy community in Australia by
lowering the habit of alcohol and other substance abuse among the people. It has been
reported that the trend of alcohol abuse was rapidly increasing in Australia, destroying the
health and wellbeing of the community eventually. This is the reason for which this strategy
has been implemented for the sake of lowering the issue and thus protect the community. The
main priority focus of the strategy is implementing effective action for the sake of protecting
the community. In the entire life span of this strategy, the issue related to alcohol and other
substance abuse and frame policy accordingly in order to lower the harm of alcohol (Bonomo
et al. 2019).
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Media portray of the policy:
The media has played a critical role in promoting the strategy in a rapid manner. In
addition, media has also played a critical role in showing the increasing rate of alcohol and
other substance abuse in Australia. The media portrayal has been used effectively by the
Australia government of that time in terms of denoting the illicit usage of drug in the news
media of Australia in terms of generating awareness among the people. The media portrayal
has significantly influenced the attitude of the people (Dertadian 2019). The media portrayal
has modified the altitude of the youth people and their perception towards the risk of
excessive usage of alcohol and other substance. This is the way, through which their
likelihood of drug abuse in future has been decreased.
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References:
National Drug Strategy. (2019). Retrieved 26 September 2019, from
https://www.health.gov.au/resources/collections/national-drug-strategy
National Drug Strategy 2017–2026. (2019). Retrieved 26 September 2019, from
https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/national-drug-strategy-2017-2026
Dertadian, G.C., 2019. Drugs Through Time: The History of the Regulation of Drug
Consumption in Australia. In A Fine Line, pp. 35-71.
Hulme, S., Hughes, C.E. and Nielsen, S., 2019. Drug sourcing and motivations among a
sample of people involved in the supply of pharmaceutical drugs in Australia. International
Journal of Drug Policy, 66, pp.38-47.
Bonomo, Y., Norman, A., Biondo, S., Bruno, R., Daglish, M., Dawe, S., Egerton-Warburton,
D., Karro, J., Kim, C., Lenton, S. and Lubman, D.I., 2019. The Australian drug harms
ranking study. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 8(3), pp. 65-72.
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