Substance misuse in Aboriginal Australians

Abstract

Australia's Aborigines lived in isolation from the rest of humanity as successful hunter-gatherers for tens of thousands of years. That isolation ended abruptly with British colonization in the late 18th century and was followed by a traumatic 200 years for Aborigines who are now seriously disadvantaged, socio-economically and in terms of their health standards. It has often been assumed that the Aborigines had no access to psychotropic substances before permanent European contact but several pieces of evidence dispute this view. The history of Aboriginal contact with and usage of intoxicating substances, including alcohol, is extremely complex and affected by a maze of restrictive government policies. These interact with a wide range of other Federal and State policies which have changed rapidly since the late 1960s when Aborigines were first granted the franchise; access to unrestricted drinking followed soon afterwards. Today Aborigines suffer disproportionately to other Australians from the physical and social consequences of excess alcohol consumption, tobacco usage, petrol and other solvent sniffing, usage of marijuana, amphetamines, cocaine and heroin, as well as other drugs. The Aboriginal population is dispersed in cities, towns, fringe settlements, rural and remote areas over this vast continent and there are different patterns of drug usage from place to place. This review attempts to synthesize some of this information in order to give an overview to the history, background, current status of substance misuse by Aborigines as well as some strategies being used to try to overcome this serious problem.

Changing mortality patterns in Kimberley Aborigines

“…5,14,15 Changed lifestyles were associated with other health risks from tobacco smoking, and the use and abuse of alcohol and other drugs, and volatile solvents and petrol. 16 It is pertinent that some of the MRR found in this study were substantially higher than recent findings from much larger jurisdictions. For example, MRR for 2012 deaths in NSW, Queensland, WA, South Australia and the Northern Territory combined were 7.0 for diabetes and 2.5 for urinary system diseases 3 compared with 19.3 and 9.9, respectively, for similar categories of causes of death in the West Kimberley in our study.…”

“…This was associated with a surge in so‐called ‘lifestyle’ chronic disorders such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, chronic kidney disease and diabetes . Changed lifestyles were associated with other health risks from tobacco smoking, and the use and abuse of alcohol and other drugs, and volatile solvents and petrol …”

Why closing the Aboriginal health gap is so elusive

“…They then either went short, became dependent on the colonisers for these essentials or obtained food by means that were considered illegal by the newcomers, such as by stealing food or killing newly introduced livestock . The new settlers also introduced harmful substances such as tobacco and alcohol, which had serious long‐term effects on health and caused severe social, psychological and emotional damage …”

“…3 The new settlers also introduced harmful substances such as tobacco and alcohol, which had serious long-term effects on health and caused severe social, psychological and emotional damage. 4 The fabric of traditional indigenous societies was devastated by foreign colonisers. Long-established indigenous customs and behaviours were suppressed by the imposition of alien and ill-understood regulations.…”

Characteristics of Aboriginal Injecting Drug Users in Sydney, Australia: Prison History, Hepatitis C Status and Drug Treatment Experiences

“…Despite a burgeoning body of literature on alcohol and other drug problems among Aboriginal people (for a review see Gracey, 1998), a review of Australian illicit drug research found that there has been little research into Aboriginal injecting drug use (Hando, Hall, Rutter, & Dolan, 1998). With secondary analyses of existing databases, the current study examined differences between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal IDUs in terms of gender, prison history, hepatitis C virus antibody (HCV) testing and drug treatment history.…”