Public opinion and drug policy in Australia: engaging the 'affected community'.
Public opinion and drug policy in Australia: engaging the 'affected community'.
复制标题
澳大利亚的公众舆论和毒品政策：让“受影响社区”参与进来。
作者：
K. Lancaster;A. Ritter;J. Stafford
引言
政策应由其直接影响的人提供信息；然而，使用非法药物的人的声音已被排除在毒品政策辩论之外。在澳大利亚，大多数关于对毒品政策的态度的调查数据都是在人口一级收集的，注射吸毒者的意见仍然没有得到充分的探索。这项研究旨在调查注射吸毒者对澳大利亚毒品政策的看法，以及这些看法是否与普通民众的不同。
方法
与毒品有关的政策问题摘自国家毒品战略家庭调查，并被添加到2011年非法药物报告系统调查(n = 868)中。对整个IDRs样本和最近的药物使用情况进行了结果分析。使用2010年全国人口统计调查将IDRS的答复与普通人口进行了比较。
结果
IDRs与会者高度支持采取措施减少与海洛因有关的问题，但对不同毒品类型的合法化和销售/供应处罚的支持程度不同。IDRS样本和NDSHS样本在支持减少危害、治疗、合法化和对销售/供应的处罚方面存在差异。
讨论
这些发现为进一步调查使用非法药物的人对澳大利亚毒品政策的态度提供了跳板，并挑战我们在毒品政策过程中如何概念化征求、听取和平衡社区的意见。
INTRODUCTION
Policy should be informed by the people it directly affects; however, the voices of people who use illicit drugs have been marginalised from drug policy debate. In Australia, the majority of survey data regarding attitudes to drug policy are collected at the population level and the opinions of people who inject drugs remain underexplored. This study aimed to investigate how people who inject drugs perceive drug policy in Australia and whether these opinions differ from those of the broader general population.
METHODS
Drug-related policy questions were drawn from the National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSHS) and added to the 2011 Illicit Drug Reporting System (IDRS) Survey (n = 868). The results were analysed for the full IDRS sample and by recent drug use. IDRS responses were compared with the general population using the 2010 NDSHS.
RESULTS
There was a high level of support among IDRS participants for measures to reduce the problems associated with heroin, but heterogeneity in levels of support for legalisation and penalties for sale/supply across different drug types. Differences between the opinions of the IDRS sample and the NDSHS sample were identified regarding support for harm reduction, treatment, legalisation and penalties for sale/supply.
DISCUSSION
These findings provide a springboard for further investigation of the attitudes of people who use illicit drugs towards drug policy in Australia, and challenge us to conceptualise how the opinions of this community should be solicited, heard and balanced in drug policy processes.